While Cruis'n USA takes the player on a trip across the highways of America, Cruis'n World leads them to race all around the world. Courses, taken from the coin-op version, are located in: Egypt, Florida, Germany, Hawaii, Russia (in easy mode); England, France, Kenya, New York (in medium mode); Australia, China, Italy, Mexico (in expert mode).

The gameplay is not intended to be realistic. It is for instance possible to ride across the Great Wall of China, leap-frog over a semi truck with a police car, or perform a back flip with a military ATV, or take part in a race on the moon.

Principal variations from the arcade game to the console version consist in that:

-In the arcade version, introductory voice clips are present in some stages; animals explode into bloody chunks when colliding with the player's vehicle (in the N64 version they cross the road swiftly enough most of the times, and the vehicle goes across them as if they were immaterial in the infrequent other occasions).

-The N64 version offers two-player and tournament modes, a special course on the Moon, the possibility to enhance cars with custom boosts and alter its appearance by paintworks, and does not use the sound effects from the previous game.