YMMV / Cruis'n

• Contested Sequel: There is debate whether Exotica was an improvement over World or not.
• Even Better Sequel/Surprisingly Improved Sequel: World was where the series really found its footing, and it falls under the former when referring to the arcade version and the latter for the home version. It added several mainstays of the series including tricks and more fleshed out course design along with shortcuts and a 4-player mode (USA was limited to two, both in arcades and at home). For the Nintendo 64 port, not only is it a much more Polished Port than the original, it also added a slew of extra features including a time attack mode, a championship mode with circuit versions of the tracks, more cars, difficulty settings ^note which the arcade version technically had, but you had to be the operator of the machine to change it, an exclusive bonus level, and a generally much more accessible 4-player mode than its arcade counterpart (the arcade version required four cabinets linked up to accomplish this, which not only required a hefty amount of space but also wasn't very commonly seen since it wouldn't typically bring a good return on investment).
• Polished Port: The port of World on the Nintendo 64 was a solid port on the system, for reasons noted above Even Better Sequel.
  • Weaker hardware ensured that some downgrades had to happen on the Nintendo Switch port of Blast, and some vehicles were removed (some for legal reasons, some for unknown reasons), but overall, it's a solid port of the arcade experience, with a pretty solid framerate, all the tracks from the arcade version, and even some extra tracks for good measure, even if a lot of them are reskins. Overall, most fans who played the arcade version view the game as a solid way to play the game, especially if you don't have the arcade version near you.
• Porting Disaster:
  • The Nintendo 64 port of USA, rather infamously so given that Nintendo had originally touted that it ran on the same hardware as the eventual console. The frame rate was very jittery, it was heavily censored, the controls were not translated very well, the lasting appeal was quite limiting as it was more or less just a straight up port with no extra features, and the music was very poorly translated, almost sounding like a cheap MIDI translation you could have downloaded online in the dial-up days. What really makes this inexcusable was the fact that not only was there a two-year gap between the arcade and home releases, Nintendo ordered the game to be delayed when they were reportedly unsatisfied with the game's state had it been put out on launch. That's right, it originally was much worse!
  • The home port of Exotica also suffered heavily due to coming out at the turn of the millennium, and as such it used far, far, far more powerful hardware in the arcade than anything that was remotely achievable on the Nintendo 64.
  • The Wii game, simply titled Cruis'n, was a port of The Fast and the Furious arcade game from 2004 with all references to that franchise removed once it became clear that Midway couldn't get the license for the port. That wouldn't be too bad, since the game was a Spiritual Successor to the Cruis'n series to begin with, but what puts it here is long loading times, overly sensitive controls, barely existent sound effects, and lots of glitches. It was obviously made to cash in on the Wii when it was new, but that plan backfired, since it sold poorly enough that it was a Franchise Killer for a long time.
• The Scrappy: USA and World both have a CPU car that always starts out in first place — a blue car in the former, and a red car in the latter. Not only do they start in first, they consistently stay in first through nearly every race. You will learn to hate them with all your heart. To make matters worse, the red car in World almost appears as if it has a smiling face on its fender, as if it's laughing at you.
• That One Level:
  • France in Time Attack mode on the home port of World. To beat the target time, you absolutely have to have the Speed Demon already unlocked, no questions asked. And you have to play the course almost flawlessly (which is especially hard in the narrow sections lined with trees). If you use manual transmission, it can help mitigate the difficulty somewhat since the car has a slightly higher top speed at manual, but even then it's only going to be a very tiny help. Many players who were kids during the game's original release still haven't beaten it to this day. Just to hammer this point home, the target time is 2:15.00; many of the videos on YouTube that demonstrate beating it will often be only a quarter second shy of this!
  • Chicago in USA, due to the pillars and beams in your way for much of the race and sharp 90 degree turns in the tunnel section.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • The arcade versions of the first three games all feature an ending involving the President of the United States, who is depicted as a parody of Bill Clinton.
  • Much like Killer Instinct, the arcade version of USA advertises that it'd be available on the Ultra 64 in 1995. Unlike KI1 however, USA did get a Nintendo 64 port. USA also prominently features a stand-in of the Ferrari Testarossa 512 TR, a car that was already on its last production year when the arcade game came out.
  • World features the World Trade Center on its New York track. Many, many copies of it, in fact.
  • The arcade version of Exotica features licensed cars such as the Plymouth Prowler^note which was sold as the Chrysler Prowler for its final production years, 2000-2002, the Hummer HMC^note succeeded by the H2 in 2002, the Hummer brand in general was discontinued in 2010 and later repurposed for the GMC Hummer EV, and the then-current models of the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Corvette, the "New Edge" redesign of the fourth generation Mustang and the Corvette C5.