Road Rash

Last updated
Road Rash
Road Rash Logo.png
Genre(s) Racing
Developer(s) Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Mobile
Publisher(s) Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Mobile
First release Road Rash
September 1991
Latest releaseRoad Rash (Java)
2009

Road Rash is a motorcycle racing video game series by Electronic Arts in which the player participates in violent, illegal street races. The series started on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and was released on various other systems over the years. The game's title is based on the slang term for the severe friction burns that can occur in a motorcycle fall where skin comes into contact with the ground at high speed.

Contents

Six different games were released from 1991 to 2000, and an alternate version of one game was developed for the Game Boy Advance. The Sega Genesis trilogy was re-released in EA Replay for the PlayStation Portable. The series sold 3 million units by 1998. [1]

Games

Road Rash (1991)

Road Rash debuted on the Sega Genesis in 1991. The game takes place in California, on progressively longer two-lane roads. The two-player mode allows two people to play alternating. There are 14 other opponents in a race. A port of the game was released for the Amiga, and various scaled-down versions were made for Master System, Game Gear, and Game Boy. The Game Boy version is one of two licensed games that is incompatible with the Game Boy Color and newer consoles in the Game Boy line. [2] A SNES version was planned and then canceled.[ citation needed ]

Road Rash II (1992)

Road Rash II was released in 1992 for the Sega Genesis. The sequel took the engine and sprites from the first game and added more content. The largest addition was proper two-player modes: "Split Screen" versus the other computer opponents, and the duel mode "Mano A Mano". The races take place all across the United States: Alaska, Hawaii, Tennessee, Arizona, and Vermont. The list of bikes has been increased to fifteen (separated into three classes, with the later ones featuring nitro boosts), and a chain was added to supplement the club. Other details include the navigation of the menu screens being considerably easier; and more manageable passwords, being less than half the size of the first game.

Road Rash (1994)

Road Rash was released in 1994 for CD-based platforms such as 3DO, Sega CD, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Microsoft Windows. It features a number of changes such as the ability to choose characters (with various starting cashpiles and bikes, some with starting weapons) before playing, fleshed-out reputation and gossip systems and full-motion video sequences to advance a plot. The game features all-California locales: The City, The Peninsula, Pacific Coast Highway, Sierra Nevada, and Napa Valley. The roads themselves feature brief divided road sections.

Road Rash 3 (1995)

Road Rash 3 was released in 1995 for the Sega Genesis. Races take place across the world, each level featuring five of seven total locales: Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Australia, and Japan. In addition to the standard fifteen bikes, four part upgrades are available for each. Eight weapons are available, and Road Rash 3 introduces the player's ability to hold on to weapons between races and the ability to accumulate multiple weapons.

Road Rash 3D (1998)

Road Rash 3D was released in 1998 for the PlayStation. The game is mostly not based on sprites. The race courses were pieced together from an interconnected series of roads. The game has less emphasis on combat and more on racing.

Road Rash 64 (1999)

Road Rash 64 was released in 1999 for the Nintendo 64. Electronic Arts did not design or publish it; the intellectual property rights were licensed to THQ, which in turn had its own Pacific Coast Power & Light (founded by former EA employee Don Traeger) develop the game.

Road Rash: Jailbreak (2000)

Road Rash: Jailbreak was released in 2000 for the PlayStation, with a handheld port released in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance with the same title. [3] New features include an interconnected road system and two-player cooperative play with a sidecar.

Road Rash (2009)

Road Rash was released in 2009 for J2ME. It was sold on EA Mobile site only. [4]

Spiritual successor

A spiritual successor, Road Redemption, was later released in 2017 and 2018 for Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One [5] & later Road Redemption Mobile on Android & iOS in 2022.

Music

The Sega Genesis trilogy features music by EA composers Rob Hubbard (1 and II), Michael Bartlow (1), Tony Berkeley (II), and Don Veca (II and 3). [6] Later entries were among the first video games to include licensed music tracks from major recording artists in gameplay. [7]

The rock radio station in EA's 2004 game The Urbz is called "Road Rash FM".

Future

Criterion Games considered developing a new Road Rash game multiple times, potentially a Burnout Versus Road Rash, [8] [9] but nothing has come of this; they have also expressed a desire to move away from racing games in particular. [10] Dan Geisler, main programmer and co-designer of the Sega Genesis trilogy, was working on a new title along with a number of the original Road Rash staff members, then named Hard Rider: Back in the Saddle; he first announced it via a Reddit thread, [11] and frequently mentioned progress on his Twitter account, [12] but was unable to find funding for it and dropped the idea. [13]

Related Research Articles

Need for Speed (NFS) is a racing game franchise published by Electronic Arts and currently developed by Criterion Games. The series generally centers around illegal street racing, and tasks players to complete various types of races while evading the local law enforcement in police pursuits. Need for Speed is one of EA's oldest franchises not published under their EA Sports brand.

<i>Burnout 3: Takedown</i> 2004 video game

Burnout 3: Takedown is a 2004 racing video game developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts. It is the third instalment in the Burnout series, which is characterised by fast-paced arcade racing. A staple of the series is the use of boost, earned through risky driving, to rapidly increase a car's speed. The central mechanic introduced in Burnout 3 is Takedowns, which allow players to slam their opponents until they crash. Takedowns work in conjunction with the boost system by filling up and extending the boost meter. Aside from standard circuit races, the game features modes focused on performing Takedowns on rival vehicles and causing monetary damage at a junction occupied with traffic. Each game variant is featured in a single-player campaign mode called World Tour, which serves as the primary method for unlocking new and faster cars. The game supports both online and split-screen multiplayer.

Criterion Games is a British video game developer based in Guildford. Founded in January 1996 as a division of Criterion Software, it was owned by Canon Inc. until Criterion Software was sold to Electronic Arts in October 2004. Many of the studio's titles were built on the RenderWare engine, which Criterion Software developed.

<i>Burnout Revenge</i> 2005 video game

Burnout Revenge is a 2005 racing video game developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360.

<i>The Need for Speed</i> 1994 video game

The Need for Speed is a 1994 racing game developed by EA Canada, originally known as Pioneer Productions, and published by Electronic Arts for 3DO. It was later ported to other platforms with additional tracks and cars, including to MS-DOS, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Microsoft Windows in 1996, on which it was subtitled SE.

<i>Burnout Dominator</i> 2007 video game

Burnout Dominator is a 2007 racing video game developed by EA UK and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. It retains the core gameplay of the series, as players race at top speeds through dozens of World Tour events testing "reckless skill-based" driving techniques.

<i>Road Rash II</i> 1992 racing game

Road Rash II is a 1992 racing and vehicular combat game developed and published by Electronic Arts (EA) for the Sega Genesis. The game is centered around a series of motorcycle races throughout the United States that the player must win to advance to higher-difficulty races, while engaging in unarmed and armed combat to hinder the other racers. It is the second installment in the Road Rash series and introduces a split-screen two-player mode for competing human players, nitrous oxide charges on certain bikes, and chains as offensive weapons.

<i>Skitchin</i> 1994 video game

Skitchin' is a 1994 racing video game developed and published by Electronic Arts (EA) for the Sega Genesis. The game puts the player in control of an inline skater who must win races in a tournament while engaging in unarmed and armed combat with other skaters and partaking in skitching, the act of clutching onto a moving vehicle's bumper to gain momentum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel</span>

The Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel was developed by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 and was introduced at E3 2006. Released in November 2006, the force feedback steering wheel controller includes the standard gamepad buttons along with floor-mounted accelerator and brake pedals. Although the wheel is capable of running truly wirelessly from a standard Xbox 360 battery pack, use of the force feedback and active resistance features requires an external AC adapter.

Burnout is a series of racing games developed by Criterion Games. The first two games were published by Acclaim Entertainment, while later instalments were published by Electronic Arts.

<i>Burnout Paradise</i> 2008 open world racing video game

Burnout Paradise is a 2008 racing video game developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. It was also released on the PlayStation Store and via Xbox Live Marketplace's Games on Demand. It was later added to the libraries of Greatest Hits and Platinum Hits titles and was made backward compatible with the Xbox One in November 2016. It is the first game in the Burnout series to be released on Microsoft Windows.

<i>Road Rash 3</i> 1995 video game

Road Rash 3 is a 1995 racing and vehicular combat video game developed and published by Electronic Arts (EA) for the Sega Genesis. It is the fourth installment in the Road Rash series and the last to be released for the Genesis, as well as the last EA title to be developed for the Genesis. The game is centered around a worldwide series of motorcycle races that the player must win to advance to higher-difficulty races, while engaging in unarmed and armed combat to hinder the other racers.

<i>Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit</i> (2010 video game) 2010 racing video game

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a 2010 racing video game developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Android, webOS, and Windows Phone. The Wii version was developed by Exient Entertainment. Hot Pursuit is the sixteenth Need for Speed title and was released in November 2010, with digital distribution versions released within December 2010. The game serves as a revival of the Hot Pursuit name first used in 1998's Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit.

<i>Road Rash 64</i> 1999 video game

Road Rash 64 is a racing video game developed by Pacific Coast Power and Light and published by THQ for the Nintendo 64. The game is the fifth of seven entries in the Road Rash series of video games, the only entry to be published by THQ and the only to be released for the Nintendo 64 platform.

<i>Need for Speed: Most Wanted</i> (2012 video game) 2012 open world racing video game

Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a 2012 racing game developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts. Most Wanted is the nineteenth title in the Need for Speed series and was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita, iOS and Android, beginning in North America in 2012. A Wii U version, under the title Need for Speed: Most Wanted U, was released in 2013. Like its predecessor, the 2010 Hot Pursuit title, the game is a revival of the original 2005 Most Wanted title.

<i>Road Rash</i> (1991 video game) 1991 racing video game

Road Rash is a 1991 racing and vehicular combat video game originally developed and published by Electronic Arts (EA) for the Sega Genesis. It was subsequently ported to a variety of contemporary systems by differing companies. The game is centered around a series of motorcycle races throughout California that the player must win to advance to higher-difficulty races, while engaging in unarmed and armed combat to hinder the other racers.

<i>Road Rash: Jailbreak</i> 2000 video game

Road Rash: Jailbreak is a racing video game developed by EA Redwood Shores for the PlayStation and Magic Pockets for the Game Boy Advance, and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation in 2000 and for Game Boy Advance in 2003. It is the sixth and final game in the Road Rash series.

Three Fields Entertainment Limited is a British video game development studio. It was founded in February 2014 by Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry, who had previously worked at Criterion Games, along with developer Paul Ross who had worked with them under Criterion Games.

<i>Dangerous Driving</i> (video game) 2019 video game

Dangerous Driving is a racing video game developed by Three Fields Entertainment, released on 9 April 2019 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

<i>Road Rash</i> (1994 video game) 1994 racing video game

Road Rash is a 1994 racing and vehicular combat video game originally published by Electronic Arts (EA) for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. A version for the Sega CD was developed simultaneously and released in 1995 to act as a "bridge" between the 3DO version and the Sega Genesis title Road Rash 3, and the game was subsequently ported to the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Microsoft Windows in 1996. The game is the third installment in the Road Rash series, and is centered around a series of motorcycle races throughout California that the player must win to advance to higher-difficulty races, while engaging in unarmed and armed combat to hinder the other racers.

References

  1. ↑ "EA Ships Road Rash 3D, Atlantic Ships Tunes". GameSpot . June 10, 1998. Archived from the original on October 16, 2000. Retrieved December 13, 2022.
  2. ↑ "What games written for GB will not work correctly on GBC & why ? - GB DEV FAQs by GeeBee". GB DEV FAQs. GeeBee. Archived from the original on 2018-09-03. Retrieved 2015-10-16.
  3. ↑ "Road Rash: Jailbreak (Game Boy Advance)". IGN . Archived from the original on 2011-06-13. Retrieved 2010-08-08.
  4. ↑ "Road Rash (Java); EA Mobile site". Archived from the original on 2009-12-03.
  5. ↑ "Road Redemption Early Access review • Eurogamer.net". Eurogamer . 9 October 2014. Archived from the original on 2019-10-08. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
  6. ↑ "Road Rash Technical Details". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2009-03-25. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  7. ↑ "Electronic Arts and BAM Magazine Announce the Road Rash Music Search". Business Wire. 1999-05-28. Archived from the original on 2007-10-16. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  8. ↑ "Criterion will do another Burnout, interested in Road Rash". GamesRadar. 2012-10-17. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  9. ↑ "Criterion Games Dev Talks Cancelled Road Rash, Burnout Not in Development, Teases Non-Racing Game". PlayStation LifeStyle. 2013-07-31. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  10. ↑ Archived October 30, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ↑ "Why hasn't this game resurfaced : Gaming". Archived from the original on 2019-01-30. Retrieved 2017-09-10.
  12. ↑ "Dan Geisler (DanGeislerSr) sur Twitter". Archived from the original on 2013-11-08. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
  13. ↑ "Dan Geisler on Twitter: "Couldn't fund Hard Rider. It would have been fun. Kickstarter wasn't viable. Thank you all for the love an encouragement"". Twitter.com. Archived from the original on 2016-01-09. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.