Road Rash II

About Road Rash II

Road Rash II (1992) is EA's Genesis sequel to its brawling motorcycle racer, taking illegal races across the United States and adding split-screen two-player, nitro and chains, and the first game in which you could beat a cop.

Road Rash II in Depth

The player races fourteen others and must finish third or better, winning a race on each of five tracks, set in Hawaii, Arizona, Tennessee, Alaska and Vermont, to advance through five levels. While riding, the player can punch, backhand or kick neighbouring racers and steal clubs and chains from opponents who swing them. Crashing into boulders, cars, deer or cows, or running out of stamina in fights, throws the rider from the bike to run back to it. Starting with $1,000, the player earns prize money to buy bikes of differing weight, speed and steering, some with nitrous charges fired by double-tapping the accelerator. A password saves progress.

Each crash wears down the bike's condition meter, and a wrecked bike or an arrest by the police ends the race with a repair bill or fine. Both grow, along with prize money, course length and aggression, at each level, and running out of money ends the game. Two players can take turns or race at once in split screen, either among the computer racers or alone in "Mano a Mano", choosing weapons before the start.

Making Road Rash II

EA decided on a sequel before the end of the 1991 Christmas season and set a deadline of the next Christmas, which the team thought tight, but the first game's framework let them concentrate on improvements. A team of three programmers, five artists and four track builders included returning producer and designer Randy Breen and programmer Dan Geisler. Breen expanded the races beyond California, saying they had "gradually expanded outward" from secret local races, "kind of a fight club thing". Moving from 5 to 8 megabits allowed the split-screen mode, which took Geisler about three months. Opponents were made less predictable, and police could now take damage and fight back. Rob Hubbard was among the audio team.

Released in December 1992, it outsold the first game. Critics praised the two-player mode and visuals, GamePro calling it "a noteworthy improvement on an already excellent game", while Mean Machines Sega and EGM felt the core play barely changed. A Game Boy Color version followed in 2000 as Road Rash.