Road Rash is back and it's taking the world by storm! Grip that crotch rocket like your life depends on it as you race through seven deathtraps across the globe. Wield all manner of weapons to maim and humiliate opposing racers. Watch your back though, because their thirst for blood is at an all-time high. The cops are even less interested in seeing psychos tear ass through their streets at 289 km/h. They've got trucks, roadblocks, helicopters, and will bring the full weight of them down on unsuspecting rashers. With stakes higher than ever and the entire world against you, do you have what it takes to climb the broken bodies of your rivals and claim the championship?
Released during the Sega Mega Drive's twilight years, Road Rash 3 takes racing combat to a new level. I'd even go so far as to refer to it as a beatemup on bikes. Though winning the game still requires placing in the top three of every race, you're not getting anywhere near there unless you can deal with all 14 rivals. It isn't quite so obvious early on, as races on the first couple difficulty levels play out in a manner similar to the earlier games in the series. Upon reaching level 3 however, the harsh realization sets in that the opposition wants to turn you into a mangled mess of flesh & machinery. It's tough out there, tougher than anything you've dealt with before.
Previously, weapons were a cute little extra. Now? Everyone's carrying, and they won't think twice about double-teaming some poor outsider. If it wasn't obvious, that poor outsider is you, never mind that you've been running with most of these guys and gals for years. Anyway, there are more weapons than ever. Clubs, crowbars, and nunchaku represent the three tiers of "bash this against someone's head until they fall over". Some slickster named Lucky Luc has a can of oil. You'll slide into oblivion if you don't watch your driving (or swipe his can). Besides inflicting pain, cattle prods and mace have the added effect of stunning rashers for a few seconds, enough time to get in a horrifying wreck. While bouts hardly evolve beyond battering everyone who gets close, the different weapons inject a lot of variety into them. You're incentivized to watch every angle, prioritize the most dangerous rivals, and keep your eyes on the road!
It can't be stated enough that the highways are more cluttered than ever. I'm almost wondering if it's safe for the people who actually obey speed limits to drive on some of them. Chickens - and animals much larger than chickens - are crossing the road at semi-regular intervals. Pedestrians are mere speed bumps in the Road Rash universe, but losing control for an instant could have disastrous consequences. The tracks themselves are less windy, but the trade-off is a massive increase in objects to crash into. Also, since rivals are on you like glue, losing your place while trying to recover from a collision is guaranteed. On the plus side, rubberbanding seems to work both ways. Opposition you've passed previously in the race become easier to catch up to. Granted, you could drive perfectly and still lose because of a freak accident at the last moment, but... actually no that just plain sucks. Arcade racers tend to be geared toward perfectionists who never scrape a wall let alone crash, but variables are kept to a minimum, so players don't feel cheated. Road Rash 3 has a ton of variables, so many that the game can barely handle them all, and they'll make the player's racing career a lot harder than it has to be.
Quick aside: I played this game using the Improvement Hack. Among numerous other additions and fixes, this hack increases the framerate a little. It's an appreciated increase, especially since frames drop as low as the single digits when several rivals are onscreen at once. I shouldn't have to tell you this but trying to navigate a nightmare road while brawling five bikers at 8-10 FPS gets extremely messy. Reacting to myriad circumstances with only a thimble full of frames isn't out of the question... Or so I'd like to believe. Opinion of the matter is that when I get blindsided by a car that practically didn't exist two seconds ago, I have to call bullshit. Bad things happen, and sometimes they might as well be impossible to react to.
Having way too many objects to smack into and never enough time to avoid them is exasperated by the police presence. If a cop is nearby, then your next collision will cost you the race and some cash. There might be some rare cases of leniency, but don't get too hopeful. Police trucks* tend to be the most destructive. They'll actively home in on players, running them down if they don't get out of the way. This can knock rivals out, which is always fun to see. Still, it's a ton of risk for very little reward. Cops also pilot copters, and they'll try to squish you Super Mario style if you're underneath them. Helicopters can be used as launchpads if you're already in midair, which is something else that's always fun to see. However, since rivals tend to not care too much about how fast you're going, the reward is nonexistent.
This leads me to what might be my biggest problem with Road Rash 3. The sense of progression feels muted and unsatisfying. Higher levels lead to longer races. The dangers have increased, but so has the cash payouts for a successful finish. Also, high level players are allowed access to better bikes. What should be a neat feature falls flat for me, because the AI reacts to my $40,000 bike - that I spent another $15,000 upgrading - as if it was still my $4,000 bike. All a burst of nitrous buys me is a brief respite from a beating, or faster recovery from a wreck. I'm sure life would only be that much harder if I didn't buy the superbike, but I didn't expect the fastest thing on two wheels to lose its luster a minute into its first outing. Oh, and it's really hard to get any sense of speed out of a framerate that needs a miracle to escape the teens.
I get the feeling that I'm going to have to try one of the Road Rash games that released on the Playstation or Saturn, since most of these entry's faults are due to technical limitations. I don't mean this as a knock against the Mega Drive. It's 1988 hardware that was still capable of astonishing showstoppers like Alien Soldier and The Adventures of Batman & Robin. Scaling tech just wasn't its forte, and the most impressive works (Panorama Cotton!) required black magic. This game also blew my mind on multiple occasions. Getting into midair jousts with multiple rivals at a time is awesome. There's a lot of fun to be had when things click into place. It's just a little too ambitious for the hardware.
*I think they're trucks. The visuals are a little rough.
