Road Rash 3D

Road Rash 3D
North American cover art
Developer(s)	Electronic Arts
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Series	Road Rash
Platform(s)	PlayStation
Release date(s)	NA May 31, 1998
Genre(s)	Racing, vehicular combat

Road Rash 3D is a racing and vehicular combat video game in the Road Rash series, developed and published by Electronic Arts.^[1] It was released in March 1998 for the PlayStation video game console.^[2] The game was generally poorly received, with critics citing lack of key features of past games in the series, mainly multiplayer and a lessened emphasis on combat, as reasons for negative reviews.

Gameplay

The game plays similarly to previous games developed in the Road Rash series, which involves the player racing their motorcycle against other motorcyclists.^[1] Gameplay favors an arcade-like style, with little emphasis on realism.^[2] While racing, the player has the option of punching, or using weapons to attack other opponents, to slow down their progress.^[3] The ultimate goal is to place first in the race in order to earn money to upgrade the player's motorcycle.^[4] Conversely, the worst scenario is to finish last, which doesn't earn money, or be stopped by police officers, where the player actually loses money. Despite sharing many characteristics with past games in the series, Road Rash 3D puts a stronger emphasis on the racing aspect of the game, and less on combat.^[5]

The individual courses for the game are pieced together from a larger system of interconnected grids of roads.^[3] Courses may overlap common segments of other tracks, but often have different start or end points, or have the player turning down alternate routes.^[3] While the player can opt to take the wrong route, taking them very far typically results into hitting "invisible walls" that restrict further movement into the given direction.^[6]

Music

The game featured licensed music from bands such as Sugar Ray, Kid Rock, CIV, The Mermen, Full on the Mouth, and The Tea Party.^[6] Sugar Ray contributed three songs, "Speed Home California", "Tap, Twist, Snap" and "Mean Machine".

Reception

The game received mostly negative reviews by critics. The most common complaint was that the game failed to live up to the prior games in the series on the Sega Genesis and 3DO, especially that it lacked a two-player multiplayer mode.^[4][3][1][6] In addition to this, GameSpot also criticized the game for its graphical glitches, and for the fact that the game reduced the actual combat aspect of the gameplay that the series had been known for in prior iterations.^[3] IGN complained that despite two to three years of development time, that the game managed to control worse, and play slower, than the series' last release on the 3DO.^[1] AllGame echoed these sentiments, questioning the game's slow pace, graphical glitches, and overall lower quality than the prior game for the 3DO.^[4] Game Revolution referred to it as the "one of the worst motorcycle games...ever" and summarized that "most disappointing aspect of the game is the fact that it doesn't come close to matching the great gameplay of its predecessors".^[6]

Response and legacy

The game's lack of multiplayer and lack of emphasis on combat was frequently cited as a shortcoming of the game by critics. Electronic Arts representatives defended the lack of multiplayer, stating that the feature was impossible due to the way game data was streamed from the game disc.^[1] However, such concerns were addressed in subsequent future releases. A year later, in August 1999, Road Rash 64 was released. While it was initially thought to be a simple port of the game for the Nintendo 64, the end product turned out to be a major reworking of the game, putting a greater emphasis on combat, and including several multiplayer modes with support to up to four players.^[5] Additionally, the next game in the series, Road Rash: Jailbreak, especially focused gameplay on a two player cooperative mode where a second player can join in on a motorcycle's side car.

References