Worse than air sickness, it's the...

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ELECTRONIC ARTS * £25.99 * 1 meg * Joystick * Out now

Hey, I remember this! Road Rash was the second game I eer played after buying a Megadr - oops, nearly dropped myself in it there. Ahem, well anyway, it was - and jolly good fun it was too - whizzing around various fictional parts of America on a fast bike, avoiding the police and knocking off anyone who got in my way. Top entertainment. At the time.

And now here we are in Amigaland 18 months later, busy reviewing all the first goodies of the New Year, when who should pop up for persusal but my old mate. Great - I couldn't wait for a quick shufty.

Road Rash on the Megadrive was accompanied by a stirring tale of competition and confrontation between two mean riders over a girl - they ended up facing each other on a treacherous highway for a ho hold barred race without rules. The girl swooned over the winner, the race was brilliant etc etc, and it was decided that it should be held every year to find the best 'rasher', or some such gubbins. Well, we've all grown up a bit since then, and EA suffice with telling Amiga owners that 'nice guys come last', and leave it at that.

As with any racing game, the aim is obviously to win races, and since we've just been informed that mild-mannered citizens such as ourselves generally come a good way down the field, it's necessary to enter into a little roughness.

We have two basic moves with which to temporarily immobilise our leather-clad competitors, and on which the game was really sold to Megadrive owners.
Depending on which joystick control method is chosen - there are two - either a dab on the Fire button or a qucik push upwards on the stick will see your rider punch anyone within arm's reach.

Similarly, by pushing down on the stick you are able to kick anyone who rides too close for comfort. A particularly well placed punch or kick can see an adversary knocked off his or her bike, but that doesn't mean that they're out of the race - you'll notice them in your rear view mirrors as they scurry back towards their bikes and remount.

Bikes are the ultimate status symbol for types like yourself - you begin the whole shenanigans on a Shuriken 400, the motorcycling equivalent of the XR2, in that it looks quite nice and sounds OK, but is about as likely to take you to the front of the pack as a Sainsbury's trolley with a wonky wheel.

You will therefore be wanting to win some money in order to invest in a better bike, and the only way to do it is by winning races. There are five tracks in all, and despite boasting such varied names as Grass Valley and Palm Desert, they are disappointingly alike in terms of layout.

Beginning always as last in the line of 15 competitors, you must fight your way through to at least fourth place on each circuit before qualifying for the second stage.

Each time you take a fall or if, say, you're careless enough to let another rider knock you off, the energy bar on your handlebars reduces accordingly. Your trusty cycle also has its own bar - if this reaches the bottom you'll find yourself out of the race and likely as not in the knocking shop for some costly repairs.

Everything I remember playing on the Megadrive version is here - the tunes have been watered down a bit, but the colourful and fast-moving multi parallax backgrounds are if anything enhanced.

What about bike speed then? We-ell... there's really no skirting around the fact that it's not very fast at all - this is quite a major problem and detracts form the game in a big way. You see, it's great fun riding around the five tracks punching and kicking as many people as you can, and it's nice to choose a new bike when you've won enough money.

The policemen and women who constantly patrol are a nice addition, and the occasional cow on the road adds a touch of humour. But what we really need from a racing game is speed - if there's no speed it just doesn't feel like a race. And frankly Road Rash doesn't.

I'm still a fan of the game, but I'm not blind to its faults. Couple all the polished elements with the lack of speed and the fact that the later stages are nothing but more laps around the same track, and what you have is an original and fun game that offers not much real challenge and soon becomes boring when played for any length of time.

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Now here's a carzy mixed-up game for crazy mixed-up people. Take the bare bones of a motorbike racer, flesh them out with the brawling and violence from a beat-em-up, and you have...

Much like motorcycle riding itself, motorcycle games have always been a it or miss on the Amiga, and none more so than Electronic Arts' bizarre new racing beat-em-up, Road Rash. Mile upon mile of open road, plenty of fast, furious motorbiking action and a liberal dose of unnecessary violence thrown in for good measure.

But how do you mix aggression with the reflex-honing activities you normally associate with racing games? Simple. Here you get the chance to punch and kick your biker opponents off the road, into trees, or worse, into the path of oncoming traffic.

To be this good...
After wowing an audience of console owners, Road Rash revs on to the Amiga scene, hoping to do the same to us. But if EA think Amiga owners are as easily pleased as the console kids, they're way off. Let's face it, these guys impressed by two-inch screens and squeaks for sound effects. It's a lot harder to sway people who expect full-screen action and hyper-sonic sounds i.e. people who use Amiga.

It can't be denied that Road Rash is good fun, even if it is just a converted console game. Road Rash is a pretty simple racing challenge. There are five levels of race difficulty, with the length of track or the number of twisting turns and crossroads being the main variations.

At each level there are five separate courses, each with its own scenery, roadside objects and obstacles. You have to race on each course and finish in the top four on each one in order to make it to the next difficult level. A system of rather long-winded post-race passwords enables you to leave or enter a specific race when you feel like it, without needing a save-game disk.

This is going to annoy everyone from the road-safety crew to the Mary Whitehouse brigade

Ultimate ride?
You control your bike and rider with a joystick, using one of two available control modes. The important difference is the way you handle the punching and kicking of opponents - one uses the fire-button, the other sees the position of the joystick.

Mastery of the high-speed attack is vital because your objective is to unseat the opposition by booting them off backwards or punching them in the helmet.

Each opponent has his or her own characteristics which affects their relationship with you. If you act aggressively to one character, the chances are pretty high that they will retaliate. But if you merely dodge them, and whiz by on the outside without clashing, they may offer you tips or information at the start of the next race.

Winning races means cash in the bank, and the more you have the more you can spend. And spend you will, on important things like a newer, faster bike, or less important things like fines (incurred not for punching policemen off their bikes, but for getting caught afterwards).

You also need cash to repair your bike when you damage it, and that's very likely to happen, considering the way you and your racing cronies hurtle around blind bends at 140 mph. Death wish or what?

And that's basically all there is to it. Road Rash is a blast, but it's not as good as all the hype suggests. Initial reactions are not always the right ones, and in this case it has to be said that it plays a lot better than it loos and sounds.

After a few races (when you've invested a bit of time and tried out your joystick hand) it's very easy to get drawn into the game. The sheer mindlessness of the violence nearly makes it a classic. It's just so rewarding to get away with behaviour that would generally get you killed or nicked if you were to try it for real. Your psychopathic tendencies can be lived out to the full without danger or harming yourself or anyone else, but it still feels like you've been there and done it before.

Road Rash is going to annoy everyone from the police road-safety crew to the Mary Whitehouse anti-violence brigade - and quite rightly so. After all, if people didn't get wound up about mindless, inconsequential things like computer games, then they wouldn't be half as interesting to play, would they?

Although their fears are real to them, they're not nearly as heightened as the fear you'll have when you find yourself flying over the crest of a hill at a ton plus, with only a passing Volvo to break your fall. If you can get excitement like that on your Amiga, who needs to try it for real?

Once the flag drops, there isn't time to mess about, so here's a guide to what's on a Road Rasher's handlebars.
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  1. STAMINA METER: Tells you how many more beatings you can take. If your opponents really bruise you up, this meter goes red and shrinks drastically. If it runs out, you're out of the race.
  2. DAMAGE METER: Shows how badly damaged your bike is. Each time you fall off, you crunch a bit of your bike until eventually it won't work.
  3. OPPONENT'S STAMINA: The weaker he is, the quicker he will fall. Use this to tell you whether it's worth staying for a punch-up.
  4. NEAREST OPPONENT: They could be behind or in front of you, but at least you know how they are, and maybe they'll react.
  5. SPEEDO: What's this? Three guesses...
  1. ODOMETER: Each race is a set distance. See how far you are from the finals before wasting time in a brawl.
  2. TACHOMETER: Some bikes are much better than others at revving up. Use this to see how good yours is.
  3. RACE TIME: Not a lot of use, other than to tell how long you've been on the road.
  4. RACE POSITION: The vital indicator. You want to reach the finish line in the top four, or you'll have to race this track again.
  5. MIRRORS: Behind you! Check out for things creeping up on your tail. See which side they'rea bout to overtake on.


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Die Feuerstühle aus "Super Hang On" oder "No Second Prize" mögen ja sehr realistisch und auch ganz nett sein, aber was ein wahrer Verkehrsrowdy ist, der braucht härteren Stoff...

Und genau den hat Electronic Arts geliefert - zunächst für's Mega Drive, und jetzt kommen eben auch wir in den Genuß von Prügeleien auf Rädern.

Im Grunde geht es schlicht darum, ein illegales Motorradrennen zu bestreiten, wobei es jedoch mit fahrerischem Können allein nicht getan ist: Wer hier ans große Preisgeld kommen will, muß mit allen erlaubten und unerlaubten Tricks arbeiten und während der Fahrt Tritte oder Schläge austeilen und auch einstecken können.

Freilich gückt die Polizei da nicht tatenlos zu, daß den maximal zwei menschlichen Piloten (nacheinander) oft genug ein Blaulicht an den Fersen klebt.

Was sich hier so rabiat liest, spielt sich dennoch realistisch: Im Rückspiegel lassen sich herannahende Fahrzeuge gut erkennen, Berge und Hügel versperren die Sich auf Gegenverkehr und Kreuzungen und sobald man mal ins Straßenbeiwerk rumpelt, muß das herabgeschleuderte Fahrersprite erst wieder zum Motorrad laufen.

Schön auch, daß man sich neue Bikes kaufen kann, weniger schön, daß insgesamt bloß fünf verschiedene Landschaften geboten werden. Da diese gleich zu Beginn anwählbar sind und sich die Paßwortgesicherten Level ansonsten bloß im Schwierigkeitsgrad unterscheiden, hält sich die Abwechslung halt arg in Grenzen.

Immerhin läßt die Grafik kaum einen Unterschied zur Originalversion erkennen, und der 3D-Effekt kommt trotz leichten Ruckelns gut rüber. Steuerung, Musik- und Soundbegleitung gehen ebenfalls in Ordnung, bloß die ständige Nachladerei nervt. Na, denn wünschen wir mal gute Fahrt und 'nen harten Schlag! (rl)

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Mega drive owners have been bleating on about this game for ages. Now it's finally made it to the Amiga, we wonder: was it worth the wait?

It's a horrible job sometimes, this. Not always, though. Sometimes it's great. When a game comes out of nowhere that's unexpectedly brilliant and you just have to tell everyone about (like Pinball Dreams), or when something that you've been waiting on for ages lives up to all the hype (like Sensible Soccer), or when you get to come down with the fll force of righteous indignation on some piece of drivel and save people from wasting huge sums of money on it (like - well, you know the names).

But other times, you have to be the party pooper, the boy who pointed out that the Emperor was a clothes-free zone, the rotten apple in the barrel who spoils it for everyone else (That's quite enough trite clichés for now. - Ed). Unfortunately, that's the way it's going to be here.

Now, if you're all set for a hatchet job to follow that, think again. Road Rash isn't a bad game, it's just that it's not really anything special, either. Mega Drive owners would have you believe that this is an absolute classic (indeed, our fab sister magazine Mega just voted it the eight-best Mega Drive game of all-time, which it almost certainly is), but the fact of the matter is that it's... well, sort of all right.

But hang on (Ho ho - Ed) a minute, if I do the conclusion now I'm going to be really pushed to fill out the rest of the review, so let's start at the beginning.

Illegal cross-country raod racing. Beat up the (14) other racers for kicks (and to improve your chances). Win money, by bigger bikes. Five tracks, quality (finish fourth or better) on all of 'em and you move up a level (there are five). Higher levels have same tracks, but longer. Qualify at top levels and you win. End of plot.

Road Rash isn't a bad game

So how come Mega Drive owners treat this game like some kind of Holy Grail then? Could it be that they just don't have anything better on two wheels to get excited about? Well, no, because the MD boasts a version of Super Hang-On that's even better than the brilliant Amiga one, so that's that idea out.

Maybe it's the pure breathtaking adrenalin rush you get from the game's blinding speed? Uh-uh. Flat out you still never feel you're on anything other than a pleasant cruise through the countryside on a little 125cc tootie-around, and even when you get to the higher levels and buy the supposedly monster machines, nerve-shredding high-velocity thrills are conspicuous by their absence.

Could stunning graphics be the big hook, then? Nah. The sprites are fine, but the animation's less than amazing, roadside scenery is minimal and unimpressive, and the bike doesn't actually look like it's connecting with the road.

Sound, perhaps? I think not - the bike's engine makes a horribly annoying whiney racket, and while the music's pretty groovy (this is still the Mega Drive version we're talking about, by the way) it's no substitute for a good throaty throttle throb. So, um, what's left? Oh year. How could I have forgotten? You get to punch people in the face. Mega Drive owners, eh?

The Mega Drive version has been accurately transferred

The first thing to notice about Amiga Road Rash is that - hurrah! - all the top face-punching antics of the Mega Drive version have been transferred with striking accuracy to the big white doorstop, so the main ingredient for a top-quality conversion is present and correct.

Indeed, everything else about the MD game has also been transferred with striking accuracy (apart from the really shabby screen border effect, where the horizon completely fails to keep time with the horizon on the actual screen, but you don't really notice during play ) - you'd be hard pushed to spot any differences between the two games at all visually.

Unfortunately, the Amiga soundtrack isn't anywhere near the standard of the MD version, consisting of some pretty lumpy tunes, played slightly off-key or the same nasty tinny engine whine that really starts to make your ears hurt after, ooh, five seconds or so.

And of course, you get one unwelcome addition to the original formula - every time you race on a new track you get to hang around for a bit while the disk drive chugs and whirrs away and loads the next section for you. (Still, at least a little chap on a bike does zip across the bottom of the screen with a sign saying 'Busy' while it happens, which is nice to see. Well, it beats a black screen with 'Loading Now' on it, anyway).

You find yourself thinking, 'is it that?'

Speaking of drawbacks, being converted perfectly means that the skiddy and unrealistic control of the Mega Drive game can now plague Amiga users too. Oh yeah, and one other thing doesn't seem quite right - on the Mega Drive you could get some really spectacular crashes, with your man flying over the bike handletilt head-on collision with a hefty car travelling in the opposite direction only results in a sudden stop and a little dive which just doesn't have the same dramatic effect. Call me picky if you will. (You're picky if you will - Ed)

It's funny, because I really liked playing this on the Mega Drive and there aren't any real differences between the two versions, but somehow on the Amiga it just looks a bit sad and dull when you've gotten used to Crazy Cars 3.

I think it's possibly that you tend not to expect any depth from console games, so something like this doesn't feel at all out of place - with an Amiga in front of you, you find yourself thinking 'Is that it?' The racing itself isn't all that thrilling, certainly not in the same league as CC3 or even Super Hang-On. (now a £7.99 budget game, of course), and combined with the extreme repetitiveness (the differences between the tracks are purely cosmetic, and even cosmetically they're very minimal) you'll probably find yourself a little bored in pretty short order.

It does get more challenging as you move up the rankings, but the ever-increasing length of the courses as you do so matches the increased difficulty with an element of, frankly, outright tedium. By the time you've beaten the highest level (which won't take ver long), you'll never want to play the game again.

So, an unmitigated disaster, then? Well, no. As I said right back at the beginning of the review, Road Rash is kind of all right. It's good, honest, simple fun to play, and the novelty of being able to deal out a hefty clout to your opponents as you pass them takes quite a while to wear off (especially if you've managed to get hold of a club), but when you get right down to the brass tacks of the matter, this is just an average race game with one good idea.

It pains me to be so down on what's essentially a nice game, but if you haven't already got Crazy Cars 3, and Super Hang-On, you shouldn't even think about Road Rash, and if you DO already have those, you probably won't want it. Still, it's one more good reason not to have to buy a Mega Drive.


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Oh no! It's the law! It's a fair cop, guv, but society's to blame...

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This is Biff. He's a bit of a smoothie. Watch your back.

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Hey, isn't that David Wilson, ex-Ed of Zero magazine?

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Of course, it's always the women police that are the really nasty ones...

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...and this one's with glasses too, obviously.

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Slater - he's got his hat on the wrong way round, so I wouldn't worry.

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Yikes! Dunno who this is, but I don't like the look of 'em one little bit.

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It's little Steven! Quick, let's have a benefit concert!

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Natasha - if you want a snog, try not to punch her during the race.

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Someone who went to sleep with his face against the radiator.

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Officer O'Leary practices his Elvis Presley sneer. Good, isn't it?

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Following on from John Madden, Electronic Arts are continuing with their Megadrive to Amiga conversions with their smash-hit bike-race game, Road Rash.

Whereas most motorcycle games are played in the spirit of sportmanship on nice safe tracks, this game gets down and dirty on the back roads of the USA as the competitors do whatever they can to win. No holds are barred as the competitors punch, kick, and barge their way to the finish lines, and the glory of being the fastest in the world.

Rather than have the usual bunch of nebulas riders, EA have added a cast of characters as your opponents. They're on hand to give you friendly advice, or gossip, before each race. For instance, one might tell you who's going to be armed in the next race, or who they think you should avoid. Sometimes they just come out with really sarcastic comments about your previous races, which gives you a good excuse to run them off the road.

Should you alienate any of them by, for instance, ramming them off the road, they won't be so friendly next time you meet. Some, like Helldog, aren't concerned with the happenings of the other riders, so there's no point in being friendly, just cause him as many problems as possible.

A downed opponent is practically out of the race as it takes quite a while for them to remount and accelerate to full speed. There's one rider in particular, Viper, who regularly takes first place. It pays to flatten this guy as he'll overtake you at the earliest opportunity.

The game is divided into a number of increasingly difficult stages, which are in turn separated into five races. They take place by beaches, through desert country and woodlands, which is reflected in the change of terrain. Each course is between four and six miles long. An odometer in the centre of the speedometer shows how much distance you've covered, which is handy for deciding when to make a last minute dash to the line.

The finish is always situated in a small town, where there's a crowd of Road Rash groupies on hand to greet the winners. After that you're told how much money you've won, who finished in the top three and you're given a chance to buy a new bike.

Because one of the keys to winning the game is beating your opponents in the literal sense, there are a few extra features on the screen display. By the tachometer is your stamina bar and opposite that is your nearest opponents. When a rider is hit their bar decreases - if it goes all the way down they're stunned and fall off their bike. They do recover quickly, though, and come back looking for revenge, so it's best to make sure a rider goes down when you hit them.

The roads themselves are loaded with hazards. Bends and hills conceal other vehicles, and taking a hill at speed will leave you hanging in mid-air. There are also plenty of road-side obstacles such as houses, trees and even cows which prevent you from cutting corners and overtaking on the verges.

A difficult opponent will do their best not to let you pass. In times like these you have to resort to violence. The easiest way is to pull alongside another bike and tap the fire button which will unleash a punch or a kick. For a better effect, accelerate then pull sideways into them. This usually results in the victim being forced off the road and off their bike.

Some of the participants have come prepared with clubs. Being hit with one will dismount you immediately, so keep an eye out for them. When someone raises a club at you, hit fire and try to disarm them. If it works you get the club which lets you make mincemeat out of the other racers.

Should you come off your bike as the result of a blow or hitting a roadside object, you then control the rider who has to be guided back to his fallen bike. The other riders aren't very sympathetic to dismounted racers and will often go out of their way to run them over. This really does slow you down as it tends to bounce you further away from your bike. Getting hit by an oncoming car has the additional effect of stunning your rider, so you need to be really careful on busy roads.

As well as looking after yourself, you need to take good care of your bike. A damage meter in the centre of the dashboard shows just what condition it is in, If it takes a pounding the gauge goes down. If it empties completely you're going to be sitting on so much scrap metal. If that's the case you've got a long walk to the finish line, and a very expensive repair bill, which will mean game over if you don't have the cash to cover it.

There are a great many dirty tricks you can use. Although a bike isn't as wide as a car, you can still use your rear-view mirror to pin-point any opponent who's gaining and steer into their path.

Another pleasant trick is to bump someone into the path of an on-coming vehicle. It's guaranteed to prevent them catching up with you.

The local police don't take kindly to this kind of high-speed racing going on in their backyards, and turn up in the hope of bagging themselves a rider. Like the racers, the police have individual characteristics. O' Leary, for instance, is a rookie who drives real slow and is easy to get past, while O' Shea is an ex-Road Rasher who'll unleash his night-stick at the first opportunity.

Getting caught by any cop means race over. The easiest way to avoid a run-in with the law is to speed on past them, alternatively you can try and ram them off the road. This is tricky as they ride big, heavy bikes which are quite resilient to an impact from a light-weight Japanese speed machine. The only way they can catch you is if you pull level with them at the same speed. Getting caught entails an instant jail sentence and the end of your career as a Road Rash demon.

Apart from the glory aspect of winning a race, there is also the financial reward. Although you earn a decent amount if you finish first, second or third, pranging your bike will eat into this as repairs have to made at the end of every round. In addition, it also pays to be careful and save your cash, as there are better bikes you have to buy to compete in the later races.

As it takes a long time to build up a significant amount of winnings there is a password continue system which lets you carry on exactly as you were. In addition, any races where you performed dismally can be re-run. The only way you can complete a level is by finishing at least fourth in all five races, which isn't too difficult to begin with, but soon becomes tough on the later levels. As the game progresses and the competition becomes tougher, most riders resort to violence to give themselves a helping hand to the finish line.

Road Rash is a fun alternative to normal race games. The graphics are good throughout and there are some really nice touches, such as cross-roads which come complete with traffic. There are also plenty of hills which hide on-coming cars, so it pays to watch what the rider in front is doing.

The only criticism I can level at Road Rash is that it is a little slow. While immensely playable, it doesn't deliver the feeling of charging down a road at 120mph. As a fan of the Megadrive version (which is already well over a year old) I was hoping Electronic Arts would do a bit more with this. Road Rash 2 on the Megadrive is nearing completion, and has such extra features as more weapons, including a vicious chain, improved bikes and more characters.

It would have been nice to see some of these features included, or perhaps a few original ideas, rather than this just being a straight conversion. That said it's still very playable and nicely violent. Not the best race game available, but still a nice change from the usual sporting lot.


There are several fictional high-performance bikes in the game. Each has its own characteristics. While the bike you start with is good for the first few races, you are going to need a Japanese super rocket to stand a chance in the later races.

Noticeably faster than the Shurikan. What it gains in speed it loses in road handling, you'll have to take corners early and very carefully.

This monster bike is the best in the game. It's fast, handles well and has awesome acceleration. It also has a huge price-tag.

Fast and very dangerous. This bike can pull massive speeds, but it steers like a brick, so be prepared for several accidents or pile-ups.


When placed head-to-head, there is very little between the Megadrive and Amiga versions of Road Rash. The only noticeable feature is that the Megadrive game is slightly faster, otherwise it's fair to say they're identical.