Road Redemption

The game is a spiritual successor to the Road Rash series of racing video games.[1][2] The game aims to replicate the arcade-like simplicity and silliness of the Road Rash games, while introducing more modern graphics and gameplay mechanics.[3] In addition to the melee weapons featured in Road Rash, Road Redemption introduces firearms in the players options for weapons as well.[4] The game will feature split screen multiplayer modes,[5] including the computer-based ones, which is more of a rarity for the platform.[6] The proposed Wii U version would have also featured the ability for multiplayer sessions to take place with one player on the television and the other using just the Wii U GamePad screen.[7]

In 2009, Ian Fisch, a long time fan of the Road Rash series wrote a blog post on why the game needed a revival. He had intended for the blog post to be a call for developers Electronic Arts to revisit the series, but following the commercial failures of racing/combat hybrids such as Split/Second and Blur, he believed there would be no appetite for such game from an established publisher, so began working on his own take on the game.[8]

The game was first announced April 2013, alongside a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. The campaign raised over $173,000, successfully exceeding its $160,000 goal.[9] While the game was funded for development, it missed the 198,000 stretch goal for a virtual reality Oculus Rift version.[10] Paul Fisch, a developer on the game elaborated on reasons why their Kickstarter campaign did not "take off" in a piece for The Penny Arcade Report. In it, he blamed the timing of the campaign launch and general crowdfunding fatigue.[11]

The game was initially intended for an August 2014 release,[10] which was pushed back to November 2014 at the release of the alpha version in April 2014.[2] While an early beta version was released through Steam Early Access in September 2014,[12] the game missed its 2014 release date, and a lack of further updates in 2015 lead to fears of the game being cancelled.[7] An update in April 2016 clarified that development was still proceeding, with a Q3 2016 release date planned for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux. PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U versions are planned for sometime afterwards.[7] Initial 2016 updates did not mention the Wii U as a platform, again causing speculation towards cancellation of that particular version, but DarkSeas Games clarified that the Wii U version was still planned, but was relegated to a release window after the PS4 and Xbox One versions, citing extra work that would have to be done to get the game running on the less-powerful Wii U.[9] In May 2018, DarkSeas Game announced they had shifted development to a Nintendo Switch release.[13]

After the game's release, DarkSeas Game's also intends on making the game open-source, allowing for people to create mods for the game.[4] DarkSeas Game's also teamed up with Yacht Club Games to bring their Shovel Knight character to the game as a playable character.[14]

• Official website