If you were lucky enough to play video games in the early 90s, you probably played Road Rash. Originally released on the Sega Genesis, Road Rash was a motorcycle racing game that put you in high speed, illegal races while fighting off other bikers with chains and bats. It was fun and offered a unique experience to standard racing games like Sega’s Hang-On. Fast forward, now it’s 2013 and there hasn’t been a Road Rash game for 10 years.
Indie game developer DarkSeas Games, which has been formed with the likes of various industry veterans, has decided to bring back the soul of Road Rash. It’s called Road Redemption. Based on what we’ve seen of this new game, it takes the groundwork from Road Rash and puts it on steroids. Biker steroids. The core gameplay is there, fight other bikers while racing on open roads. They’ve also added multiplayer components such as the ability to form biker gangs which will allow you to ride and compete together. You can also gain more weapons in Road Redemption, beyond the classic baseball bat and chain, you can also get a shotgun, a katana, molotov cocktails and more.
Thus far, Road Redemption has been developed on a shoe-string budget but the developers have big plans for it and need some financial backing. What better way to introduce their Kickstarter campaign.
Road Redemption is being built with the Unity game engine, a favorite of indie developers. With that said, they are focusing on PC development which will allow their game to run on Windows, Mac and Linux machines. This decision, as they explain, was made to allow them to focus on game design and not make sacrifices for low spec tablets. Furthermore, they have goals beyond the initial computer release which include Oculus Rift support and possible console ports including Xbox 360, Wii U and PS4. These goals would follow under stretch goals beyond their initial budget. DarkSeas Games has also promised that Road Redemption will be “DRM-Free and Microtransaction-Free“. If that’s not enough, the game will also be open source, encouraging game development education and modding.
If you think all of this sounds like a good idea, you can support Road Redemption via Kickstarter.