San Francisco Rush 2049 - Review

Careening Through The Future

What Constitutes “Good” Anyway?

When I think of San Francisco, I don't usually think of fast cars and explosions. Apparently, though, in the year 2049, the citizens of the Southern California city well known for its Castro neighborhood and flamboyant gay community have all decided to buy ridiculous cars and catapult themselves across the skyline. Released in 2000 for the Nintendo 64, San Francisco Rush 2049 is an arcade racing game set in the future, which gives it the excuse to play fast and loose with things like architecture, physics, and, apparently, the fundamentals of logic. I quite enjoy a dash of fast-paced arcade racing, but it is important to stress that not every game in that genre is created equally well. That said, sometimes first impressions are deceiving. A juicy tidbit, eh? Read on, dear listener.

As one of the first 3-D consoles, it's hard to say a lot about the graphics in comparison to other games. The first generation of a new technology is always an awkward adjustment, and the graphics of 2049 reflect the Nintendo 64's primitive visuals, but, that said, I don't think that the graphics detract from the game in any way. In general, you're not going to be going around the tracking thinking to yourself, Oh, these graphics are god awful, I wish I were playing Gran Turismo 5. If you're going to play a ten-year-old game, you know what you're in for, and 2049's graphics are no worse than other games on the N64, but if things like that bother you, this might not be the best game to play.

Graphics may not make the game, but gameplay certainly does, and 2049 delivers an unusual brand of racing. I'm used to games that are easy to learn and difficult to master, but this game almost flips that hackneyed saying on its head. The controls are standard, but are complicated by the flawed physics system that the game uses. Cornering, breaking, jumping, these are all fairly standard mechanics for over the top racing games, but these are all handled in way that isn't much like any other I've played. Once you can get around the tracks without blowing up, you'll have to spend a lot of time getting to know the courses. Unlike a lot of racing games you may have played, you won't be able to breeze through the tracks on your first play through. To get ahead, you've got to cheat, and that means scouring the road for shortcuts and secrets to launch yourself into first place.

Given the strangeness of the way the gameplay works, I was about ready to give up on San Francisco Rush after my first couple of hours with the game. In that time, my car exploded a few hundred times, I spun out every few seconds, and I never placed higher than fourth. It would be an understatement to say that I was vexed by my complete lack of success with the game. I even started to write this review, completing the first couple of paragraphs before deciding to go back and play the game for a little while longer. When I returned, with a clear head and a fresh mindset, I found that I liked the game much better. This is the sort of game that you've got to play for a while before you're even close to being good. Once you know how to get yourself around the tracks and once you've got the shortcuts memorized you've got a fair shot at gold, but you might not have a lot of fun up until that point.

Another weakness of is the way that the game allows you to unlock items. You don't get anything by winning races, and, to be honest, I'm not really sure how you unlock things. There are coins tucked in out of the way corners of the tracks, but collecting them doesn't seem to correlate to getting new items any more than other factors. For all I know, it might just be random, the game certainly doesn't do a good job of explaining how to progress. You start off with four tracks unlocked, and I haven't been able to attain any more than that. As far as I can tell, though, there are supposed to be two more, but I've spent a good four or five hours without getting them, so I think it's safe to say that the path to them is well hidden.

It may not be the most fully featured, and it may not be best racing game to be had on the Nintendo 64, but it has character and it's quite fun. If you're willing to get used to it and allow yourself to get good, I would recommend it, but if you just want to sit down, turn it on and have a good time, I would have to point you to some other game. All in all, it's solid, but not spectacular. I'm really not sure how I feel about this one: in technical terms, it's not good, on paper it doesn't work, but the more I play it, the more I'm hooked. It is, unfortunately, not one of the cheapest games you'll ever see: you can have it for around $10, and for that price, there might not be enough to warrant a purchase, but if you find it for a smaller price, I don't have many hesitations recommending San Francisco Rush 2049: a shoddy but lovable game for the Nintendo 64.

--Tom