Road Rash

[Melf]

Racing is fun and all, but it's so much better when you can beat the competition... literally! Road Rash added a great twist to the standard racing format and went on to spawn several sequels across a ton of consoles. Our review of the first shows that you just can't underestimate the value of violence in professional sports!

[Flash1087]

YES. I loved nearly each and every incarnation of the franchise way back when, up until...well, up when they quit making them. Whatever happened to Road Rash?

[ary incorparated]

I actually hated most of the ingame songs,they where trying to be good but actually fail big time,youll here the guitar samples from time to time but the wanky synth crying makes it dull,and very un pleasant for the ear you really hear em,theyre just kind of ugly.I like the intro song.the overall game yes kindo good for an early one i rate a 7,5.But what happend to what Flash i tought in only gotten better at least on the genesis then.

[Mr Smith]

YES. I loved nearly each and every incarnation of the franchise way back when, up until...well, up when they quit making them. Whatever happened to Road Rash?

Apparently there was a port to the gameboy advance in 2004.

[Joe Redifer]

I'm pretty sure that the game used software scaling. Why would "really good animation" become blocky as it gets close? It wouldn't if it were animation. Plus I wrote to EA about it back when the game came out, and their response talked about their pride in their "scaling technique" (paraphrasing here). But oh well. I agree with the review with just about everything else, except that I probably would have given it a 9 just for sheer fun factor alone. The music is awesome, but Rob Hubbard sure does love mono. I remember when I fist rented the game, completely skeptical and all. I rented it along with Shining and the Darkness. What a great night that was! When I returned the games the next day, I immediately purchased Road Rash from that same store.

Road Rash 2 was pretty fun as well, though I will always prefer the original. Road Rash 3 was more of the same but I felt I really didn't need to own it. Same with the Sega CD version which really should have enhanced many things. The 3DO version was godly, however. It was a reason to own the 3DO. There were ports of that game to the PlayStation and Saturn, but neither of them were as good as the one on the 3DO. I own the PS version since I sold the 3DO.

[Benjamin]

Ditto for me. The first one had better graphics, locales, and music, and I still prefer it over the other Genesis games despite the lack of the two-player split screen used in the sequels. I can still hum that theme song thanks to listening to it through headphones for much longer than I probably should care to admit back in the day. I loved that song.

I think Road Rash suffered the same fate as the Tony Hawk series seems to be in -- a kind of "been there done that" quality to each successive game makes it sell and desired less and less. Skitchin was EA's attempt to update the gameplay, but it didn't catch on for whatever reason.

I still don't think Road Rash has aged too well though. The scaling just looks so chunky to me now, like playing a 3-D racing game with a 5 FPS framerate or something.

[David J.]

I honestly never liked this game much... The premise is good, but the lack of speed really sucks.

[j_factor]

Is it just me, or does some of the music in Road Rash (and Road Rash 2 moreso) sound a lot like the instrumentation you might hear in a Melissa Etheridge song?

[Joe Redifer]

You listen to Melissa Etheridge? Even her name sounds manly.

[Flash1087]

Great, here come the "MELISSA ETHERIDGE HELPED COMPOSE FOR ROAD RASH!" rumors. It's Michael Jackson's Sonic 3 all over again.

[ary incorparated]

Lol,man Melissah Okselhair Yuck she is a man women.BTW The intro song makes me shut up every day wining about the game,but when i tune it up for that reason and play it with my mate he says turn it off for youre own good,now if he says that about the music that aint very good then the Palmtree level if i recal the songs starts like Tadadaeuw Katscrying tududueeaaaauw Auw Auuuuuuw Miauw Man this game is actually cats crying crap,the music is really unpleasant to the ear,i prefer road rash 2 over it althought that one wasnt much of an improvment also it had a enhanched intro theme of Road rash,kindo okay cool.I think the first one had the best retro score and was the most fun,the look of road rash 3 is good much if the same but good,but the game doesnt keep you warm for a while cause there are only 5 ot six track Althought Major improvment on the sound altought it may sound thin at times its Real metall/Rock.Yeah i still have my 3DO and i never had fun with it/Games for it Captain quasar,Need for speed,Road rash,super street fighter 2.

[j_factor]

You listen to Melissa Etheridge? Even her name sounds manly.

I don't, but I've heard a few of her songs. I was in a store the other day and her song "I'm the Only One" was playing over the speakers, and I was like, hey, that guitar part reminds me of Road Rash.

[Flash1087]

You don't have to lie, dood. We're all friends here.

[16bitter]

Busted. SO busted.

I wonder if j_factor still has his Lilith Fair ticket stubs?

[ary incorparated]

Lets see a picture of youre first cd of melissa etheridge,Come on we all know you like it by now.