You ever think that sometimes a classic game doesn't need any further complication to make it better? That it's fine just the way it is? That's the way I felt about a few products over the years. Take Tetris Worlds, for instance. THQ went and got the rights to the classic Alexei Pajitnov game, and then what do they do? They tinker with the all-important gameplay and make it a dullard affair. That's sort of like someone who's out to make the perfect dessert and the wiseass who scribbles in "onions" somewhere in the ingredients to ruin it. That's the feeling that overcame me on L.A. Rush, Midway's latest attempt to revisit the racing franchise that's been garnering fans for years, with its previous entries San Francisco Rush and Rush 2049.

It's not that the game is altogether bad, as it really takes off when it focuses on what it does best- balls-out racing. But Midway decided that they wanted to try and cash in on the underground market racing scene and decided to add a story, which, in my opinion, is the last thing a game like this needed. But, hey, wait, there was promise of richness within the story, at least from a Midway event I had attended recently. It could very well be good and heighten the experience. Now I see the final product, and, yep, it does nothing for me.

The story focuses on a legendary underground racer name Trikz, who has pimped himself gloriously with his wins by expanding his empire into a nice mansion and a collection of beautiful cars. But then he makes the mistake of running across a promoter named Lidell, who sets up local races and has a little criminal empire all his own. In order to, I guess, "test" Trikz out, he manages to steal all of his cars right from under him, setting the driver out on a quest to reclaim all his rides and teach Lidell a lesson.

Approached the right way, this story mode could've actually been pretty decent, like with a quick switch-out system between cars and some merciless shortcuts to get through in order to get your cars back to the garage. But Midway added some unnecessary headache time by forcing you to work at it. You get to enter into a particular number of races in order to proceed on the cashflow and car acquisition. The first one requires no entry fee, to kind of introduce you to the formula. From there, though, you have to plunk down cash for each race, and, believe me, it starts to take its toll. Soon you're out of money and scrounging around in a beat-up vehicle just to get ahead, due to the game's unbalanced AI. Does this sound like Rush to you?

The game does break up the monotony by giving you the loose acquiring mission on the side, where you'll find one of your stolen vehicles and try to race it to home while some thugs chase after you and attempt to wreck your ride. This would be great and all if it wasn't for the fact that you obtain damage during these missions, which, again, usurps your cash faster than a girlfriend in Beverly Hills. This again leads to frustration. Midway should've found a way around this so the focus would've gone better on the driving.