Road Rash

"I great game, much better than any of the sequels"

Road Rash was quite possibly the first game of its kind, the combination of racing, fighting and buying new bikes was an unusual combination to say the least. Road Rash turned out good though.

Graphics 5/10

Quite poor, even by the Mega Drive’s (Genesis’) standards. Look at the earlier Super Hang-On’s graphics, they were slightly more colourful and blocky, but despite that more fluid. The courses you race on don’t seem to be unique as such. Each one is different by way of looks, but the actual courses are not noticeably different. Watching your biker skidding across the road ungracefully isn’t really what I’d want to see.

Gameplay 8/10

It plays surprisingly well despite there being no element of handling at all in the game. The better the bike, the faster the bike, it really is that simple. Actually racing though is very addictive. The aim of the game is to win races. Winning races gets you money. With that, you can be newer and better (in other words, faster) bikes. Each stage comes with 5 areas. Finish in the top 4 for all of them, and you will advance a stage. The higher the stage, the faster your opponents. It becomes imperative later on in the game to win the races as supposed to scraping through in third or fourth. Although, you can do races again to win more money, so you will never be stuck on an impossible level. To help yourself win the races, you can punch or kick your opponents while racing. Punch them enough, and they fall of their bike. Beware though, it can happen to you too. If you happen to come across a racer with a club, you can take it from him, and use it for the rest of the race. The club is a very powerful his that usually takes your opponents clean off their bikes in either one or two hits. It never gets boring whacking one of your adversaries of his bike or decapitating him with baseball bat. It’s quite surprising how fun playing the game is. One would think that doing the same old races again and again would get quite boring, but it remains exciting for quite a while. It takes quite a long time to get to the top but you can stop in between as it is fully restoreable via password. Whilst racing there are 2 things to be wary of : wrecking your bike, and getting caught by the cops. Falling victim to either of these results in quite a hefty fine. This semi-new concept is very well executed considering the console it’s on.

Lifespan 9/10

For a Mega Drive (Genesis) game, it last a very long time. Grasping the concept of the game won’t take long, but getting to the top will. Later levels have longer races. Sometimes you are left having to do a few races over and over, for the money. Often, a bike that worked on one level will be pants on the next.

Sound 5/10

The sound effects are quite terrible, but the music is quite catchy. A friend of mine and I mock one of the catchy tunes frequently. Despite being catchy though, the sound in general is very poor quality. The Mega Drive has produced game with much better quality music than this, very poor.

Replayabilty 2/10

After a long hard quest, and a disappointing ending sequence, you are left with quite a sad feeling, and will probably neglect the game for about 4 months in protest. There wouldn’t really be much point in playing it again.

Rent or Buy?

I doubt you can rent it anywhere, and buying it would be quite hard also. It is a must-have for hardcore Mega Drive (Genesis) collectors and a worthwhile addition to anyone who still plays the Mega Drive (Genesis) casually.

Final Score 8/10

Its great… for a Mega Drive (Genesis) game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/01/03