Road Rash 64 might not be a good game, but it is very, very fun

destructoid.com:

I’m surprised it has taken me this long to talk about Road Rash 64. My affection for the title greatly outweighs its quality, but I played it during the N64 days, then rediscovered it with a roommate of mine after college. We had a time. Lyrics from its repetitive soundtrack worked their way into our personal vernacular (we often just referred to the game as “Mean Machine”), and many evenings were spent howling with laughter at just how ridiculous it is. It’s not that we were laughing at the game — okay, we sort of were — but it poked at the same part of our brains that had us clutching our sides while watching golden-age Popeye cartoons.

I’ve introduced many others to it in the years since, but I don’t think that others see the same thing we saw in it. In a way, it’s sort of our game, my old roommate and I.

Still, I’m going to try and explain to you what makes Road Rash 64 so amazing. It’s a game that stands out from the rest of the Road Rash series that started back on the Sega Genesis. In a lot of ways, it’s slapdash and feels thrown together, but not in a way that makes it seem like none of the development team cared about it. It feels more like they were more focused on seeing what they could get away with.

If you’re unfamiliar, Road Rash is a racing series where you’re allowed to beat the stuffing out of your competitors. Marrying violence to a sport is a pretty reliable way to make me interested. For example, I wouldn’t typically play a hockey game, but the brutality of NHL Hitz gets me on the bench. Similarly: Mario Strikers.

With classic Road Rash, however, the fighting seemed more for identity reasons. Your primary goal is to just win the race, and fighting was useful to achieve that, but not necessary. Which