A demake is a video game that’s been recreated on inferior hardware. Video game ports are not uncommon, so sometimes demakes are considered thought experiments — how much of a complex game like Halo would translate on the Atari 2600, for instance? Hobbyist programmers are pretty keen on “demaking” games, with the upcoming release of Bloodborne (PSX) being 2021’s leading example.
Official titles like Evolution: Eternal Dungeons prove that demakes are not just community efforts, and it begs the question whether Road Rash Sega CD — or Road Rash (1994) – 16 bit, if you want its technical name — is actually a demake too? You could argue it’s a port, but aside from sharing some visual assets and art style with the Panasonic 3DO original, Road Rash Sega CD has more in common with the Mega Drive instalments.
I’ll save my thoughts on the original Road Rash (1994) for another time because this Mega-CD version is a very different production once you get past the menu screens. There are no 3D environments or wide open tracks here. The game looks and plays like Road Rash 3, which released alongside it in 1995.
Of course, being a demake would not automatically mean Road Rash Sega CD is a bad video game. But make no mistake: Road Rash Sega CD is absolutely a bad video game for several other reasons.
Despite some basic stylistic changes, the structure remains identical to the Mega Drive entries. Players compete across five levels winning cash, buying bikes, and smashing skulls on the US highways. Players are treated to similar 2D tracks as before, once again with a choppy frame rate that’s much harder to forgive considering the increased console power.
An awkward menu system hides a few welcome extras. There’s an arcade mode for one-off races, save files to replace those annoying passwords, and a jukebox that plays all the licensed music from Road Rash (1994).
The only unique thing about this version is its sound mixing option that lets players set the individual volume levels for the background music and SFX. You can also hear the licensed music in-game, which is something that not even the 32-bit versions could manage.
Unfortunately the sound quality isn’t very good. The same dithered graphics that brought down the appearance of Road Rash 3 are also used here, with the accompanying splash screens and character art looking heavily compressed. The full motion video has remained intact, though it’s on par with the Mega-CD’s usual low standards in that area — very grainy and lacking in colour.
There’s very little to say in terms of gameplay. Players keep the weapons they collect between races, but there’s none of the combat upgrades or additional weapons that the third game introduced. The early levels also feel a bit easy because the CPU rashers aren’t as aggressive.
However, the absence of a simultaneous 2-player mode is the most dumbfounding exclusion. Considering the game stuck to its 16-bit roots in every other way, there is no good reason for its absence here. The 2-player mode alone justified the existence of Road Rash II, so removing it also removes any reason whatsoever for someone to own or even care about this already inferior sequel.
If nothing else, this debacle clearly highlights the problems with the Mega-CD as a format. Every negative cliché about the add-on is represented here. The lackluster graphics that fail to improve on Mega Drive alternatives; the repetitive videos that make navigating menus an overwrought process; the CD audio being the only real plus point. Even the lack of simultaneous 2-player is a familiar problem, as the Mega-CD conversions of Golden Axe and Syndicate demonstrate.
I never played this during the Nineties because it was an NTSC-U exclusive, but seeing how awful it is now, I’m actually thankful. Road Rash Sega CD is just a more expensive and less feature-packed version of Road Rash 3, only with loading times and a missing 2-player mode thrown into the bargain. It may share assets with the 3DO original, but underneath this is a hollow demake showing none of the ambition or care you’d reasonably expect.
“choppy frame rate that’s much harder to forgive considering the increased console power”. This judgement is not fair. Sega CD didn’t increase power that much or at all, it had is own processor that was faster than mega drive’s, but it was used to handle CD things. Some games might have used it for code calculations, though all final calculations and graphical output were left to mega drive. However Mega CD had a chip that did add ability to scale and rotate objects like mode7 on snes, so it might give an illusion it was somehow more advanced system, but basically it is what it is – a CD add on. Not a new console with increased power
Thanks for reading.
I would say it’s completely fair. Mega-CD may have been underpowered in the ways you say, but it certainly wasn’t marketed as such. Its hefty price point, and the price point of its games reflected that.
But that’s the console’s legacy, I suppose. Overpromised and underdelivered.