From: ejd@cimage.com (Ed Driscoll)
Subject: Re: Road Rash (Genesis)
Organization: Cimage Corp., Ann Arbor, MI
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 16:26:46 GMT

In article <1992Dec16.190655.6017@news.stolaf.edu> 
nstehle@mari.acc-admin.stolaf.edu (Nathan W Stehle) writes:
  >Okay perhaps this is a REALLY dumb question, but what makes Road Rash so
  >good?  I've heard many people rave about the game during my travails here
  >in rec.land, and it has come up in my quest for a new game.  If it's good,
  >would I be better waiting for RRII??  Thanks for your input!
  >

I hate to be Mr. Negative, but I for one have mixed feelings about 
Road Rash.  Given that it tends to get a lot of recommendations, I
thought I'd post my opinion as a sort of "counter-point" position.

Road Rash starts off with a great concept.  Basically a motorcycle
racing game with the added dimension of violence -- you can try
to punch, kick, or even club your competitors off of their bikes.
They will try to do the same to you.  The concept -- especially the
violence twist -- is what really makes this game.  If you're like
me, it's just plain fun to try to clobber some guy off his cycle --
pretty much like you've wished you could do in so many other racing
games!

The graphics are pretty slick too.  The attention to realism seems 
very high, and the backgrounds are extremely detailed -- trees, 
signs, other traffic, intersections, cows, buildings, crowds.
There are some really amazing visuals when you do things like
come flying over a hill so fast that you become airborne, or
rear-end a car at high speed and go flying off your cycle.

So what, you may ask, could possibly make me hesitant to recommend
this gem?  The difficulty of the game, and especially -- the difficulty
of the controls.  The combination of the two sometimes makes the game so
frustrating for me that I can only play it for short stretches, then
it tends to go back on the shelf for awhile.  I did play the game
long enough to get the best cycle, thinking that the controls of the
cheap cycles were purposefully hard.  It does get better, but not
much, and not (for me) good enough.

The difficulty isn't too big a deal.  I do think that some of the
obstacles (like cars) spring up on you so fast that you really have
no chance to avoid them.  It's frustrating to get clobbered by something
that you KNOW you had no chance of avoiding because by the time it
appears on the screen it's already too late.  

The controls, on the other hand, ARE a big deal.  The worst problem
is that I just can't seem to keep the bike on the road at any decent
speed.  I'm CONSTANTLY wiping out on almost every curve, unless I go
so slow that I can't win the race.  This frustrates me to no end.  The
people who recommend this game must be much better than I am at
controlling the bike.  If the problem is that I'm driving too fast,
then the illusion of speed is very poor -- it doesn't FEEL like I'm
going that fast.  The scenery isn't racing by at an alarming pace 
like it does in, for instance, F-Zero or Top Gear.  I think I'm cruising 
at a pretty comfortable pace and then WHAM! -- off the curve I go.
I've tried to get better at braking before I enter a turn, but
there are so many turns that I can't seem to do it and still keep
a reasonable overall speed.

The "fighting" controls are also difficult to use, in my opinion.
You basically have to hit one of the other buttons (can't remember
which one -- I think it's configurable anyway) and for some of
the moves (like a kick) you have to push up or down on your joypad.
However, at the same time you're doing this, you have to keep holding
your accelerator button down AND steer your bike with the joypad.
The net result is that it's quite difficult to attack somebody
without losing control of your bike.  Most of the time I just
resort to passing them instead, and only take the time to beat
up on someone early in the race or if I'm far enough ahead to lose
a little time.

I guess I should mention sound too.  Briefly, the music is pretty
good cruising music, but I think the motorcycle sounds should be
louder and more bass.  They sound too much like mini-bikes.  But,
not really a big flaw.

So, overall -- a great concept, great graphics, good sound, but
in my opinion the playability suffers from major control problems.
I'd recommend renting first (no surprise -- I always recommend that!).
See if you're comfortable with the controls.  If you are, go for it.
If not, think carefully before buying because it doesn't get much
better.

I'm actually really looking forward to the sequel.  If they have
improved the controls, it could be a real blockbuster of a game.

-- 
Ed Driscoll
Cimage Corp.
ejd@cimage.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.video