Rock n' Roll Racing


Rock n' Roll Racing is a vehicular combat-based racing video game developed by Silicon & Synapse and published by Interplay Productions for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1993 and the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1994. The game prominently features a number of popular heavy metal and rock songs in its soundtrack, hence the game's title. The game was ported to the Game Boy Advance in 2003.
Rock n' Roll Racing was initially developed as RPMII, a sequel to the company's SNES game RPM Racing. At the end of the project, Interplay marketing added licensed music and changed the name to Rock n' Roll Racing. It is also similar in gameplay to Racing Destruction Set where it got its logic/AI engine and the NES game R.C. Pro-Am developed by Rare in 1988.

Gameplay

The game pits four racers against each other, with up to two of them being player-controlled from a colourful collection of comic book inspired humans and aliens and the rest being AI opponents; 'Rip' and 'Shred' who appear in all races plus a third character unique to each planet/level in one player mode. Each race consists of four laps around tracks viewed from an isometric perspective, which enables players to discern the presence of frequent sloping sections spread throughout the game's various tracks. In addition to navigating the turns, racers must also maneuver hills and dips without falling or jumping over the guard rail at the track's edge.
While it is a racing game, there is heavy emphasis on attacking competitor's vehicles; since the cars always reappear with full health just a few seconds after blowing up, the only "harm" done is falling behind in the race. Players are rewarded with a monetary "attack bonus" each time they provide the finishing blow against another car using their forward or rear weapons. In accordance with the continual destruction and restoration of the racing vehicles, the tracks are littered with mines and health power-ups, as well as money power-ups. Other hazards include oil slicks, snow drifts, and lava, depending on the planet hosting the race.
Players are updated on the race by commentator "Loudmouth Larry", who makes enthusiastic comments like "The stage is set, the green flag drops!", and " is about to blow!" at appropriate moments during the race.
Between races, players can spend the money they have earned on more advanced equipment for their vehicle or on increasing their capacity for the frontal weapon, rear weapon, and turbo boost, each of which can max out at seven. Despite their limited capacity, every vehicle will have its weapon and boost charges replenished at the completion of each lap in a race. Racers can also buy more advanced vehicle models; however, all equipment and weapons upgrades are lost when a new vehicle is purchased.
The first three drivers to complete a race are awarded both money and points according to the final standings. Points are required for advancement to the next racing division or the next planet, with two divisions on each planet. A player who has not obtained enough points during a division's racing season must repeat the division, again starting with zero points, but all changes to the player's money and car remain in effect. In two-player mode, when only one player has sufficient points, the character in charge of advancement asks "Leave your loser friend behind?", allowing the leading player to continue alone by removing the other player from the game. The dropped player can continue from that point later by using their most recent password, once the game is reset.

Music

The songs were uncredited but included:
s are given out at the beginning of each new "racing season", and they are located at the bottom of the F/X screen. These passwords are a complex code, consisting of three 4-digit sections, and they dictate everything about the players' progress: the character used, the vehicle type and color, weapons and parts upgrades, racing planet and division, difficulty setting, and money. The Game Boy Advance version of the game uses an EEPROM chip to save the player's progress of the password system.
The password codes only allow the player to save a maximum of $999,990 ; if there are more than six figures in the bank account, the password truncates the leftmost digits over six. Due to the two-player password function, it's possible to "cheat" by entering the same password for both players or by entering passwords for players who were at entirely different points in the game. The password with the lowest difficulty setting and on the earliest planet and racing division will be used as the basis for play from then on, which allows for a Warrior-skill character with a maxed-out vehicle to race against Rookie-class AIs in the Rookie skill mode.
Though a password generator QBASIC program exists, the passwords it creates often result in a glitch, causing the player to race on glitchy planets—that exist only as a bug and can crash the game—after racing on Inferno. In the Rookie skill mode, however, they work perfectly, as long as one doesn't try to take the character beyond the third planet using the password.
A second password generator has been written in JavaScript which limits the available planets to reflect the chosen skill mode while retaining the ability to customize any other aspect of the data stored in the password.

Release

A 3DO Interactive Multiplayer version of Rock n' Roll Racing was announced to be in development and slated to be published by Interplay during E3 1995, however, this version was never released for unknown reasons.
In 2003, Blizzard released an Adobe Shockwave-based demo version of the GBA port featuring one track on its website.
In 2014, a demo version of the game featuring three tracks was added to Battle.net, emulated through ZSNES. This version has all rock music tracks changed to simple MIDI music, because the music license expired.

Reception

GamePro gave the Genesis version a mixed review. They praised the Vs. mode and "rockin'" soundtrack with driving-appropriate tunes, but criticized the weak sound effects and remarked that the graphics and digitized voice are noticeably worse than in the Super NES version.
Rock N' Roll Racing was awarded Best Driving Game of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Sequels

''Rock & Roll Racing 2: Red Asphalt''

A sequel to the original Rock n' Roll Racing was made for the 32-bit PlayStation console by Interplay in 1997. The game was sold in Europe as Rock & Roll Racing 2: Red Asphalt and in the United States as just Red Asphalt. It features a comic book art style in the character's profiles and ending videos, and a system to upgrade each character's driving/combat skills like RPGs.
;Reviews
The game received mostly mediocre reviews. Josh Smith of GameSpot described it as an interesting and innovative title, citing the track design and use of weaponry in addition to driving, though he criticized the upgrade system as being illogical at points and an overt determining factor in the player's combat performance. However, most critics asserted the opposite, characterizing Red Asphalt as a generic and derivative title which makes no meaningful change from earlier futuristic shoot-em-up racers such as Wipeout and Crash 'n Burn. Kelly Rickards wrote in Electronic Gaming Monthly, "I've seen this game a million times before and so have you. Keep in mind, I'm not saying Red Asphalt is a bad game, but it is spectacularly average." Next Generation similarly commented, "Is Red Asphalt a bad game? Definitely not. It's just that for a game like this, Wipeout XL is the definite 'must-play' example. Fact is, if you happened to miss out on playing Red Asphalt, you probably wouldn't care."
Multiple critics also complained at the ease with which vehicles slip into frustrating spinouts and the unnecessarily complex and confusing interface screen. Adam Douglas recounted in IGN, "The editors from the other sites gathered around to see if I could actually get the game to start, having been through this little Hellraiser cube puzzle the day before." Most considered the game's graphics impressive, though IGN described them as sloppy, citing extensive polygon clipping and lackluster effects, and Next Generation found them merely satisfactory. While finding the sound effects nondescript and the controls difficult, GamePro felt Red Asphalt distinguished itself though its vehicle customization.
In December 2013, a game titled Motor Rock was released on Steam by Yard Team. It's an unauthorized 3D remake of Rock n' Roll Racing. It was in development since 2009. A week after release, the game was removed from Steam.