Awesome!

[A Black Falcon]

I've always hated the handling of Midway's racers. They got progressively better with each new Rush, but there was something wrong with them. They didn't have the realistic challenge of something like GT or the cartoony unrealistic freedom of something like Mario Kart and F-Zero. It just didn't make sense, in any context.

Hmm... Rush kind of is in between a F-Zero and a GT, you're right... but I think the handling is good. I like Rush 2049 on Extreme handling... I've gotten very used to it and think that it works very well. It requires some skill in handling while still being a very arcadish system... and yes, sometimes trying to be in the middle can mean that you're good at nothing, but I don't think Midway racing physics goes down that road. They do it right.

You really ARE out of it. Those games are just a step above games like Mario Kart in terms of realism.

Not all of them. Wipeout, for instance, I'd say is no steps more realistic than Mario Kart... F-Zero or Extreme-G are only tiny, tiny steps more realistic as well. Different? Sure. But more realistic? No way.

Sure, not all arcade racing games fall in that category. The next level down is a bit more "realistic" -- Rush, Need for Speed, Burnout, etc. But there... well, play a racing sim and then NFS and if you even pretend to say that NFS is realistic you're pretty foolish.

[QUOTE]In Cruis'n you used the wall to help you get around tight cornors. And of course you used the boost to get OVER other cars. I remembering playing it with some of my friends a number of years ago and, although it's not really a great example of arcade racing, we managed to have quite a bit of fun just messing around.

You can also drive through most trackside obstacles (trees, etc), when you use the speedboost (double-tap the accelerator) in Exotica you flip over the other cars (and knock them out for a second), the turns are very shallow and forgiving except for the traffic and the walls definitely help you along the way... it's pure and simple arcade racing at its most basic. Cruis'n is clearly a decendant of the Pole Position school of racing games... not the greatest racing game ever by a longshot but a lot of fun in short bursts.