Play it today and it’s just as entertaining. Make no mistake, towards the end the game it does get tough, but there is a reason this game was so loved by so many people in the 90’s. Road Rash 2 succeeds where so many other racing games of the time failed – by keeping the mechanics simple and just being an absolute joy to play, along with a funky soundtrack to boot. It does slow down a little in split-screen, but it’s still as enjoyable today as it would have been all those years ago. You could either take each other on in a split-screen race (while facing other opponents), take turns or go head-to-head (named mano a mano in the game). Yes, would you believe it? Back in the Mega Drive days Road Rash 2 allowed you to include a buddy to take part in the action. I found that the poor old Mega Drive had some trouble keeping up with the pace of these nitro injected bikes threw at it. That’s however just me nitpicking, because there’s something included that made it a must buy at the time – multiplayer. Nitro Class is a new addition in Road Rash 2 and will be the cause of your Mega Drive having a mini heart attack.
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Build up enough money and you can upgrade to an improved Ultra Light bike, or to the more powerful Super Bike and, later, Nitro Class. After completing each track you will be rewarded with money.
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Thankfully there’s a much needed password system in place to ensure you never lose any of your progress. There are other ways at defeating any cop or foe the game can throw your way – upgrade your bike. Watching a group of bikers pass you by, when you see the finish line in sight, will have you using your language in colourful ways. If you fall with no pig in sight you’ll have to run back to your bike, which can be a tedious scenario. Should you fall off your bike with a cop in hot pursuit you’ll be arrested and your game will come to an end. Place your focus on fighting and dodging oncoming traffic and you should be okay.
Steering your bike is a breeze and it’s been designed in such a way that it’s very forgiving. Pressing the B button accelerates your bike, A lets you hit the brakes (though I only used it in the tougher stages) and C punches away at competitors. You might be thinking that fighting and racing at the same time must’ve been an impossible task? In the modern era developers would likely complicate it to be the case, but this is as playable as it’s ever been. You start off with just your good old fisticuffs and, should you time your shot correctly, you can claim either a chain or baton to counter your opponents onslaught. A new weapon introduced in the sequel was the chain. Of course this plays in your favour too as you have more of chance remaining on your bike before your jaw hits the tarmac. Instead of just one punch knocking an opponent off their bike you now had to battle it out on the road, as the box art made you believe. The fighting system saw a major improvement in that opponents now had life bars that would take several smacks on the head to deplete.
So what was the big deal with the sequel? A chain is only as strong as its weakest link the biker using it Complete the 5 tracks on offer and and a more difficult variation of those 5 circuits becomes your next challenge.
Five tracks (Alaska, Hawaii, Tennessee, Arizona and Vermont) are playable in any order as soon as you start the game up, each with their own unique length and difficulty. The premise was simple – make it to the finish line in first, second or third place and move on to the next track. The original Road Rash was a mega hit around the world in the early 90’s, but it was Road Rash 2 that fixed many bugs and made it the bike game to own. Most of you might think that EA’s love for cops an fast cars started with Need for Speed, when the truth is that it really got the concept going on bikes. In the very early days of gaming there was a bike game that was one of the coolest games to own, and also an immense amount of fun to play. Other than Trials there’s not much filling that itch these days, and even then you’re just pulling off tricks.
Today we have motorbike games that focus mostly on realism, which makes the task of creating something enjoyable even tougher. Creating an enjoyable motorbike game is no easy task.