Road Rash II

"Cocaine? Heroin? I'll stick with Road Rash II"

What makes a good game? Big guns? Bare-breasted women? Big explosions around every corner? Or is it about addiction? Road Rash II, as you may have already guessed, is the second game in the Road Rash series, that has now lasted for more than a decade, and it sure as hell is addictive.

Gameplay - 9/10
The premise of this game is simple - you're in an illegal race, riding your bike through country roads against 14 competitors, outrunning any cops while making sure you don't slam head-first into a car coming in the opposite direction. The idea is simple enough, and the implementation of the idea works like a charm.
Win races, earn cash, buy new faster bikes, rinse and repeat...soon enough you'll be tearing down the roads in that beautiful nitro-fitted Diablo 1000.
But being an illegal street race, there are no real rules to follow. You can punch and kick your opponents to knock them into oncoming traffic or just in an attempt to knock them off their bike. Some of your opponents even come prepared for the race, wielding clubs and chains. If you're lucky, you may be able to steal a weapon from one of those opponents, then you can use it on them - just make sure they don't steal it back, of course.

Story - N/A
Racing games rarely have stories that go with them, and this is no exception. You're just a guy looking for a quick buck, and will race for money. There's no story.

Graphics - 6/10
Even when the game was released, the graphics for the Road Rash games weren't exactly up to the par of other games on the market, but they were still adequate for their purpose. You don't need flashy graphics to make a game a hit, and this certainly proves that. The graphics may not be top-notch, but they really don't need to be - Road Rash is all about the gameplay, not the eye-candy.

Sound - 7/10
Every track has its own music that is played during races, but sounds and tracks are limited. As with graphics, they may not be top-notch, but they don't need to be. However, because you can go through the game without being tempted to turn the sound down because the music is really annoying, it gets an extra point.

Play Time - 8/10
Each race itself isn't particularly time-consuming, but if you want the top bikes so you can compete in the later levels, you'll be repeating your favourite races over and over again to build up the cash to get those bikes. Although having several levels (with the races getting longer and the opponents having faster bikes as the levels increase) help increase the game's longevity, doing races over and over to get cash for new bikes does get quite tiresome after a while.

Replayability - 8/10
This game is so addictive, it's unreal. Even though there's nothing that stands out as being absolutely fantastic, there is undoubtedly an appeal to it that makes you want to play it again and again. Unfortunately, future playthroughs offer no extra goodies for you to use (as is common in quite a few games nowadays), but the addictiveness still holds the rating quite high.

Overall Rating = 38/50 = 7.6/10 = 8/10
It may not be aesthetically pleasing, but this game sure has heart. If you're a retro gamer and this game is not in your collection, you REALLY need to get it now.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/18/06