In the Road Rash series, Road Rash 64 is a bit of an odd one. This one wasn’t developed or published by EA, instead being made by Pacific Coast Power & Light (a really odd name for a gaming company) and published by THQ. It also seems like they took what was actually a small, but memorable, element of the earlier games – the fighting – and made it the sole focus of this version.

Road Rash 64 is a case of a game you know is bad, but is still really enjoyable, and something that is even more so in multiplayer. You have a few attacks with the C-button, and there are a bunch of weapons to use. You can even sacrifice your weapon by jamming it into an opponent’s wheel, making them fall over. That said, as savage as the crashes look, it’s only a minor inconvenience as you’re back to racing very quickly.

Road Rash 64 is really best played with as many opponents as possible, the most traffic, the most cops (which join in with the fighting), and the most pedestrians (which the game encourages you to run over – and there’s even a multiplayer where it’s the sole objective). When the game is incredibly crazy and you’re enjoying the chaos, it’s a lot of fun.

However, when it comes to actually racing, the game is a bit of a let down. Racing skill is rarely a factor, and there’s a lot of rubber banding to help with the chaos and fun. There’s also no structure to the tracks, they just start and end abruptly. The finish line is a couple of flags on tyres, and when you’re in the middle of fighting, it’s extremely easy to not notice it at all, so you’re in the middle of smashing someone and the race just ends.

This is partly because the tracks are just portions of one large map, so multiple courses will use the same parts. However, this means that there isn’t much variety to it, and most tracks are fairly straight lines that have little to tell them apart visually. Out of curiosity, I did turn around at the start of one of the races and you can drive around the entire island the game is set on – it’s a shame the game does absolutely nothing with this.

Road Rash 64 is a complete mess – but that’s what makes it fun.

Fun

And, for the most part, Road Rash is good fun. But – crucially – it never manages to be anything more than that. It’s nippy; the handling of the bikes is well-judge and, as well as having ten bikes on-screen, there’s a host of pedestrians, police and civilian traffic to deal with. Not bad at all. And yet, it all seems a little lightweight and uninvolving.

Jes Bickham, N64 Magazine #36. Review Score: 69%

Remake or remaster?

A Road Rash collection would be very nice. That said, the odd licensing of this game may make it impossible to include.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Road Rash 64.