365//365: Day 057 – Road Rash (PSX) [Quickie]

Road Rash is a series of games that were well appreciated in the 16 bit era. Motorcycle racing through twisting and turning streets, where you can attack the opposing bikers with your fists, or steal their melee weapons for a longer ranged attack. With great audio and solid controls, Road Rash had a lot to be appreciated. Once the 32 bit era hit, the Road Rash series took its place in the library of the Sony PlayStation. The first title, simply called Road Rash, was the PSX debut of the series, staying true to its roots, with some audio and visual tweaks.

The use of backgrounds are quite reminiscent of The Flintstones - running on a tight loop.

Obvious changes were made to the visuals. There’s a lot more detail compared to the older games, although in some ways, not really. You don’t just race through open fields with sparse tree sightings, which all look the same. You have houses and buildings around you in some stages, which are repeated more than a Flintstones driving scene. The open world looks a lot better at least, with more color diversity and different looking trees. The bikers all look like poorly animated digitized characters, with two frames of animations on their attacks, and the vehicles become pixelated messes when they get really close. However when everything is combined and the game is moving, you have that sense of speed and when stuff gets chaotic, that adrenaline rush that has you gripping the controller tight and sitting at the edge of your seat. The laughable cut scenes after a win/loss/arrest are so useless, yet good for a chuckle at how absurd the come off as. Overall, for an early PS1 title, it looks barely passable, but does look a bit cleaner than the older titles on the 16 bit platform.

The controls do feel just a slight bit stiff when it comes to turning ever so slightly, but for the most part, attacking, accelerating and moving around functions properly and when you need it to. Just don’t get hit while turning, cause then you’ll more than likely come face first into a tree.

The biggest head scratching moment though, is why are the in game musical pieces somewhat generic (yet decent) songs, and the menus and title screen has actual rock music from various bands? Not only that, but that menu music would go great with the in game action. It makes no sense whatsoever. Also, there’s not a whole lot to do, so as fun as it gets, you really won’t find yourself rushing back right away.

Getting knocked off your bike by the cops almost always brings up the screen above.

The bottom line is for its first entry into the 32 bit world, Road Rash is a lot of fun, with some audio confusions and a few visual hiccups. It’s not a long or have a high amount of replay value, but for the time spent on it, you’ll at least be entertained and enjoy most of it.

Rating: 6.4