The game is relatively simple, involving cross-country contest where you must navigate the roads of America to certain checkpoints. The gameplay is easy to understand. You start by choosing a teammate, from cheap ones who will eat anything on the road, to choosy ones, even a dog. Followed by choosing a car model, which vary by initial price (as you only have a certain amount) to the gas mileage and aesthetic looks.
Once you hit the road, you are sent an in-game "e-mail" giving you a clue to the next location.
Using this e-mail, you deduce where the next stop is and find it. Where you will find the clue to the next location, until you eventually get to the end. The game emulates real life driving fairly well, from gas use to speeding tickets. Food is not a necessity per se, but your partner will get quite grumpy without it. When on the highway, you can decide what speed to go at, so you can get to your location faster, but the police in the game are moderately realistic, sometimes catching you other times not.
There is also the element of time, each night there is a set curfew in which you must find a place to spend the night. Like food,
you can choose the expensive/good, or the cheap. In the end, it doesn't matter for you, but it does affect your partner, who's effect on the game is not known by me. Interspersed inside the game is also all sorts of minigames, including a fifty states arcade game where you can earn discount tokens for restaurants and gas.
At every gas station, you can predict your total sale, if you get within certain percentages you get discounts on gas. There are also real world land mark areas, very nice sight-seeing images, and the roads stay true to the map. The only truly short-attention span entertainment is actually driving the car at certain detours. Other times the car simply drives on the freeway out of your control, and simply automatically stop at each rest stop along the highway route.
