Watch it Granny! I'm coming through! (Road Rash (PC))

Member Name: sirg0508

Product:	Road Rash (PC)
Date:	20/01/07 (994 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny obstacles, ability to fight while racing

Disadvantages: Missing graphics, very male orientated, very dull

Please note: The picture Dooyoo has added is for the 2002 Dice version while I’m reviewing the 1996 Electronic Arts version.

From Electronic Arts, Road Rash for the PC runs on Windows 95 upwards. The game involves men, women, motorbikes, 5 tracks on 5 levels in which you race against each other in the battle to become champion and win the cup. And if anyone gets in your way just beat the hell out of them – including the police. This is known to some as a Classic game which was released on a couple of other platforms to the PC and in its time did offer gamers something more than just a racing game.

The game to me is now a bit old fashioned but can still provide a little adrenaline to make the game more bearable. There are three different options for game play: I tend to stick to ‘Big Game Mode’ (BGM) which has 5 levels but in each race you do have to finish in 1st to 3rd place to progress to the next level. This also gives more options with the chance to win money from each race which can be saved up to purchase better bikes with faster speeds and even Super Bikes with nitrous-oxide to give your bike a sudden boost to get to the finish post first. ‘Thrash’ mode is very basic and just involves choosing your rider and a track and away you go. If BGM was a time trial, then ‘Thrash Mode’ would just be the normal ‘why bother trying’ boring one.

Mano A Mano however is a bit different as it is a multiplayer but as the manual has translated it to “I bet I can kick your ass in a free-for-all motorcycle race” followed by an innuendo. This sets up the game for up to 7 other players either on split screen, modem or network with option of a chat box. At the time of first getting the game this was dialup and it even states turning off the internet connection while playing so this was never really an option. All it needs is a 28.8K connection so more feasible now however not an option I ever tried.

The 5 tracks are sort of different to each other but do merge at times from the City and Peninsula to Sierra Nevada and Napa Valley and finally Pacific Highway which seems to be on its own somewhat. My favourites are the City and Peninsula as the streets are filled with characters and inanimate obstacles which are always more entertaining than trees, mud and few characters. I do like the Pacific setting but when you’re riding full speed and suddenly hit a rock, there is little chance for survival on your trip to the bottom of the blue sea of death. The game gets boring though. In BGM there are 5 levels – each of those involves the same 5 settings but each is extended in length from about 10Km to 35Km and when you’re doing the same tracks over and over it does become dull. There are a couple of ‘exciting’ differences like forks in the road and thinking ‘oh no, did I choose the right one’ but that’s really where it ends. What’s worse in BGM is the fact if you don’t come in 1st, 2nd or 3rd you then find out you have the joy of doing the whole race again or you can’t progress to the next level. A saving grace is I usually remember to save the game. By the time I’m sick of the sight of my riders’ backside I save it and can continue from there later on… I don’t think I could handle having to go though every track and every level again just to become champion if I happen to forget to save it. However, after having quickly mastered the game, I find it can easily be completed within about 3 hours but that can seem a long time when there’s not much variation.

The graphics, although not particularly high quality, are still flawless at times. It’s automatically set to the largest resolution and on Windows 95 caused a few problems which were easily sorted by lowering it. The bikes instrument panel is very clear as that isn’t constantly moving about but the background and actual tracks have very large pixel blocks and you can be driving along and find huge sections of buildings and hills missed out. This really detracts from the game play because the settings are really not appealing and at times you can hit an object that doesn’t exist and if you fall off your bike and go back to get it, the rider can suddenly walk through barriers that they’d just crashed into.

The game however still has its moments of humour in the form of its obstacles. There are the annoying cones, piles of debris and cars that get in your way constantly but you have to laugh when you see a granny trying to cross the road and as soon as you get up to her, she starts waving her Zimmer frame around trying to knock you out. The easy way to get past her of course is to stay well away or just run her over… like you do. The second one I like is the professional looking guy in his suit with his briefcase (recognisable by him wearing something purple on his person) and if you happen to go anywhere near him, his trousers fall down to reveal a rather unattractive pair of red spotted boxers. Now I’m not sure if this is just a female observation but personally I can get bored of trying to get people to slam into walls or kick them into oblivion whilst trying to manoeuvre myself and my waving bat yielding arm trying to knock someone else out, so I do reduce my speed from 200MPH to about 20MPH and go wandering through the landscapes.

Do men actually bother? Or do they just want to get from A to B and beat the rest of the opponents? I never win if I do this but can be more enjoyable if only the creators had given the game any option other than going forwards, left or right (even those are limited). The bikes can’t go backwards and if in a street setting you can’t even go up a side street although a couple of times I didn’t bother getting back on my bike I did manage to go so far as to find there were no walls on half the buildings so I ended up standing at the edge of the world and couldn’t even fall into it. The only decent thing about walking and taking in the view is the fact that the police can’t arrest you for speeding but if you’re not on your bike you can’t punch or kick them. If you fall off your bike though you don’t really have to do anything – the rider is on auto pilot and finds the bike him or herself unless instructed otherwise by moving yourself. If we could have gone backwards or even looked the other way we could have gone and found it ourselves… but that would be wasting time when there’s a race to win!

So how do you win? It’s quite simple. Just keep your finger on the accelerator and avoid obstacles and occasionally kick people that ride along side you. There are 13 other opponents in each race and if you get too close they can attack – I always wanted to nick their bikes but that doesn’t work. I could fall off my bike half way into a race but get back on it and come in first place. There isn’t really anything skilful or adventurous to it… your direction is forward with the occasional nudge to the left or right. The joy is in the road rage, and battling the opponents while trying to control yourself or using the nitrous-oxide to speed up to 300MPH single handed – the bike can be tricky to handle when the police are trying to kick you down. Win the races and save up money because I usually find I have to buy a new bike by level 2, and can then buy a Super Bike by level 3 to help me keep up with the opponents. If arrested by the police there are fines to pay or crash your bike one too many times and you have to pay for repairs. I used to really love the game when I first got it but it was more of a challenge – once it’s been completed a couple of times I just never really felt the need to play it again. Even the ‘Schmooze’ section where you can spend time visiting opponents who just give you a random line saying they are going to get so-and-so is an area I avoided after visiting as it seemed totally pointless.

The soundtrack to the game is very rock and roll. In Thrash mode, the options of songs can be chosen but personally I prefer to mute the sound as they can be rather cheesy and really not my taste at all. The songs and sound effects are very clear though but earlier operating systems had consistency problems as it never seemed to run smoothly or in time to actual game play. When they do work, the songs give the tracks are more macho feel and need for speed. The game works better using a keyboard but I have tried it with a steering wheel and joystick – they didn’t seem as reactive and the bikes were harder to control.

I do find the game very male orientated. There are female racers to choose from (although only 2) so I’m usually Rhonda with blue hair but on completing a track there are videos of actual bikers usually being greeted by blondes in short skirts and tight tops… give me the bad graphics of the tracks any day! These can be turned off though which is easily done and it means you can skip through the pages quicker to get to the next track. This is not a game for children either. The menu options show cartoon drawings of condom machines, loos which have been thrown up in and needles around the place – are bikers really that synonymous to girls, drugs and really bad rock and roll music? The game may have the selling point of violence but it’s not gory at all – you never see any blood and it does actually take quite a lot of crashing before the bike requires repairs – amazed the riders hardly get any attention.

I have played the game on Windows 95, 98 and XP and found very different levels of performance. On Windows 95 there was always the problem of the computer catching up – especially as the game was about to begin. The countdown would get to 1 but then not do anything and suddenly races through the first few seconds of blind navigation to find I’ve crashed into a tree or a building. It never stopped me from winning but was a major flaw. The game would also have a tendency to crash after a while. On XP though I have little trouble with performance – in fact it has made things a lot better with shorter waiting time between choosing a setting to actually beginning the race.

The manual is useful to have as it does sort out a few of the troubleshooting problems I had and explains what is what. Plus some of it is in biker type talk so gets you into your role from the start. Unfortunately the game is not fully installed on each computer I’ve played it on so you do need the CD each time you want to play it.

Road Rash has aged but at least technological advancements have kept the game alive so it’s still playable today. To me though, the graphic quality has far too many flaws and there is just so little to do compared to more modern games – I want total freedom and not be forced just to go in one general direction. The lack of variation between levels does mean it’s a long game of doing the same things over and over so it does loose its attractiveness quite quickly. The game can be bought from Amazon marketplace only in used condition for £10.99 which I think is stretching it a bit but could possible be picked up cheaper elsewhere. It’s not a game I’ll be recommending to biker fans or gamers.

Minimum age: 15

Summary: Fight but just keep going forwards in a race to the finish line