Road Rash CD - What Could Be Done to Make It Better?

[ColecoFan1981]

Does anyone know what the folks at EA could have done to make the Sega CD version of Road Rash CD better, besides its use of the licensed music during the gameplay?

Of course, gameplay is one of the issues affecting this version. It is a retread of the Genesis RR gameplay graphics. I believe memory was too low to bring the 3DO graphics to this version due to all this licensed music, and of course all the FMV videos that play before and after you win a race.

However, the soundtrack could've been a bit better if it also had songs by such '70s-'80s bands on the A&M roster such as Styx, Supertramp, The Police and .38 Special. You know, it could've had songs such as "The Logical Song," "Roxanne," "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)," "Renegade," "Goodbye Stranger" and "Hold on Loosely."

~Ben

[j_factor]

I think the soundtrack was fine. The bands you listed wouldn't really fit the Road Rash style IMO.

My main disappointment was that the gameplay was pretty identical to the original Road Rash, when everything else (the between-race stuff) was all ripped from the 3DO game. While Sega CD may not have been capable of a port, with effort they could've done something halfway between in quality. Sega CD has sprite scaling in hardware, but Road Rash CD appears to simply use the original Genesis Road Rash engine. I think Sega CD could've handled something with identical gameplay to the 3DO version, just with a downgrade in background/environment graphics.

I don't think memory was the issue. Sega CD couldn't handle the 3DO version's polygonal engine. This is speculation on my part, but I think also that it had a rather short development cycle -- judging by the fact that it was a late release for Sega CD, was released to zero fanfare (even compared to other late Sega CD games), and is comprised almost entirely of recycled material. Ostensibly, it was just a last minute, throw-together type release, with very little effort involved. If they had done it a year earlier, it might have gotten the attention needed.

In a weird way, though, I think I prefer it the way it is. I see it now as the best version of the original Road Rash -- and therefore the one to own (over the Genesis version). Something closer to the 3DO game, while "better", would be less interesting to me, because it would never be as good as the 32-bit versions (and therefore not the one to own).

[Az]

This and RR3 came out in a similar time frame and I was torn making the choice between the two. I ended up buying the CD version, and boy was I disappointed.

Muddy sprites, no splitscreen, fewer weapons and moves, less animation, and absolutely NO hardware scaling. The only advantage (if you want to call it that) this has over the cart version is the lo-fi streamed soundtrack of early ninties alternative rock.

When the entire game engine is built on "fake" scaling sprites, then the game is redesigned for hardware that natively supports scaling, laziness is the only factor in not taking advantage of it.

[Oldskool]

If they would have used something similar to the Batman Returns racing engine, it could have been pretty sweet.

[retroman]

in my opinion, and i own both versions...you cant even compare the two..take away the music videos and live video...the 3DO version is awsome..the sega cd didnt have the horsepower under the hood to handle this port..

[cityside75]

I believe that Sega CD Road Rash actually DOES employ sprite scaling...I'd always assumed it didn't as well, but noticed on one of my last plays that the roadside objects and cars appear to scale much smoother than the Genesis games without the jumpiness associated with faked scaling. The problem is that nothing gets scaled very large on the screen before you pass it, making the buildings and trees look 5 feet tall. Check this video and watch how smoothly the roadside items scale without the jump as the sprite is resized that you see in the Genesis games:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmxS3nWIa8s

Edit - Now looking at RR2 and RR3 Genesis videos, they seem to scale in a similar way to the Sega CD game, so maybe I'm wrong. But the scaling in these games appears to be much better than many of the other "faked scaling" games on the Genesis...

[j_factor]

Well, keep in mind also that the Sega CD has a faster version of the 68000 cpu.

[ColecoFan1981]

I also have another complaint regarding this part of the RR legacy: the playable bikers in the "Big Game Mode" are mostly those "interference" bikers whose names previously appeared in the likes of the first three Genesis titles: you've got Axle, Rhonda, Slim and others. But what about the names of such Rashers who'd given you tips or were otherwise jealous of your success, like, say, Natasha, Nina, Ikira, Sergio and others?

[A Black Falcon]

Road Rash CD? Yeah, what it needed to do is actually use the Sega CD's scaling hardware. It's absurd that it didn't, the Genesis Road Rash engine never was that great (the scaling's only mediocre, and the framerates terrible!), when they finally had a chance for something better they should have taken it! But not only is it running on the old engine again, but for no apparent reason the 2 player mode is gone? What happened there? I mean, I like that the music's from the 3DO game -- and you actually can hear the rock music ingame, unlike the 3DO version and its ports -- and it's cool that the videos, menus, and interface are as much like the 3DO game as they could get on the Sega CD, but when you get to the actual gameplay, it completely falls apart, pretty much. The same bad framerate of the Geneiss games, no splitscreen multiplayer unlike Road Rash 2 or 3 on the Genesis, absolutely no graphical enhancements...

And it's a 1995 game, too. It's not exactly from early in the system's life. And it's not a port of a Genesis game, it's new. There isn't a good excuse for how little effort they put into the most important part, the actual gameplay.

[ColecoFan1981]

I'll bet a lot of the early Police songs could've worked fine for this soundtrack.

Besides their breakout hit "Roxanne," I also wish to suggest the following other Police songs:
1. Next to You
2. So Lonely
3. Peanuts
4. Truth Hits Everybody
5. Be My Girl (w/o "Sally" interlude)
6. Message in a Bottle
7. Bring on the Night
8. Don't Stand So Close to Me
9. Driven to Tears
10. When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around
11. Canary in a Coalmine
12. Spirits in the Material World
13. Demolition Man

~Ben

[WCP]

isn't the soundtrack trying to have a Grunge type theme to it ? I think the soundtrack is perfect as is, and actually I was inspired by the sound track to try the full albums of some of the bands that were involved in that soundtrack.

I must admit that I really experienced it on 3DO, so it was more of a 3DO thing for me, but yeah, lots of great memories of that soundtrack...

[ApolloBoy]

I'll bet a lot of the early Police songs could've worked fine for this soundtrack.
Uh, I like The Police as well but I can't see any of those of those songs being in a Road Rash game.