Rock 'N Racing Off Road Review - Screenshot 1 of 2

EnjoyUp was clearly inspired by the classic arcade racer Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road when developing Rock 'N Racing Off Road, an old-school, top-down racer. But while the game looks like a modern update to Super Off Road, it's not nearly as fun or memorable. Unfortunately, Rock 'N Racing Off Road is a disappointing experience with limited content, frustrating controls and bland presentation; on a system that's bursting with quality digital content, Rock 'N Racing Off Road just doesn't measure up.

Rock 'N Racing Off Road features campaign, time trial and multiplayer modes, but by the time players are finished with the campaign they'll likely be soured by the experience and put down the controller. Different cups are unlocked as you progress through the campaign races, yes, but the courses stay the same throughout, with different vehicles and starting points being the only distinguishing factors. You don't choose your own vehicle in the campaign, either, which will immediately put off some racing fans; the competing trucks are just different colours, too, with no greater variation.

Rock 'N Racing Off Road Review - Screenshot 2 of 2

Controls are particularly loose, with frustrating and punishing physics - trucks move and control like tanks, which is fine, but we often found ourselves fighting this imprecision. Most of the races went like this: start carefully, get confident, race towards the finish line, hit wall, struggle to recover, come in last place. The AI is also downright irritating, with trucks performing erratically from moment to moment. Sometimes they'll race past you at the last second, while sometimes they'll hit a wall and stay there.

Time Trials task the player with recording fast laps - though it's ranked on an online leaderboard, we can't imagine many players participating. Local multiplayer extends the experience a little, meanwhile, with five players (thanks to the GamePad) able to race on one of the four tracks. The game is admittedly more fun in multiplayer, since the crazy AI isn't involved; there's no online multiplayer, but this is more suited to playing with friends in the same room, in any case.

The visuals are colourful and the game runs quite well, but that doesn't resolve the issue of a lack in variety after the first cup. The sound is mostly painless, as well, but far from memorable. In addition the GamePad can be used for off-TV play, but that's about it - there's no options menu to be found, incidentally, which is a baffling decision in any recent gaming era, but especially in a 2015 release.

Conclusion

There's not much to say about Rock 'N Racing Off Road, other than that it's a boring, frustrating experience all around. There's no depth here, no rewarding gameplay and no real charm or personality. There are plenty of fun multiplayer games for the Wii U, and Rock 'N Racing Off Road just has too little going for it to earn a recommendation.