Cruis'n USA

Cruis'n USA is the arcade racer that brought Midway's loud, arcade-y energy to a coast-to-coast road trip: Chicago to Los Angeles through eight stages of highways, deserts and cow crossings, with traffic to dodge, shortcuts to find, and a nitro boost that turned every straight into a decision about when to burn it.

Released by Nintendo in arcades in 1994 (a curious arrangement that ended up on the N64 as an early launch-window title), it is the bridge between OutRun-style cruising and the polygon racers that took over afterward - full 3D textured roads with deliberately chunky arcade physics. The personality is the point: Onscreen rivals honk, the scenery is a running USA joke (Alcatraz, an erupting volcano, the very 90s Indiana), and the two-player linked cabinets made it a pizza-parlor staple. The N64 port was famously rough, which unfairly shadows the arcade original - the coin-op is fast, readable and still genuinely fun, and the nitro-management economy gives it more depth than its reputation admits.

• ▸Eight-stage coast-to-coast tour from Chicago to LA
• ▸Full 3D polygon roads with pure arcade handling
• ▸Nitro boost economy: spend speed now or save it for the pass
• ▸Linkable two-player cabinets for head-to-head road trips