Developer: Avalanche Publisher: Midway Release: 06/30/98 Genre: Racing
When the 3d revolution hit racing games were one of the genres that benefited the most. To this day they continue to be showcases for new hardware and this was especially true in the 90s in the arcade. Daytona USA and Ridge Racer were showstoppers and I will continue to hope for a port of Sega’s Scud Race to the day I die. Unfortunately arcades began to disappear in my area around the late 90s so I had to make due with compromised home ports. Sometimes these were still great as was the case with the aforementioned Namco title. But other times the compromises were too much. Like Cruis’n USA Off Road Challenge loses a lot in the transition to the N64.
Replace the city streets and muscle cars of Cruis’n USA with dirt roads and monster trucks and you essentially have Off Road Challenge. Although it is not officially licensed Off Road Challenge is a 3d installment in the Ivan “Ironman” Stewart Off Road series. As the old titles were 2d they could only give a loose approximation of what it is like to drive down rough terrain. Off Road Challenge at the very least has a unique feel even if this version is a bit messy overall.
You compete against a field of seven other competitors to win each race. The higher you place the more cash you earn to upgrade different attributes of your truck such as acceleration, tires, shocks, nitro, and top speed. These improvements quickly become expensive and unless you come in first or second place every time (a tall order) you will barely have the cash to upgrade one stat let alone five. The random treasure chests of cash help but most will probably have to make do with their default choice with few new parts for a while.
At first Off Road Challenge seems to play it straight. It is just you, gravelly roads, and a sea of rivals. But then the arcade elements pop up. There are random power-ups on each track such as extra nitro, cash, and crash helmets that reduce the speed reduction from collisions. Soon enough you have airplanes crashing on the track, trains that can be derailed, and even UFOs. These wacky elements are more annoying than lively sadly. The track design is decent but the most disappointing aspect is that there are invisible barriers forcing you on the main road. For a game with off road in the title you can barely do any of that. Were it not for the trucks and buggies this could easily pass for a Cruis’n title.
The difficulty curve in Off Road Challenge is steep. Rookie circuit is generous as you can progress at fourth place or above. Normal raises that to third. Hard mode requires a first or second place finish and the Master Circuit is winner takes all. The rubber band AI is egregiously bad here and saps a lot of fun out of the game. There is never a moment someone is not on your tail. Take one turn to loose or graze an object and they will pass you. I lost many a race in the last few seconds due to the aggressive rubber banding and hated it. I tried the master circuit out of curiosity and yeah….no.
Midway and their partners usually pack their home ports with extra content. In this case however Off Road Challenge is a little bit light. There are four extra vehicles and three more tracks. To unlock these you must complete the game on every difficulty which is a frustrating with the game’s rubber banding. It is also a slow process; you will have to play through circuit mode at least 5 or 6 times, a task I do not wish on anyone. But there are cheat codes to skip that rigmarole. The multiplayer mode is a choppy mess that is not worth bothering with which further reduces the game’s shelf life.
Off Road Challenge was not an especially good looking title in the arcade even for its time. At home and in the arcade games like Need for Speed III, Scud Race, and Gran Turismo were redefining what we thought was possible in real time. This game looked old before it was released and the Nintendo 64 port the following year is even worse. The textures are blurry and heavily pixelated, obscuring detail. There is massive draw in of background objects. The frame rate tries its best but dips pretty low as well. The system was capable of far better than this, as F-Zero X and World Driver Championship can attest.
In Closing
The Nintendo 64 is not hurting for racing games as they comprise nearly a quarter of its library. That makes mediocre titles like this a waste of time. Unless you were a massive fan of the arcade game (even then) your time and money is better spent elsewhere. Off Road Challenge is a bad game.
