Rock n' Roll Racing

Rock n' Roll Racing is widely known for its soundtrack. Originally, Silicon & Synapse wanted to use songs by ZZ Top but the fee was too high. They instead enlisted a company that provided low-cost licensed music in public settings.[3]

The songs were uncredited but included:

• Bad to the Bone by George Thorogood and the Destroyers
• Highway Star by Deep Purple
• Paranoid by Black Sabbath[lower-alpha 1]
• Peter Gunn by Henry Mancini
• Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf
• Radar Love by Golden Earring (Sega Genesis only)
• Breaking the Law by Judas Priest (Definitive Edition only)
• Red Barchetta by Rush (Definitive Edition only)
• Power of the Horde by Level 60 Elite Terrain Chief (Definitive Edition only)

Passwords are given out at the beginning of each new "racing season" (each planet has its own definition of how many races make up a season, but early advancement will automatically start a new season), and they are located at the bottom of the F/X screen (accessible from the menu between races). These passwords are a complex code, consisting of three 4-digit sections, and they dictate everything about the players' progress: the character used, the vehicle type and color, weapons and parts upgrades, racing planet and division, difficulty setting, and money. The Game Boy Advance version of the game uses an EEPROM chip to save the player's progress instead of the password system.

The password codes only allow the player to save a maximum of $999,990 (six digits); if there are more than six figures in the bank account, the password truncates the leftmost digits over six (e.g. if there's $1,002,000 when the player quits, there will be only $2,000 when using the password to continue later). Due to the two-player password function, it's possible to "cheat" by entering the same password for both players or by entering passwords for players who were at entirely different points in the game. The password with the lowest difficulty setting and on the earliest planet and racing division will be used as the basis for play from then on, which allows a Warrior-skill character with a maxed-out vehicle to race against Rookie-class AIs in the Rookie skill mode.

Though a password-generator QBASIC program exists, the passwords it creates often result in a glitch, causing the player to race on glitchy planets—that exist only as a bug and can crash the game—after racing on Inferno. In the Rookie skill mode, however, they work perfectly, as long as one doesn't try to take the character beyond the third planet using the password.[4]

A second password generator has been written in JavaScript and limits the available planets to reflect the chosen skill mode while retaining the ability to customize any other aspect of the data stored in the password.[5]

In celebration of the company's 30th anniversary, Blizzard Entertainment and Digital Eclipse released a compilation called Blizzard Arcade Collection in February 2021, for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. The collection includes three Blizzard's classic video games: The Lost Vikings, Blackthorne and Rock n' Roll Racing, with two additional games: The Lost Vikings 2 and RPM Racing. Some of the modern features for the Definitive Edition include 16:9 resolution, 4-player split-screen, rewinding and saving of game progress, watching replays, and adding graphic filters to change the look of player's game in the SNES and Genesis versions, as well as a togglable option between the SNES soundtrack and the master recordings of the soundtrack in CD quality.[9] Larry "Supermouth" Huffman re-recorded lines from the original game, as well as recording brand new lines, for this release in the Definitive Edition.

Rock N' Roll Racing was awarded Best Driving Game of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly.[16]

GameSpot named Rock n' Roll Racing the best Game Boy Advance game of July 2003.[17]

IGN placed Rock n' Roll Racing 72nd on their Top 100 SNES Games of All Time.[18] In 2018, Complex placed Rock N' Roll Racing 84th on their "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time"[19] In 1996, GamesMaster rated the SNES version #96 in its "Top 100 Games of All Time."[20]

European cover art of Rock & Roll Racing 2: Red Asphalt

A sequel to the original Rock n' Roll Racing was made for the 32-bit PlayStation console by Interplay in 1997. The game was sold in Europe as Rock & Roll Racing 2: Red Asphalt and in the United States as just Red Asphalt.[21] It features a comic book art style in the character's profiles and ending videos, and a system to upgrade each character's driving/combat skills like RPGs.

Reviews

The game received mostly mediocre reviews. Josh Smith of GameSpot described it as an interesting and innovative title, citing the track design and use of weaponry in addition to driving, though he criticized the upgrade system as being illogical at points and an overt determining factor in the player's combat performance.[23] However, most critics asserted the opposite, characterizing Red Asphalt as a generic and derivative title which makes no meaningful change from earlier futuristic shoot-em-up racers such as Wipeout and Crash 'n Burn.[22][24][25] Kelly Rickards wrote in Electronic Gaming Monthly: "I've seen this game a million times before and so have you. Keep in mind, I'm not saying Red Asphalt is a bad game, but it is spectacularly average".[22] Next Generation similarly commented: "Is Red Asphalt a bad game? Definitely not. It's just that for a game like this, Wipeout XL is the definite 'must-play' example. Fact is, if you happened to miss out on playing Red Asphalt, you probably wouldn't care”.[25]

Multiple critics also complained at the ease with which vehicles slip into frustrating spinouts[22][24] and the unnecessarily complex and confusing interface screen.[22][24] Adam Douglas recounted in IGN: "The editors from the other sites gathered around to see if I could actually get the game to start, having been through this little Hellraiser cube puzzle the day before".[24] Most considered the game's graphics impressive,[22][23][26] though IGN described them as sloppy, citing extensive polygon clipping and lackluster effects,[24] and Next Generation found them merely satisfactory.[25] While finding the sound effects nondescript and the controls difficult, GamePro felt Red Asphalt distinguished itself though its vehicle customization.[26]

• GameFan #60 (Vol 5, Issue 12) 1997 December
• Official PlayStation Magazine #3 (1997 December)

In December 2013, a game titled Motor Rock (development title Rock n' Roll Racing 3D) was released on Steam by Yard Team. It's an unauthorized 3D remake of Rock n' Roll Racing. It was in development since 2009.[27] A week after release, the game was removed from Steam.[28]