Sleeper of the Week: Road Rash (3DO)

[maxlords]

Sleeper of the Week: Road Rash (Panasonic 3DO)

Like beating people with pipes and chains? Kicking them off their motorcycles? Listening to heavy metal? If so then Road Rash for the 3DO is the game for you! A successor to the older Road Rash games on the Genesis, Road Rash follows the same style of high-speed motorcycle racing and random violence as the other Road Rash games. But don’t expect your standard racer here. It’s not just knock the guy over and win the race…there’s some depth to this game!

Right from the get-go, Road Rash has a lot more personality than the other games in the series. With better artwork, the addition of a plethora of interesting characters, and the ability to buy new and better bikes, Road Rash for the 3DO reaches a depth that most modern racing games fail to achieve. Sure, there are only 20 or 25 bikes, but they make a huge difference in the game. When you win or lose a race, an FMV (full motion video, i.e. live action) clip shows of your character, and its generally quite humorous. You can be arrested by the police, who beat you savagely, also filmed in live action. The cut scenes are hilarious and quite well done. You can talk to other racers between races, but most of then just get angry because you’ve beat them! Road Rash is definitely a tongue in cheek biker game where all bets are off once you hit the road.

Where gameplay is concerned, expect to be surprised. When you first play the game, it seems fairly simple. The polygons for the environments aren’t exactly seamless, the detail level isn’t too high (of course we are talking about the 3DO), and there’s a lot of grainyness here and there. But none of that matters once you win a few racings. The thing about the 3DO version of Road Rash is that it’s absolutely blazing fast! It’s easily the fastest racing game I’ve ever played, and while it doesn’t seem so at first, after a couple of bike upgrades, you’ll literally barely be able to control your bike due to the sheer speed of it! Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not poor controls. It’s designed just like a real bike, where the faster you go, the less control you have. At a certain point, you can no longer make fast corrections to your course without biting it…..hard. And when you crash, you’ll go flying through the air like a bullet! Your biker might actually fly a couple of blocks before running smack into a person or a car or a building. In addition, you’ll drive through cities and country, and cross traffic will invariably get in your way. Few racing games have mastered the art of throwing cars at stoplights into the mix, but Road Rash does it and does it well. You’ll be racing through town at 140 MPH and all of the sudden there are two cars in front of you stopped at a light and three others crossing across the road! Expect some daring maneuvers to whip past cars. And the cars honk at you and slow down to avoid hitting you, throwing off your careful on-the-fly calculations. It’s a very immersive experience for the 3D0.

On top of that, the game comes with a soundtrack of all of the music, with some great metal bands on it, and if you pause the game and leave it sit, it plays music videos as a screen saver! The music is exceptional, though the graphic detail is of course a bit sub-par. Rarely has a racing game been so simple and so captivating. I personally find it to be easily on par with Rock N’ Roll Racing or San Francisco Rush 2049, two of the best racers out there. And for the price you can’t go wrong! Road Rash for the 3DO averages around $10 complete in general, with the music CD. Prices seem to range from around $5-15 a copy. For that kind of money, you’ll certainly get a lot of bang for your buck! This is easily a must-have game for the 3DO! But don’t take it from me….go check it out!

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[Slimedog]

I love this game! This and Twisted are the reasons why my wife made me get an old 3DO on Ebay and that event got me into collecting. The soundtrack alone makes it worth the purchase. I haven't tried the PSX version yet, how does it compare?

[sharp]

And here the Euro-artwork:

http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/E-052/bf/E-052-S-00010-A.jpg

and yes it was with Return Fire almost the only game Iplayed on my 3DO. Only hated the memoryproblem which made the music missing.

[PDorr3]

Yeah I love this game too, and it was one of the first 3do games I popped in after hearing Joe praise it so much. I loved it, and just like you said, the speed is amazing in this game.

[s1lence]

I don't have the 3do version, yet. I love the PS1 version though other then the load times. Fun Fun stuff . It was a popular game to play in my dorm room when I was a freshman in college. I think I played it for about 7 hours straight to have the money to get one of the superbikes.

[jajaja]

I used to play this on PC at my cuzin's place. It owned :)

[cityside75]

I still remember when I first saw this game, the first time I saw a 3do, and it just looked so "next-gen" compared to the genesis versions. Plus it played great to boot.

I also had this for my PC. I believe it was one of the earliest Win 95-enabled games, I don't think there was a DOS option even available.

One other element that should be mentioned is the art style of the menu screens, I thought they were cool, my wife thought they were disgusting (dingy bikers in grungy bathrooms and such).

[Mianrtcv]

I got to play this at work. I logged some serious hours too. I eventually went through all races in first.

[evildead2099]

he game comes with a soundtrack of all of the music, with some great metal bands on it, and if you pause the game and leave it sit, it plays music videos as a screen saver!

I agree that Road Rash is a great game, but the soundtrack isn't quite metal. The only metal band on the game's soundtrack is Monster Magnet, or maybe (just maybe) Soundgarden if you count the band's earliest material. Categorical labels aside, the game and its soundtrack are great. If it wasn't for its pop-up factor, it'd still be a viable contender for today's racing games.

Oh yeah, one last thing: the games uses sprites, not polygons.

[evildead2099]

I still remember when I first saw this game, the first time I saw a 3do, and it just looked so "next-gen" compared to the genesis versions. Plus it played great to boot.

Agreed.


I also had this for my PC.

So did I. It's great except for the fact that the cool soundtrack takes a hike to lame MIDI tunes when you actually leave the game's menus to start racing.


One other element that should be mentioned is the art style of the menu screens, I thought they were cool, my wife thought they were disgusting (dingy bikers in grungy bathrooms and such).

I thought they were cool as well (some of em sexy).

[zerohero]

I remember playing this back in walmart when I was younger. I just thought it was cool, because you could hit people with the chain. Never actually played the full game though.

[FurinkanianFrood]

Heh. I've been meaning to buy a 3DO primarily for this game ever since the 3DO got cheap when it "died".

Procrastination....... The years just keep going with this one.

[maxlords]

he game comes with a soundtrack of all of the music, with some great metal bands on it, and if you pause the game and leave it sit, it plays music videos as a screen saver!

I agree that Road Rash is a great game, but the soundtrack isn't quite metal. The only metal band on the game's soundtrack is Monster Magnet, or maybe (just maybe) Soundgarden if you count the band's earliest material. Categorical labels aside, the game and its soundtrack are great. If it wasn't for its pop-up factor, it'd still be a viable contender for today's racing games.

Oh yeah, one last thing: the games uses sprites, not polygons.

Heh...some of it is almost metal. You're right tho....technically it's more hard rock and alternative.

As for the polygons...I'd swear some of the backgrounds were mildly polygonal. I know all the cars and bikes and characters were sprites, but weren't some of the backgrounds polygons?

[evildead2099]

I think that if the backgrounds had been polygonal, the game would've ran at a much slower framerate.

When game developers mix sprites and polygons, the polygons are usually concentrated as the game's main components (i.e. the ship you fly in a 2D/3D SHUMP), while the background is composed of pre-rendered sprites. A good example of this is Alone in the Dark (1): The game performed well on 486 computers because the only polygons which 486 processors needed to keep track of were those of the main characters. All of the backgrounds were in fact 2D, although they appeared to be in three dimensions. Same goes for the early Resident Evil games, which are actually based on Alone In the Dark (some have gone so far as to insist that the Resident Evil series is a rip-off of Alone In The Dark).

Besides, if elements of the background (i.e. buildings) were polygonal, the game wouldn't have such a noticable 'pop-up' effect as you speed toward those elements.

[scooby105]

I like this game. I just picked up a 3DO a few weeks ago. I always enjoy arcade-type racing games. The mode where you get money and buy bikes is fun too. It enables you to play for something, but it doesn't have tons and tons of features like the new racing games do, which I think make the newer games too complicated.

[cityside75]

As for the polygons...I'd swear some of the backgrounds were mildly polygonal. I know all the cars and bikes and characters were sprites, but weren't some of the backgrounds polygons?

I've wondered about this for a while too, since I understood the difference between polygons and sprites.

The graphics of the buildings and the street don't look like scaling sprites of other games, they look more 3d to me. I always thought they were polygonal. At the same time, there is no camera movement at all I believe, so that would suggest the graphics may be sprite based...

The original Need for speed's graphics for the road and the buildings were similar to these, and I always thought of that game as polygonal, but there is no camera movement in that one either. Even if your car turns completely around, the camera always faces forward.

I don't know the answer but I'd like to.[/quote]

[evildead2099]

Come to think of it, there MAY be a few polygonal artifacts in the background (I'm thinking of the buildings that 'shift' as you approach them at high speed), but they're by no means comprehensive polygonal entities. Alone in the Dark's polygonal creatures are considerably more complex, despite the fact that AITD is from the early 90s while Road Rash is from the mid 90s.

[Slimedog]

I always assumed they the buildings in Road Rash used the same psuedo 3D raycasting techniques that Doom did. No actual pollys involved. Whatever it was, it looked great because the 3DO sure wasn't a 3D powerhouse.

[maxlords]

Heh....seems we've discovered both a good game and a mystery with the sleeper this week! :D Now I'm curious! Anyone know where or how we can find out the polygon/sprite question?

[Gamereviewgod]

Not so sure this is really a sleeper in the truest sense of word, but an amazing game. Plays the best on the PC with hi-res and and unfortunate block taken out of the bottom for status stuff, but the 3DO version just feels right. One of the best on the system, right up there with Super SFII Turbo, FIFA, and Blade Force.

[Necron99]

a friend of mine got a 3DO a few months ago with several games..road rash was one of them and I played the crap out of it hehe. It's almost if not identical to the PC version.

[CYRiX]

If you guys dont have a 3DO they made a n64 one too call road rash 64 which I have played and is really fun.

[evildead2099]

Heh....seems we've discovered both a good game and a mystery with the sleeper this week!

I'll say! Surprising, considering the fact that we're talking about a game published by ELECTRONIC ARTS.


Not so sure this is really a sleeper in the truest sense of word, but an amazing game. Plays the best on the PC with hi-res

The PC version may play the best, but I'd rather play the 3DO version for the sake of its awesome soundtrack. The problem with the PC and Sega Saturn versions of the game is that the 'big band' songs (those done by Soundgarden, Candlebox, Paw, etc.) are relegated to the game's menus, as opposed to the actual races. As far as I know, the Sega CD and 3DO versions are the only ones that let you jam to those great tunes AS you race.

[qbertandernie]

i bought the 3do for this game and star control 2! i got the system when it was dying, but games were still available for $10 in clearance bins. my system came with this, star control and a bunch of crap. Something like 14 games and the front load system for $100. most id ever spent on something other than my car.

star control 2 can eat up hours, but i spent many many hours playing this game too, though not likely as many as on SC2! i really liked this game, though i havent played it in years...maybe ill have to fire it up.

[scorch56]

The 3DO release actually comes in 3 versions. There's the original release (longbox) WITH the additional music soundtrack CD; and it is the hardest to find.. complete.. and can fetch MORE than $15 at times on eBay. There's also a longbox version w/o the music CD (as indicated by the absence of the message on the box cover) and it is the most easy to find and then there's the later jewel case only release that EA and all other companies started releasing near the end of 3DO's lifespan. You don't see that one very often as well.

[maxlords]

Weird. The only version I've ever seen is the longbox soundtrack version...but then, once I had the game, I never really looked for it in the wild....

[cityside75]

I always assumed they the buildings in Road Rash used the same psuedo 3D raycasting techniques that Doom did. No actual pollys involved. Whatever it was, it looked great because the 3DO sure wasn't a 3D powerhouse.

I'll buy that. I actually ran across this game for the Saturn over the weekend and picked it up, thanks to all the reminiscing here. The look does resemble the raycasting method to me.

I forgot just how fast this game was, and I still really like the look of the graphics. Good times!

[evildead2099]

I actually ran across this game for the Saturn over the weekend and picked it up, thanks to all the reminiscing here.

Talk on Digital Press generates sales? C'mon: we MUST start a thread on Interplay's Fallout (I) or Fallout II!

[dojosky]

yea it was one of the first 3DO game i played when I got my first 3D0 back in 1995 yea after playstation came out LOL ... but returned it as it was $399.99 I think .. later on got another 3D0 in 1997 and have almost close to complete collection of 3d0 games ! :D

from what I heard it was better than the sony version !!! don't criticize me for that it is what i heard from people at a video game store years ago when the playstation version came out maybe a day ago that year LOL.

also yeah 2 known versions (one with soundtrack and one without a soundtrack CD) ..

never seen that jewel case version that's interesting because I believe I also seen john madden 3d0 in jewel case version but I might be wrong HEH ...

[njiska]

Oh man i just finally got around to hooking my 3DO up and this was the first thing i played. So much better then the SegaCD version. It really is proof that the 3DO was a good little system.

[Lothars]

I love this game it's so much fun

I remember playing it for days on end,

hmm but I haven't played it for years now.

damn o well it's all good.

[Lothars]

I actually ran across this game for the Saturn over the weekend and picked it up, thanks to all the reminiscing here.

Talk on Digital Press generates sales? C'mon: we MUST start a thread on Interplay's Fallout (I) or Fallout II!

Definitly

now Fallout I and II are amazing games

I love to play them

reminds me I should reinstall them and start playing again.

[hu6800]

I did manage to unlock the "Diablo Vipera" haha.

Speaking of 3DO , Wait til you see my new tattoo maxlords.

"Way of the warrior"