Super Off Road: The Baja

"If I had dollar for everytime I hit a tree in this game, I would be rich!"

Super Off Road: The Baja Challenge is a racing game that is the spiritual successor to one of my most favorite games of all time. Sadly this game strays from the formula of the game that proceeded it, and in my eyes is an inferior product that is not worthy of the name that it bears. Super Off Road: The Baja Challenge is obviously one of the most mediocre racing games I have ever played.

GRAPHICS

The graphics in this game are hit or miss. The race tracks themselves are nice and sort of in three dimensions, which is an achievement for the system it was made on. However, the tracks are barren and devoid of really any distinguishing features. All the tracks feel the same, except for maybe a change in the coloring scheme in each track. However, when you do find a sign of life it is the same tree you have been passing all the time or some idiot on an ATV that you always pass. The game just does not shake up anything and becomes boring visually to look at.

The cars themselves are all the same except for a change in the cars colors. The cars have no sense in being unique or different from one another, and that contributes to the feeling of boredom that you will eventually obtain. All the sprites that you pass on the side of the road, such as the deer, etc., have a cardboard quality to them. I mean they make a noise when you hit them, but it'll seem that you ran over a cardboard cut out of the object in question. Plus then the object you hit, disappears as if it had not been there, and that is hard to believe especially if you hit, say, a tree! Otherwise, there is really no slowdown or anything and the draw distance for the time that it was made is impressive.

SOUND

Now this is the most irritating part of this game! The music is the same music over and over and over again. The song is not that good either and it just keeps playing all the time. I have come to muting the television to make sure the stupid music does not get through, it's that bad. The sound effects for the game are equally atrocious. If you hit a deer it sort of makes a screaming sound. Now I am no deer expert or anything, but I do not think they scream when they get hit by a car. Another odd sound is when you run over the ATV riders. They all shout Ahhhh... in the same tone and pitch. I mean they all have the same voices. Now they could have programmed maybe another voice into the game to give it a little variety, but no. The cars sound effects are the traditional SNES sounds for nitrous being used, and the squealing of tires as you hit a tree stump. All of it is just very familiar to anybody that was around at the time and played a bunch of SNES racing games.

CONTROLS

The controls in this game are easy to learn. The directional pad is how you move your car right and left. One button is used for acceleration and one is used for the nitrous and that is basically it. The game is easy to pick and play. It is also easy for someone that is a first timer to learn.

Where the controls falter is in their over responsiveness. If you tap the right and left buttons sometimes the car goes out of control and you will run into something. Now this would not have been such a bad thing had there not been a damage meter built into the game. If the damage meter goes full it is game over, and believe me it is easy to get full in a hurry with this flaw. Other than the super responsive steering the rest of the controls handle decently enough and they do get the job done.

STORY

Obviously as this is a racing game in the SNES era there is no story.

GAME PLAY

My first area of anger is how hard this game is to come in first place in. The pro driver that they programmed into the game, (I forgot his name, but I do know his first name is Ivan) is quite possibly unbeatable. In most races if you get to the front and near him you will have to use a nitro to get by him. Now this would not have been so bad had he not been a psycho behind you. He will continually ram you from behind with his car, until he either pushes you into a tree, ATV, or off the track. He will then pass by you at rocket speed and take a huge lead on you, forcing you to nitro to try and catch up to him. Then you have to try and get by him again and stay in front of him again. He is near impossible to beat without filling up your damage gauge. The challenge in beating him to the finish line is quite possibly the hardest challenge in all of gaming period.

The damage gauge is also a bone of contention for me. The gauge has the incredible ability to fill up by just having your car fly through the air in the jumps the game has programmed into it. Now I know that everyone will say that that is a realistic portrayal of a damage system, It gets annoying that every time you jump or get forced into a nitrous jump by a computer challenger you get a little bit of damage. That adds up quickly and then in the later levels of the game, they make the game practically a jump fest and loaded with hittable things which almost guarentees a maxed out damage meter which forces you to restart. The damage system is really quite annoying in this game, and you can max out really quickly by just hitting a few things. It is near impossible to not run into things either and you will have a race where you have to go super slow to not max out, which means you will never come in first at the end.

The other point of anger is the money system in the game. For every race you finish you get an automatic one hundred thousand dollars to spend on your car. There however, is a catch. For every specific roadside object that you hit you get money taken away. Examples of these are deer, people and the dumb ATV riders on the course. Now this system really could have been enjoyable had the ATV riders not appear all the time and purposely drive in your way, or swerve in your way. These stupid guys force you to go around them and off the road where you will run into trees, etc. Plus when you do run one down you lose one thousand dollars. Now estimate that you'll run down at least twenty per race and you will see that twenty thousand of your car upgrade money goes down the drain per race, which also means that you have no shot at buying all the nitrous to beat the pro driver.

BUY?

This game is only for SNES racing fans only. If you are one of those then this game may be up your alley and you may want to buy it if you can find it. Otherwise, this game is mediocre and not really of a look into.

THE RUNDOWN- Ironic title for this segment don't you think?

GRAPHICS- 6/10 Decent for the SNES, but how about a little variety?
SOUND- 1/10 Ahhh... My friend the mute button, thank you for keeping the bad noises away!
CONTROL- 5/10 The only thing that saves this is that a chimp could learn them, they're so easy.
GAME PLAY- 4/10 I ran into a screaming deer that cost me 10k and 1/4 filled my damage gauge!
BUY- Maybe if you are a SNES racing fan.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/10/07

Game Release: Super Off Road: The Baja (US, September 1993)