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.
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.
Comments 20
Oh, wow. I might wait for a sale now. I still want the game lol
It's funny that there's so many positive reviews on foreign blogs but many on Miiverse expressed how disappointing this game is.
"...but the courses stay the same throughout, with different vehicles and starting points being the only distinguishing factors."
Well, the courses are also sometimes rotated, the driving path is different and the bumps in the terrain are different in each cup. But yeah, that's not much.
I was thinking I could get past the controls, as the driving felt a bit better after learning to anticipate the awkward momentum, but it really was a disappointment to see that after beating the first cup, the second cup was almost exactly the same. And later I noticed that the tracks on the yet to be unlocked third cup don't make any exception. They are just a bit rotated and the terrain looks a bit different.
Looks a little like RCpro-am
This is why demos are important Nintendo!! I bought the game took a chance only to discover it is so far from a super off road or super sprint!! And this is why the virtual console situation pisses me off so bad. If those classics were already available I woulda bought those instead to feed my retro fix!!! But Noooooo!!! 😡😡
Sad, good premise, bad execution...
Man, I was really hoping this one would deliver. :/
I've saw some gameplay, there was no Rock'n Roll music
@joey302
Nintendo didn't make the game.
Was super excited, but I'll stick w/Driiift Mania, and will continue to recommend for multiplayer groups. It really shines w/8 players!
Maybe this game will get an update adding a better meta game?
Being able to upgrade your truck and buy Nitro's was a big part of Super Off-Road. Sadly Rock 'n Roll racing isn't as well thought out from a game depth perspective as a 20 year old coin-op. It's both a shame and shameful.
Darn. I was looking forward to this game. Only thing that was stopping me is none of my friends really understand how to control vehicles in an isometric view, whether it be RC Pro Am, Super Off-Road or even Micro Machines.
Shame, love the simple racing mechanics of games like this. All they had to do was keep it interesting with tracks , game modes and variety.......I liked tnt racing for that very reason-simple driving but lots of variety to keep you playing 'till the end!!
Was hoping this would be like Super Off-road / Badlands. Never mind. I think I have the Midway Classics on my PS2, will use that to get my retro fix
In 5 player mode this is decent fun, as the physics are pretty good, and no cheating and buggy CPU players interfere.
But single player modes are underwhelming and don't even come close to the content and charm of the 20 year old classic and ultimate reference Ironman's Super Off-Road.
@DefHalan yes I know this- just saying about demos
Agreed, I really wanted this to be a fun game since I love the NES and SNES versions of off road as well as Atari"s Super Sprint. Oh well, at least we have some new DLC for Mario Kart 8 coming soon
Too bad, I was thinking to download it because it looks like Off Road.
It reminds me of a NES game called... I guess RC Pro-Am, like the people up there said. I actually thought this game looked real cool, sad to see that it wasn't good.
Such a shame.
The Wii U and 3DS could really use a great version of that.
I'm very impressed with the review! But is a opinion and I respect! In my life I designed titles like that Chronos Twins, Zombie BBQ, 99Bullets and more and with Rock 'N Racing Off Road I 'm very happy with the work of my team and I think that is a great game and also can be much better!
Thanks for your support!
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