Super Off-Road: The Baja Review (SNES)

This review was originally written 1/2/06 

Every now and then, I come across a retro game that makes me wonder why no one has ever heard of it. It doesn’t have to be a particularly GOOD game, just a unique enough experience to make me wonder why it didn’t get the popularity that it should have. This is one of those games. It may not have the arcade appeal of it’s predecessor, or the multiplayer mode, but it was at the very least, a solid racing game, which is better than most were on the Super Nintendo.

GRAPHICS:

Imagine any 3D racing game you have ever played on the Playstation: That is this game, only it’s 2-dimensional. One of the things you might notice right away is that the game looks like someone’s 2D drawing of a ps2 game. –Keep in mind, however, that these graphics don't really look that bad, considering Super Off-Road: The Baja is actually a sequel to THIS game;

 (Talk about a quantum leap.)

The road itself is actually mapped after the real tracks, which were considered the toughest in the world. Ivan Stewart is there at the beginning of every race, giving you more blatantly obvious advice since your mommy told you to look both ways before crossing the street.

Orly? Yeah, no sh**, Sherlock!

STORY:

The objective in this racing game is simple: Get in 1st place, stay on the track, and avoid running shit over. If you run to much shit over, your car breaks down, you crawl out of your car having some kind of standing seizure, and Ivan Stewart stares at you like you are a fucking idiot. If you can't make it through the first 2 levels without your car breaking down, then you probably are. All you have to do in this game is drive to the other side of Mexico before the other racers, and that’s pretty much it.

GAMEPLAY:

It’s one of those games wherein the learning curve is not steep, yet as you progress through it, you will quickly see that this game is not fucking around. These levels get hard as hell if you don’t know what you are doing, not just because the obstacles in the road can damage the Christ out of your vehicle, but they can also cost you more money you would need for the pit stop. Oh, yeah, speaking of just what you are using that money FOR, the pit stop is the place you buy upgrades to your already crappy vehicle. You will buy, umm… lights, Brakes, Tires, shocks, and so forth. You will also buy Nitro's, and, you will buy ENGINE! Lots and lots of ENGINE!

Keep in mind; you're not buying these things in QUANTITY, but rather in QUALITY. For example; buying more “Tires” doesn't mean buying another set of tires; it means you're just putting more quality into the tires to give them better traction. (The quality is measured in little yellow blocks.) Buying more“Shocks” gives you better damage protection, buying more “lights” gives you a brighter view in the dark tracks, buying more “brakes” gives you better stopping power, and buying more “engine” makes you go faster.

The really weird part about it is that you can take quality AWAY from any of those and get your money back to buy other stuff! Imagine if you could get money for taking important parts out of your vehicle? The first thing I would do is to take out the air bags. Also, the GPS tracking devices that have been in every vehicle made since 2000, and Maybe the Seat belts! Yeah! I mean, who uses those anyway?

What's the biggest difference between Off-Road and Off-Road: The Baja? Well, the overall games design. You see, unlike the First Super Off-Road, it isn’t some top-down racer where you navigate a car on the ground, like you would an RC. Super Off-Road: The Baja is a racing game that's a lot more like DRIVING A CAR, as apposed to navigating a car on an almost microscopic road. Here, you have a camera behind you, so that you can see in FRONT of you! It's a definite improvement from the first game in the series, but, then again, if you want to see DIRECTLY behind you, instead of just generally forward, you’re out of luck.

If you turn your truck to the left or right for too hard, you could end up careening into anyone or anything without even seeing where in the shit you are going. By the way, the first Off-Road didn't have morons riding Mopeds in the middle of a street race with pickup trucks, So, making that hard left or right turn can often leave you careening into God knows what, because, you won't have a clue until you've actually ran it the fuck over!

Also, make note of the people and/or animals, because not only do they add damage to your car, they slow you down and take your money. Unfortunately, pleasures as sweet as these come at a price.

• "One idiot on a moped: $ 3k. 
• A couple making out dangerously close to the road while cars drive an excess of 80mph: $ 10k. 
• A Deer… $ 20k. 
• Trying to figure out why it would cost more to kill a deer than a human being: Priceless. 

There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's the PitStop."

Multiplayer:

One of those things that I truly despise about this game is its sorry excuse for a 2-player mode. Instead of 2 players actually being in the same race at the same time, Player one will go first, following the 2nd player. When it's the 2nd players turn to play, player one becomes a ghost car, mimicking what player 1 already did! It sucks because taking turns to play results in 2 different races, so player 1 may always finish the race in a different standing in the second race than it did in the first. I mean, I understand that this type of game is hard to make & everything, but this just isn't something that is acceptable, in my opinion. The first arcade title was known for its multiplayer, and this just doesn’t do it justice, in my opinion.

VERDICT:

Aside from the messed up camera views, half-assed 2 player modes, and a god-awful set of music, this seems like a decent game which is also fun to play. The toughness in the game play itself ranges in difficulty from challenging to extremely challenging, and does so without compromising the fun this game offers. The pitstops, as weird as they are, add a reasonable layer of depth to the game play, and if you want to win something, you'd better come in third or better, because I assume the girls with bathing suits by the winner's circle don't take American Express.

The good: “3D”, fun to play...

The bad: Terrible 2-player mode (mine as well not have one at all)

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