Road Rash

Title		Road Rash
Game Type	Driving
Company		Electronic Arts, 1992
Players		1
Compatibility 	Amiga 500 with 1 meg.
HD Installable  No
Submission	Christoper Lord

Review
Well here is a unusual situation, a console game being converted to the
Amiga and not the other way round. Road Rash was a huge success on the
Megadrive, one of EA's longest lasting series, still being updated even
today. In 1992 they decided to release an Amiga version and a superb
conversion it is too, bettering in some ways the original.

Well I guess I better tell you what the game is about, you are a rookie
motorcycle racer taking part in illegal street races on the roads of
America. Get a high enough finish position and you win some cash to put
towards buying a faster better handling bike.

This is not all you have to contend with though, the game also has a
combat system where you and other riders can try to punch or kick each
other off the bike, and even use weapons like clubs and chains if you can
get them. This adds a whole new level of fun to the game, it's priceless
the first time you hit an opponent in the back of the head with the club
and watch him plough into the front of an oncoming car! There are lots of
other hazzards on the roads too including the sunday drivers, cows, logs,
oil, ice - you name it you'll find it! The police on their Harley's also
deserve a mention, you get booked if you crash in the vicinity of one,
can't knock 'em off either.

The tracks are excellent, and rather than doing laps, you travel down one
long winding road. The dips and climbs also make this better still. Each
track feels different enough and is well laid out too. Also the view
distance is pretty long for an Amiga game so you can see what's coming
well in advance.

The graphics are great, viewed from just behind your bike and giving a
good sensation of speed are nicely drawn, very smooth too, in fact
smoother than the Megadrive version. Sound is also good with a choice of
music or engine whine (stick with the music though unless you like the
sound of wasps).

Only two things let the game down a little, firstly, the loading times
between races are long and secondly the game is save via a password system
like the cartridge version. I prefer the save disk system as used in
Jaguar XJ 220. However this does not really mar the game, and back when it
was released it was great to see the Amiga keeping up with the new
consoles and still bettering them. Just a shame EA never released Road
Rash 2 for the Amiga, that would have been great.

I guess my final comment on this is that I played for 4 hours before
writing this, and I am going back to it now. I had the game since it came
out too, so this is no passing fancy.

Alphabetical list.