Road Rash is an aggressive motorcycle racing game where the player assumes the role of a biker who takes part in a series of illegal races across the U.S.A. Starting at the back of the pack the objective is always to finish first on a linear course, overtaking the other bikers. This is achieved by driving very well or by playing it dirty, knocking opponents of their bikes using clubs, crowbars or your bare hands. The other racers fight back in a similar fashion and there are also hazards. All the races take place on the regular road with normal traffic (in both directions) and the cops, as well as occasional oil slicks and stray cows. By winning races you can get promoted to a stronger division and earn cash with which you can buy a better bike. Whenever you're knocked off your bike or hit something you will have to run back to your bike and lose valuable time, plus your bike will suffer some damage. When the player crashes with cops nearby, it is possible to get busted and then you have to forfeit the race. Like the whole Road Rash lineage, the game has arcade-like gameplay with no intention to be a motorcycle simulation. While the game has a two-player mode, this is not simultaneous.
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One of the most replayable racers on Genesis. It's crazy how much more mileage you get out of Super Hang-on when you just let the player smack the mustard out of opponents with a baton.
Always had a good time firing this one up, usually just trying to get the best weapon possible and smack other bikers around. Probably never held my attention as long as other Genesis games, but fun for what it was
This game is so fucking dumb it's a masterpiece.
Balls nasty. Nothing much to the game beyond level five, but a great ride getting there. This is the quintessential 16-bit bike racing game. A variety of tracks, each with its own rocking theme, a decent mix of bikes to buy and NPCs to bash with your fists as you fly past. Iconic.
A few days ago the Digital Foundry team did a retro look back at the Road Rash series. It's a fantastic retrospective covering each game, some of the tech used as well as modern day options for playing some of them as sadly Electronic Arts left the series to die over 20 years ago.
Revisiting this in 2023 and this is still a good game that does some pretty stand out things, some of which still aren't replicated today but were especially impressive back in 1991. You take part in illegal street races against 14 other riders per race. Each race you get prize money depending on how you finish which you can pool up to buy newer faster bikes in between races. Road Rash is one of the first games I ever played that I remember allowing me to grind money to get more powerful equipment as you can replay races for more prizes and better positions if you don't do so well initially.
Speed of bikes isn't the only way to win though as road Rash had this kind of biker gang / thug mentality. You can bang into other riders knocking them into cars, punch them, kick them or occasionally steal clubs to smack them off their bike to watch them tumble away in your wingmirrors in an impressive display of tech. They of course can also do this to you too. There is nothing more humiliating then being kicked off your bike by an edgy biker called Rude Boy. One of Road Rash's unique features I did like was that when you do crash or get punched off you can get up and run to your bike to get back on and carry on. Your bike has a hp bar so can only crash so much meaning you do have to be careful. You equally need to be careful when running for your bike as you can get run over amusingly.
It has some other neat little features like police bikes patrolling you need to get away from or knock off. If you crash next to them you are in trouble. I also really like in between the races you get little scenes of the other bikers talking about each other or you in a display of friendship or rivalry like you were chatting before the race. It's a nice touch.
Where the game does fall down though feels a little bit due to the limitation of the tech at the time. Though it is impressive how they used multiple layers to get the scrolling screen, the display of the wingmirrors and scenery but the game unfortunately runs terribly. Anywhere between 8-10 frames per second. I ended up downloading the improved mod which increases the performance to 13-15 frames per second which makes it feel smoother to control without feeling like the spirit of the original is totally lost. Equally there is just a lack of variety in the tracks. 4 out of 5 of them are simply solid green with different shades and trees but feel all too similar except the music. The only stand out track is Palm Desert entirely for being yellow instead. The icon's for each level though imply riding next to lakes, up mountains but in level that is sadly missing.
The game only has 5 tracks but does have 5 variations of each of them as you go up in difficulty. Each map extends each time from level 1 - 5 lengthening them out as well as putting more obstacles like cars, cows, road barriers and oil patches to artificially lengthen the game. I do appreciate the almost random number generator factor for that though as doing the same race twice you can't predict what will be where. As the courses all look green with straight windy roads it would be almost impossible to memorise them anyway though...
All in all it was fun to go back to this and I still like it. It's a rough first attempt, the levels are kind of bland and it runs poorly but the premise and thrill of weaving between cars beating thugs is still just mindless fun.
+ Still feels pretty unique.
+ Great premise.
+ I like the music.
- Runs terribly.
- Lack of variation in tracks.
Revisiting this in 2023 and this is still a good game that does some pretty stand out things, some of which still aren't replicated today but were especially impressive back in 1991. You take part in illegal street races against 14 other riders per race. Each race you get prize money depending on how you finish which you can pool up to buy newer faster bikes in between races. Road Rash is one of the first games I ever played that I remember allowing me to grind money to get more powerful equipment as you can replay races for more prizes and better positions if you don't do so well initially.
Speed of bikes isn't the only way to win though as road Rash had this kind of biker gang / thug mentality. You can bang into other riders knocking them into cars, punch them, kick them or occasionally steal clubs to smack them off their bike to watch them tumble away in your wingmirrors in an impressive display of tech. They of course can also do this to you too. There is nothing more humiliating then being kicked off your bike by an edgy biker called Rude Boy. One of Road Rash's unique features I did like was that when you do crash or get punched off you can get up and run to your bike to get back on and carry on. Your bike has a hp bar so can only crash so much meaning you do have to be careful. You equally need to be careful when running for your bike as you can get run over amusingly.
It has some other neat little features like police bikes patrolling you need to get away from or knock off. If you crash next to them you are in trouble. I also really like in between the races you get little scenes of the other bikers talking about each other or you in a display of friendship or rivalry like you were chatting before the race. It's a nice touch.
Where the game does fall down though feels a little bit due to the limitation of the tech at the time. Though it is impressive how they used multiple layers to get the scrolling screen, the display of the wingmirrors and scenery but the game unfortunately runs terribly. Anywhere between 8-10 frames per second. I ended up downloading the improved mod which increases the performance to 13-15 frames per second which makes it feel smoother to control without feeling like the spirit of the original is totally lost. Equally there is just a lack of variety in the tracks. 4 out of 5 of them are simply solid green with different shades and trees but feel all too similar except the music. The only stand out track is Palm Desert entirely for being yellow instead. The icon's for each level though imply riding next to lakes, up mountains but in level that is sadly missing.
The game only has 5 tracks but does have 5 variations of each of them as you go up in difficulty. Each map extends each time from level 1 - 5 lengthening them out as well as putting more obstacles like cars, cows, road barriers and oil patches to artificially lengthen the game. I do appreciate the almost random number generator factor for that though as doing the same race twice you can't predict what will be where. As the courses all look green with straight windy roads it would be almost impossible to memorise them anyway though...
All in all it was fun to go back to this and I still like it. It's a rough first attempt, the levels are kind of bland and it runs poorly but the premise and thrill of weaving between cars beating thugs is still just mindless fun.
+ Still feels pretty unique.
+ Great premise.
+ I like the music.
- Runs terribly.
- Lack of variation in tracks.
Played on August 26th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge 37/160)
Note: This game is currently put on "shelved" because I haven't cleared the game completely, but I've come to grips on the mechanics to give an assessment of the game.
You ever get sick of all of those racers knocking you off of your bikes in motorcycle racing games? Well, I certainly have. Then this game might just be up to your speed because you're the one knocking off all those racers that's getting in your way. And I had a real blast with the game as the controls felt very good and knocking down nearby racers felt satisfying. Too bad you have to show restraint for a select few lest you want to scolded before the race begins.
Being a game where you can just punch, kick, and sometimes even club your opponents, the game's premise is an illegal racer and thus you will have to deal with not just your opponents, but dealing with traffic and even the police. You can still get knocked off which might not be so much of a big deal as long as it only happens once or twice, but it can still halt your progress immensely. But if it so happens that you are knocked off in front of a police bike, you get fined and the race ends for you. Same thing applies to your bike getting totaled, but that scenario is so rare that I haven't had that happen to me yet. The best of course of action to survive ongoing traffic is the simple rule of driving to always stay in your lane unless you are making a pass.
The music is great and the visuals are nice, but there are only five courses in the game and when you complete them all, you do them again, but the difference is that the course is longer, the racers are faster, and there are supposedly much more brutal traffic. You can remedy this by buying new bikes after a race, and on top of that, you can actually spam a course even after you've cleared it in order to farm money or just simply try as many times as you want to get that first place. I'm not sure how many waves there are, but apparently a longplay took 3 hours of the game and as fun as the game is, I doubt it's something I want to spend that much time all at once on.
Note: This game is currently put on "shelved" because I haven't cleared the game completely, but I've come to grips on the mechanics to give an assessment of the game.
You ever get sick of all of those racers knocking you off of your bikes in motorcycle racing games? Well, I certainly have. Then this game might just be up to your speed because you're the one knocking off all those racers that's getting in your way. And I had a real blast with the game as the controls felt very good and knocking down nearby racers felt satisfying. Too bad you have to show restraint for a select few lest you want to scolded before the race begins.
Being a game where you can just punch, kick, and sometimes even club your opponents, the game's premise is an illegal racer and thus you will have to deal with not just your opponents, but dealing with traffic and even the police. You can still get knocked off which might not be so much of a big deal as long as it only happens once or twice, but it can still halt your progress immensely. But if it so happens that you are knocked off in front of a police bike, you get fined and the race ends for you. Same thing applies to your bike getting totaled, but that scenario is so rare that I haven't had that happen to me yet. The best of course of action to survive ongoing traffic is the simple rule of driving to always stay in your lane unless you are making a pass.
The music is great and the visuals are nice, but there are only five courses in the game and when you complete them all, you do them again, but the difference is that the course is longer, the racers are faster, and there are supposedly much more brutal traffic. You can remedy this by buying new bikes after a race, and on top of that, you can actually spam a course even after you've cleared it in order to farm money or just simply try as many times as you want to get that first place. I'm not sure how many waves there are, but apparently a longplay took 3 hours of the game and as fun as the game is, I doubt it's something I want to spend that much time all at once on.