What drives this game is Magic Pocket's ambitious pseudo-3D engine that pushes a fast speed and a smooth framerate, even as it draws detailed flowing hills with a lot of on-screen objects like traffic, cones, and innocent bystanders along the side of the road. Nothing's as satisfying as clobbering a highway patrolman with a gigantic shovel, watching the poor guy fly off the bike onto the pavement below. But they're a bit more aggressive, and tend to focus on one particular rider regardless of who's in first. These guys are just as vulnerable as the actual racers.so players are encouraged to wail on them to knock 'em out of the picture. To make gameplay a little more challenging, there's also a bunch of motorcycle cops set out to put a premature end to the brutal racing if these guys manage to knock the player off their saddle, regardless if they've still got the strength to get back on to continue, the race ends. Money icons are scattered in rows across the road, and collecting them builds up the player's bank account, making bike upgrades much quicker than just using the earnings after coming in first. These rear attacks are actually well-implemented because the developers put to use an icon arrow that grows and shrinks behind the player, the size and location showing just how close the opponent is. Players can also pick up scattered, random power-ups, such as invincibility, oil slicks, and a napalm-like substance that sets the road behind them on fire. The only way to move onto the next track is to cross the finish line first, and the only way players will be able to do that is to be both aggressive in their racing and combat ying to unseat the opposition to gain that extra distance while avoiding on-street and trackside obstacles, as well as aggressive attacks from their weaponry. Luckily, the character the player chooses is also armed with his or her own weapon that can do equal damage. This combat racer puts players in charge of their choice of four distinctly different racers in an all-out race from start to finish, trying to stay upright on a bike while getting whaled on by the opposition. Road Rash: Jailbreak builds its game design upon the formula established in past Road Rash games, but constructs its own creation with the speed, intensity and gameplay elements expected in today's gaming day and age. Development on the game was handled by European developer Magic Pockets, who obviously used its knowledge and technology acquired the visually impressive F1 2003 GBA title for Electronic Arts and DSI Games.
Road Rash: Jailbreak borrows its namesake from the last game released on the PSOne system a couple years ago, but other than lifting a few assets from that development, the GBA game is really its own design.
Road Rash: Jailbreak for the GBA handheld is fast and furious, and actually poses a challenge throughout its six tracks and two sets of difficulty levels, and offers a nice variety of gameplay options for such a simplistic game concept.
#ROAD RASH JAIL BREAK SERIES#
Which is why it's surprising that I actually enjoyed playing DSI Games' rendition of the series on the Game Boy Advance. But the legend of Road Rash has lived on throughout the years, showing up in sequels across the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, even appearing as a really bland Game Boy Color game a good three years back.
Even updates to the series on the Genesis and 3DO failed to kindle affection for the series, no matter how hard the developers tried. On the original release of Road Rash back in the early 90s, I really tried liking the game, but ultimately it was slow, chunky, redundant.and a mystery why so many of my peers loved the game. Mentions of the words "Road Rash" inevitably brings wide-eyes to the nostalgic gamer, followed by the familiar, "I loved that game on the Genesis!" Me, I'm not one of them.