For a game that, on the surface, resembles nothing more than standard motorbike racing game, it reveals more and more of its hidden depths the longer you play it.
Across various US states, the nameless faceless player you control races enters competitive races for one reason: money to buy better bikes. Four different classes of bike exist for you to purchase and you need to place in the top 3 to have chance at buying any of them.
In your way lies the other racers. Your guy is the only character who is dressed in a differently coloured outfit, the rest look like clones. But here's part of the genius of the game. The closer that your speeding bike approaches another racer, their name appears on the right of screen to indicate who they are. Identical sprites they may be, a handful of racers are experts and always seem to stick to the front of the pack. Curiously, this seemingly random design decision gives these cardboard cut-outs more character in one single race than any crappy kind of full-motion-video "Look how badass I am!" intro sequence could have done. Soon enough, you'll be cursing names like 'Natasha' and 'Grubb' way more than 'MonkeyFart69' in that multiplayer match of Modern Warfare 2.
But what really holds the game together like some sort of sweet, sweet glue - is the violence. May I say, it is in fact the exact opposite of mindless.
In order to help yourself over the line in first place, you have to employ a few underhanded tactics. Why? Because the other racers will do the same. They are out to get you with fists, feet, chains, baseball bats and tyre irons. You have to defend yourself out there on the track and when you've been knocked off your bike, there is nothing more immensely satisfying than working your way back to the front of the herd for what seems like ages and planting your fist in your attacker's face seconds before crossing the finish line. That said, I am not saying violence is inherent to a decent video game - just this one.
The music is sublime, catchy and repetitive. The upgrades to your bikes appear like pots of gold the second they appear on the menu. The controls are easy to pick-up, but with plenty of meat on them to master.
In the end, a small part of me believes that video games achieved perfection in 1993 with Road Rash 2 and it was all downhill from there.
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