Road Rash

"Oh look, it froze again"

Road Rash has had a long and checkered history in the world of console gaming. For those unfamiliar with the series, Road Rash games have always involved illegal street racing on sport bikes. You would be pitted against 14 other racers, some of whom were notably more vicious than others, (Public Enemy #1's chain was a force to be reckoned with...) and your goal would be (obviously) to finish the race as close to first place as possible (anything better than 4th would qualify, though) without wrecking your bike, or getting killed by the club and chain-wielding maniacs you were competing with. A better place would result in meatier cash prizes, which would be put toward newer and faster bikes, which you'd need to upgrade periodically, lest you fall behind the competition. (Having a few extra bucks in case of repairs or tickets was usually a good plan, as well.)

I fondly remember playing the original 16 bit Road Rash on the Genesis, and it's sequel, Road Rash II, which brought the game to new heights with it's simultaneous 2 player mode and new weapons and vehicles.

That's why I'm especially disappointed with Road Rash 32 bit, which had releases on the 3D0, Sega Saturn and Sony's PSX. The Saturn version in particular has some especially bad glitches, but this game as a whole is a black mark on Road rash's otherwise clean record. That's not to say it doesn't have any good aspects, the 2 rating had to come from somewhere, didn't it? Let's look at the game's few pros before we mention the volumes of cons associated with Road Rash 32 bit:

First, the soundtrack. Road Rash has always had pretty good music, and the hardware of the 32 bit systems allowed for the use of CD-quality music tracks. All of RR32's music is from alternative rock bands like Soundgarden and Therapy?, and it all fits Road Rash's biker-themed atmosphere pretty well. Also, this game has FMV sequences featuring real people, (in place of the quickie victory/busted/wrecked/etc. animations from earlier games) some of which are actually pretty funny.

The game also tries to bring some new elements to the Road Rash formula. Now it's possible to form alliances with fellow racers, while you can also make enemies with others. People who come to be your allies will help you out during the races, and needless to say, people you don't get along with so well will be out for your blood. This is a good way to expand on the tried-and-true formula used in previous games, and maybe it'd have been easier to appreciate had the rest of the game not been so poorly executed...

That said, here's where the game falls apart: the gameplay itself is so poorly put together, it feels more like it should be a Beta version, rather than a final product. The controls are hyper sensitive; you barely need to tap the control pad to send your bike careening in a certain direction, which makes it especially difficult to fight other bikers. That's another thing about this game: the combat is even more screwed up than the controls. Enemies (and the player itself, come to think of it) take barely any damage. Even after striking a rival biker repeatedly with a weapon, they still will be far from weak enough to be pushed off their bike.

Not that fighting is even worth it in this game; it's practically impossible to fall off you bike, too. Whether an enemy actually takes a swing back at you (which is rare, they never get the chance because the bikes are constantly swerving around) or you hit an object such as a car or guard rail, you'll just bounce off and emerge without a scratch. Even if you hit something hard enough to actually be jettisoned through the air, you'll be back to your bike and will have caught up with the guy in the lead in a matter of seconds. The lack of hazards makes it especially easy to keep up.

Remember all the nice things I said about the music earlier? Yes, I know, it's pretty good music, and appropriate for a Road Rash game. However, it sure would have been nice to hear some of that music while actually playing. Instead, you are only able to hear a randomly generated track when navigating the menus. The races themselves treat you to a rather bland sounding repetitive guitar solo, which is the only music you'll hear on any track in the game. While I'm at it, I might as well comment on the artwork they used for the characters in this game: it's hideous. Everyone is drawn in that big-head, tiny body carnival characher style. Uuuugly.

In addition to the poor design and execution, this game is FULL of glitches. This is the main reason I said this felt more like a Beta copy. What little music there is (in the menus, at least) often stops or doesn't load at all, there are object and sprite glitches everywhere in this game, (if the object shows up at all, it's "looks good up close" texture usually doesn't) and the thing freezes frequently. In addition to that, the load times are horrendously long. I'm not sure that these problems are as rampant in the PSX or 3D0 versions as they are here, but in any case it's unacceptable for a game like this to be unleashed on an unsuspecting public.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 12/03/04