Rock 'n' Roll Racing (Game Boy Advance) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

The selection of racing titles available on the GBA can be a little overwhelming at times and there's a type of racer that should satisfy every gamers needs. 'Top-downers' have Karnaaj Rally and Micro Machines, 3-D fanatics are serviced by Top Gear Rally and V-Rally 3 and almost every character franchise now has their own 'Mode-7' karting game. Rock'n'Roll Racing though is none of the above and instead utilizes a gaming style that has been used less frequently in recent years although this isometric viewpoint was put to good use in Crawfish Interactive's ?Driven?. It also happens to be a conversion of a SNES classic, which does appear to be a favored area for Blizzard?s recent batch of GBA titles. Thankfully the port is again being handled by Mass Media who have also taken on the coding duties for the two other GBA titles in the Blizzard Classics series: The Lost Vikings and Blackthorne. Optimistic then? Of course we are...

Gameplay

Things were a little simpler a decade ago with most titles rarely deviating from their genre and rather than try to enhance the gameplay the developers have wisely decided to produce an almost straight port. Clearly your object here is to win races as a reasonable finishing position and the destruction of other drivers will reward you with a cash prize and points. The cash can be used to improve your car?s performance, buy extra weapons or even a new, more powerful car whilst the points give you the chance to travel to a new planet. There are five of these in all and, apart from the varied design, you'll also discover tracks that not only become more complicated but also contain more short cuts. Mastering the use of these becomes essential as the game progresses and you find that your competitors appear to be significantly better equipped than you with faster cars and better weapons. That's it really other than the inclusion of three difficulty levels as, though the inclusion of the two-player mode is always a welcome addition, it's still essentially the same game.

Controls

Simple, responsive and therefore a joy to control. It's all standard stuff here with the 'A' controlling the gas and the 'B' being used to slow you down with the shoulder buttons activating weapons and turbos. What more could you ask for? The only downside is that the isometric viewpoint is a little difficult to judge initially as you'll occasionally leap from the track into the abyss but after a few laps you should get the hang of it.

Graphics

You could argue that the visuals are a little on the simple side which is probably true but it also happens to work quite well given the nature of the game, not to mention the fact that it's based on a title over a decade old. Everything about it screams SNES from the color palette to the track design and, although we're now a little spoilt with the standard of visuals the GBA can deal with, at the time this was as close as you could get to 3D visuals. On the subject of color usage though, perhaps the use of a less vibrant tone than the headache-inducing pillar-box red on the menu systems would have been a better option.

Sound

One of the main reasons the original was so popular was the fact that it included licensed tracks by the likes of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Steppenwolf. Thankfully these have all made it to the GBA version and even though there are only five songs to enjoy, the GBA's sound chip does a fine job of reproducing the SNES soundtrack. In addition to this we have a rather excitable commentary by Larry ?Super Mouth? Huffman who not only starts the races but also interrupts them on a great many occasions to inform you of how well or badly you?re doing. Some appropriate tires skidding and cars crashing sound effects complete this and though you might think that this amount of audio squeezed into a single cart could be a little too much it actually works rather well.

Final comments

Both Blizzard and Mass Media have done it again and this GBA port really is just about as perfect as you could reasonably expect. Hugely enjoyable with a fair bit of gaming for your money and that's before you even delve into the two player option. The other huge plus is the inclusion of the battery backup as opposed to the original?s password save although why this doesn't allow you to actually name your saves is anyone?s guess. Overall though for SNES owners and retro enthusiasts this really is a slice of just how gaming used to be with the developers employing the level of care and attention to detail that we should always expect when purchasing a GBA title. A definite recommendation for racing fans or all ages and hopefully Blackthore will deliver the same quality enjoyable expertise that the Blizzard Classic series is obviously capable of delivering.

Pro: Heaps of Retro Gameplay
Con: Simple Visuals
Final score: 8.5

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