An irreverent review of one of the finest racing AND fighting games on the Sega Mega Drive
Racing a motorbike at 150mph not butch enough for you? OK fine – how about doing it on public roads, racing against competitors with names like ‘Rude Boy’ and ‘P.E. Number 1’ who want nothing more than to see you and your machine become a tangled heap of wreckage? Still not enough? You’re armed too, so not only can you punch and kick, but you can lash out with clubs and chains. And as well as cars on the roads there are things like wild moose and bears crossing the roads and while doing so have left ‘deposits’ on the tarmac. That tough enough for you big boy? Good.
Road Rash II was released by Electronic Arts in 1992, a Mega Drive/Genesis-exclusive follow-up to the original that had been released to critical and commercial success. The sequel performed similarly well and builds upon the original theme; ride fast along roads, knock off amusingly-named opponents, make money, buy better bikes and progress through increasingly lengthy and difficult tracks. An expanded Mega Drive cartridge memory size added something that had been requested in the original, namely a split-screen mode, so players can laugh while punching and knocking friends and relatives off the road as well as the AI-controlled opponents.
Looking at Player A’s health bar here I would say undoubtedly that P.E. No. 1 has hit him with a chain and then knocked him into that car. Ouch.
Review - Filbert Wang
Of all the retro gaming genres, racing games are perhaps the least likely to have aged well. Back in the day the limited processing power of consoles, two-dimensional sprites and references taken from copies of Max Power magazine were a poor substitute for the arsenal of a modern development company which has 40-billion polygons at their disposal, an equivalent budget and a team of programmers who have travelled to Mercedes HQ in Stuttgart to crawl inside a V8 engine to record the engine note.
But, you don’t always need those things to make a fun game and Road Rash II has very much bucked the trend of retro racing games that fall short of modern standards. The front cover and title screen immediately set the scene; a couple of guys on high-powered Superbikes beating the hell out of each other (with a chain!).
Get into the game itself and any fears of nostalgia-blur immediately melt away; It’s almost 30 years later but Road Rash II is still tremendous fun. The 2D sprites are well defined and colourful, and most importantly very responsive, reacting precisely to every input as you try to manhandle your machine through the themed race routes. Jaunty tunes and grunts/meaty-thwack sounds accompany your journey, with mercifully no bee-trapped-in-a-jar engine note sound effect.
Difficulty-wise Road Rash II eases you in a lot more gently than its coin-op-based contemporaries such as Hang-On or Out Run, with a Mario Kart-style elastic system that will keep you in the race despite crashing. Likewise your competitors will initially be fairly timid, meekly allowing you to unhorse them and dropping back as you approach them. A few levels into the game however and not only will the difficulty of tracks increase (with races featuring more hazards and running to a longer length) but your opponents will come after you mercilessly, even slowing to try and get alongside you and knock you off! You will learn to fear certain riders and the odd obscenity or two might pop out while playing, but it does make the completion of some of the later races an accomplishment. Certainly at times the game will seem unfair; a sudden chicane sling-shotting you into the back of a car coming over the brow of a hill where quite often your survival is down to chance. That being said, it does make the game an exhilarating experience, and it’s so much fun that despite its shortcomings you’ll want to come back to it.
The split-screen two-player mode is similarly enjoyable and will definitely produce a few chuckles if you manage to kick a friend into an oncoming car, although you will struggle on the higher levels as the graphical sacrifices made to allow the multiplayer to function make the game that much more difficult.
Definitely one of the highlights of the 16-bit racing genre and a game that has aged like a well-maintained Royal Enfield. Thoroughly recommended.
Not so Easy Riders
As a step up from many racing games which feature faceless clones which merely act as rolling road-blocks (see: Super Hang-On) the Road Rash series names your opponents and even goes as far as to give specific riders their own personality and behaviour in game: Thugs like Rude Boy or P.E. Number 1 will relentlessly pursue you and often be wielding chains or clubs, while sweet Natasha (who seems to progress with you through the game) will often drop back to let you past. Thanks!
In addition they appear in the race summary screen to encourage or mock your efforts. The programmers definitely went to town with the design of the characters, some of whom are pretty hilarious and would quite obviously never be anywhere near this kind of gladiatorial and highly dangerous event (Biff in particular looks like he should be on the character select of PGA Tour).
Judge a Game by its Cover
EA obviously decided that two men riding motorbikes and punching each other was so awesome that it transcended all languages and cultures, so you’ll get the same artwork and design regardless of which version you buy. The ‘EA classics’ edition has the slightly rubbish-looking big blue border, but otherwise try and track down the hard-to-find NTSC version with cool looking Japanese text. I can't read Kanji, and Sumo refused to translate, but I would guess it reads as "Roduu Rashuu".
Image courtesy of Segaretro.org
Expect to Pay
The game sold well and is therefore commonly available on auction and retro game sites in various conditions. Expect £20+ for a US/PAL boxed copy with manual.
Unlike in the first game Police in Road Rash II can be easily knocked off too. They’re a lot more aggressive in this game however. You also get Police cars parked up on the side of the road, but somewhat amusingly they don’t seem to ‘bust’ you even if you fall off and slide directly into them!
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