Quick Review
------------
 
Road Rash from Electronic Arts allows you to take your cycle out on the open
road at full throttle, and beat the crap out of anyone who gets in your way !
This game has been around for a while on the 16-bit systems, and made its way
to the 3D0 in a totally new design, with new tracks, FMV (Full Motion Video)
and a rockin' soundtrack with music from Soundgarden, Paw, and Hammerbox to
name a few. This review will also compare the Playstaion version to the 3D0
version for people with both systems.
 
Road Rash has two different modes of play. Thrash mode allows you to jump
right into the action by picking a track (City, Sierra Nevada, The Peninsula,
Napa Valley, and Pacific Highway), and riding as fast as possible. Big Game
mode allows you to pick an alter-ego complete with his/her own bike and bank
account. If you complete the race in 3rd place or above you get a cash bonus
and advance to the level on that course. Each course has five levels for a
grand total of 25 levels to complete. Get enough cash and you can buy a
better bike, or you can blow your cash by getting busted, or trashing your
bike. Each course gets progressivly longer and competition gets hotter. If a
biker gets in your way, punch him out and take his weapon. If you do this,
expect him/her to get pissed and try to do the same to you for the rest of
the race.
 
If you have the 3D0 version, don't waste money getting the Playstation
version. It is an almost exact copy, which is a dispointment. However, the
frame rate has been improved which also help to improve the control of your
bike. The colors also seem brighter and smoother than the 3D0 version. On the
downside, the FMV is as grainy in the PSX version as in the 3D0 version. The
PSX is capable of much better video than this. The PSX version also streams
audio from the CD like the 3D0 version instead of using redbook audio. Since
the music is playing almost all the time, it causes a big delay when you
change menu options. The reason is because it is reading new graphics data
from the CD at the same time the audio is being streamed. This also lowers
the sound quality of the music you hear, a big problem for PSX owners who are
comfortable with hearing CD quality music. Also the option to switch
between the digital and analog dash is gone ! The 3D0 version also
included a sampler CD of the groups featured in the game, the PSX
version doesn't. However if you've never played the game before by all means
pick it up. It would have been nice to see EA take better advantage of the
PSX features, but you can't have everything.
 
I give it a B+.
 
Derrick Ellis
http://www.slip.net/~ellisd