Oh nice, Road Rash! I just picked up a nice complete copy of…oh, it’s the Game Gear version? Ugh, fine. Time to go murder some riders AND some batteries.
Road Rash is a series that’s surprisingly well summed up by the image above, of a jerk on a motorcycle is pushing over another jerk on a motorcycle. That’s what you do! It’s one of the first hits for Electronic Arts, well before they were one of the biggest names in the business. The Game Gear version was ported by Probe Entertainment, which means the game starts up with this message, which makes me slightly uncomfortable:
The Game Gear version of Road Rash is scaled down a bit, but I was impressed at how nice it looks. Everything is surprisingly bright and colorful, in a way that you don’t see from a ton of Game Gear stuff. Unlike a lot of fast-moving Game Gear titles, it’s pretty easy to see what’s going on and the sprites animate nice and smoothly. It also retains some of the weird characters seen in its Genesis equivalent.
I choose to believe that the above character is what became of Biff Loman, the despondent son of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. We all agree he was set on a path towards motorcycle death racing, right? There’s also this weird fellow:
You know that feeling when you’re out to get you a rasher? I hate that feeling. Anyway, the gameplay of Arthur Miller’s Road Rash is fairly straight forward – you race on increasingly long and treacherous roads, and need to surpass a series of other riders before reaching the finish line. As you run alongside other riders, you can punch them to try and lower their health and knock them out of the race. As the game progresses, you’ll encounter more instances of the AI trying to do this to you as well. This is super fun, though to win races you don’t really need to do it – how you finish is what matters most. That’s somewhat of a bummer, but if you’re like me you’ll go out of your way do it anyway. It’s very amusing.
As the game progresses, you earn money can unlock better bikes, though the gameplay stays largely the same. Simple as it is, it’s really a lot of fun.
There are six total games in the Road Rash series, including three on the Genesis. You’re probably fine sticking with those if you’re interested in checking out the series, but there’s also an N64 entry and a couple of PlayStation ones as well. Wikipedia notes that Criterion Games has considered reviving the franchise, possibly combining it with the phenomenal Burnout series. That’s a fantastic idea, and now I’m sad that it hasn’t happened. Thanks, Criterion. Here’s a picture of me driving into a tree because I’m so mad at you:
In any case, Road Rash is a fun and solid pickup if you’re dying to play more Game Gear games. If you experience actual road rash, please see a doctor.
We’ll be going back to the late 70s for next week’s game, which is apparently a multiplayer-only affair. See you then!