This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.
A rock-solid game design paradigm these days is as follows:
take the popular elements of two-to-three best-selling games and squeeze them
into one game in half the time at a quarter of the cost. Today's subject is L.A. Rush from Midway, and its
victims are the Midnight Club, Grand Theft Auto, and Burnout franchises, as well as (I suppose) True Crime: Streets of LA. There were no survivors.
L.A. Rush tells the archetypal tale of the underground
street racing champ who has all of his cars stolen by a zoot-suit wearing
opponent. As is the logical thing to do after having all of your cars stolen,
our young hero by the name of Trikz decides to re-enter the underground racing
circuit with nothing but his beat up old jalopy and steal back his cars.
Obviously, when your cars are stolen away you wouldn't want to involve the
police, because... down with the man?
Anyway, LA Rush is a pretty straightforward street racing
game that takes place in a free-roaming and full-fledged Los Angeles, California.
The meat of the game takes place in straightforward races in an underground
circuit where you'll try to rank up to compete with the pro's for big bucks,
but there are a few more modes to keep things semi-interesting. As you progress,
your friends will clue you in on the locations of some of your stolen cars that
you'll need to go steal back. The second you get in the new car, however, some
thugs (about 500) of the bad guy will come careening at you in blue SUVs. For
some reason or another, they'll try like the dickens to destroy your car before
you can get it home.
Continue reading...