It's a Good Thing There's a Helmet Law

There are few games that I have felt the need to hide when friends come over. Trolls and Power Rangers have been previous ones, but now there is a new game which has the secret cabinet calling its name.

Gameplay
Aren't you sick and tired of racing in nice sports cars? Wouldn't you like to escape from the standard city you see in video games and escape to the country to offroad in beat-up trucks? I'll admit that Offroad Redneck Racing is much better than I thought it would be, but its not anything amazing. It came out when several offroading games would be released each week and no one knew who was purchasing them. Somehow, this one was overlooked from the rest of the pack. The game features the normal modes that are seen in racing games. You have your challenge mode where you just play a single race in which you customize which track and how many laps you want. There's the championship mode where the game gives you several races on all of the courses, and then gives you your score at the end. There's also a splitscreen and online multiplayer mode, but good luck finding someone to play with unless you set up a match with a friend.

The racing in the game is pretty generic. Its an arcade racer, but since you're racing in beat up trucks, you go at a fairly fast speed, but not terribly quick like most arcade racers. The speed in the game doesn't limit its fun because you are going to be constantly having to avoid obstacles and make sharp turns. None of the races are any different from each other; they all consist of you trying to finish the race before any of the other trucks. There are several jumps in every level, but the poor physics engine makes it seem as if your truck weighs more than it actually does. You can hit a big jump at full speed and you'll only get about a quarter of a second of air. At times, jumps will act as objects to avoid because the game doesn't really know what to collide into. Sometimes you'll just be cruising and you'll hit a jump the wrong way, or hit a bump in the road and your truck will do a spin into the opposite direction; this generally happens about once per race and really can put a huge effect on the outcome. The thing that is really unfair about the game is that the guys you face never make any mistakes by hitting these glitches in the road or crashing, and to top it all off, if you gain the lead the computer seems to cheat and make itself get some kind of speed boost to get past you making it a matter of timing on when you want to take the lead in some races to win.

The game is just a simple budget priced racer that is light on content. The game features only a six tracks, a few cars, and some car upgrades you can collect in the championship mode. After you're done with the short championship mode, your probably going to never play it again because of its repetitious gameplay. This however is the perfect game for those who just want to take a break from serious gaming with friends and to play something just simple and fun. It would probably only cost you about $5 to get two copies of this game, and it would be a blast to play multiplayer on. Its a very fun game that you just can't take seriously.

Controls
This game tries to keep everything simple. The controls have you only really using the direction pad on your keyboard to steer and using another button for a nitrous boost.

Graphics
The graphics are actually pretty good considering it doesn't seem like the developers worked that much on the other aspects of the game. The racetracks have a great deal of detail to them; you can see dust flying around, people on the side of the road hollering at you, canyons, oceans, and many other really good looking environmental changes. Pretty much every course looks different. They put a lot of detail into weather patterns; some levels will have rain, some will have snow, others will be sunny, and it all looks very realistic. The textures all look really smooth and the visuals were great for its time and still holds up pretty well. The framerate, for the most part, remains steady, but there are a few slowdowns here and there that don't really hinder the gameplay all too much, but can act as annoyances.

Sound
The soundtrack consists of bluegrass that is surprisingly good. There are only a few songs in the game but they fit the mood perfectly and are actually pretty good songs. The sound effects in the game are good, but there are only a few. The only sounds that will really stand out are the crashing sounds and engine sounds, but they get drowned out by the music. There are only a few voiceovers in the game, and by the end you will wish that there weren't any. Pretty much every time you collide into an enemy, a man with an extremely stereotypical southern accent screams "It's a good thing there's a helmet law!" By the end of the game you will grow to despise this phrase. They have a few other voiceovers but they rarely ever use them.

Should you get this game?
Its a simple fun racer that you can't take too seriously. If you can find it for cheap, get two copies, one for a friend, one for you and you'll have a great time with multiplayer.