Destructoid Changelog - Fruits of the Devil

Happy Hallo… Wait, no. I’m currently writing this on Hallowe’en Day, but you’ll be reading this the day after. So, happy November, I guess. If you’re an American, there’s a turkey coming your way. If, like me, you’re not, you could always celebrate my birthday. I always thought that my being one milestone closer to the grave should be a global celebration.

I’m still pretty heads down with reviews and review-adjacent playing. I’m trying to let off the gas for November, but I’m legendarily bad at doing that. I just want to give myself enough time to play some older games. I’m trying to fit in Interstate ‘76. Is that too much to ask for? Come on, me, stop being such a taskmaster.

I can’t complain too much. I love writing reviews. Sometimes you just have to take a breath, you know?

Speaking of working too much, did you know that you can view old issues of this newsletter? There’s sometimes good stuff in there, such as my weekly column or past reviews. You can get to it through this link that I’ll hopefully remember to go back and hyperlink after I paste this into the newsletter backend.

Also, if you refer a friend or family member (or stranger or enemy, I don’t care) to this newsletter using the link below, you’ll get signed up for the monthly special edition newsletter. Each month, I interview someone cool, such as indie developers TheCatamites and magicdweedoo. Maybe you haven’t heard of them, but I guarantee they have something cool to say. Not sure who I’m throwing questions at this month, but I have some ideas.

In the cartridge slot this week

Road Rash (32-Bit)

One of my favorite N64 games is Road Rash 64. It’s kind of awful, with extremely loose design and ugly graphics. It’s hilarious; a game where you can jam a person’s spokes with a banana and watch them get launched off their bike and over the horizon. It’s ridiculous, and you should play it, but understand that it barely resembles Road Rash.

Road Rash started on the Genesis/Mega Drive, but somewhere between Road Rash 2 and Road Rash 3, we got another Road Rash that is clearly a Road Rash game but is completely distinct from Road Rash. It was initially released on the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, but EA was apparently not that loyal to Trip Hawkins and released it on PS1, Saturn, and PC the next year. To avoid confusion, it’s sometimes referred to as Road Rash 32-Bit, as it is in the game’s own credits.

But while it’s an entirely new entry, it certainly feels like Road Rash. Even though the environments are rendered in 3D polygons, the feel of the motorcycle is more akin to how it was on the quasi-3D raster effect Genesis versions. The riders and traffic are all digitized 2D sprites, and the action feels very much the same.

One of the major differences is the fact that it actually runs at a decent framerate. The Genesis games were pretty choppy, and I’m not totally sure why. Games like Outrun 2019 were fine when it came to speed. Doesn’t matter; the Genesis games were still good despite this, but having them run at a better clip makes things feel a lot better. It feels faster, and the 3D environments are a lot more varied and interesting to look at than the sparse quasi-3D ones.

They also added menus featuring weirdly distorted, disproportional people. Anytime you want to save, you go into the bathroom and are greeted by people bent over a toilet, throwing up, or a cop pointing mockingly at a guy standing at a urinal. It’s weirdly stylish, even if it is grotesque.

The cutscenes that play around the races feel very ‘90s FMV-era. They too can get kind of disturbing, like one where a guy throws a woman over his bike and drives off. That’s not the disturbing part, the part that is disturbing is when her foot visibly hits the front wheel of one of the bikes he drives by. That could have been disastrous. And then there’s one where you wreck your bike, and another rider runs over your arm. That’s uncalled for.

The menus have a soundtrack by bands like Soundgarden and Hammerbox. Those songs are fine, but the race music is way better. The soundtrack to the actual racing was done by Don Veca, who also lent tunes to previous games in the series and would later move on to work on the Sledgehammer Call of Duty games. It’s just too bad your only options for adjusting the sound levels is to turn your engine sound off or on. I’d rather just scooch it down a bit so I can hear the music better.

Road Rash 32-Bit is one of the better games in the series. Maybe not as good as Road Rash 64, but, like I said, that one doesn’t feel like a Road Rash game. This one does, and when it comes to that specific formula, it does it best.

Elsewhere on Destructoid

The 10 most overlooked SNES games

I’m not big on lists, but I love making recommendations, and listing them out is the best way to do so. Do you love the SNES but don’t know where to look next? I’ve got some of best obscure games you can find. Or can’t find. Couldn’t find. You can find them now.

I retract my previous excitement, Killer7’s remastered cutscenes use generative AI upscaling and they suck

The good news is that the PC port of Killer7 received a quality-of-life update last week that, among other things, remasters the cutscenes. The bad news is that it’s a generative AI remaster, and they didn’t go in to correct certain details by hand. The result is something that is passable at times, but completely and bafflingly distorted in a lot of moments. This is moreso when it comes to the cutscenes in the Handsomemen chapter of the game, but you get that inhuman feel from a lot of the others as well. AI upscaling is, in my opinion, one of the more benign uses of the horrible technology, but the end result should actually look better. Soon, you’ll have the choice between horribly compressed and depressingly desecrated. Take your pick.

Vampire Survivors is better value than a street hot dog

I hate how so much time can get sucked up by Vampire Survivors, but at least with Ode to Castlevania, it’s also going towards something more… Castlevania. Not that Vampire Survivors wasn’t already bordering on copyright infringement at time, but at least this crossover shows there’s no hard feelings from Konami.

Gun-customizing, goblin-slaying FPS Sulfur is out now, and you should play it

I’ve come very close to buying Sulfur, but, as I’ve been telling you, I’m armpit-deep in review territory, and I couldn’t fit this one in. I don’t buy games I intend to play later, am I alone in that? If I do, it gets lots in my library, where I’m more likely to play something I just bought.

In any case, Filip Galekovic has kicked the tires and says that it’s worth your time. He also admits that, as an early access title, it’s a “tad jank.” I may as well have “tad jank” written down on my list of favorite genres at this point.

Reviews for review this week

Batman: Arkham Shadow

Not to torpedo my credibility, but I still haven’t played a VR game. I’m sure it’s cool, but it’s also expensive, and that’s money I could blow on an over-priced retro game. But also, woah, it’s Destructoid Managing Editor Chris Cheez-it Carter. Did you know he’s Batman? Neither did I, but it makes sense now that I think about it. I’ve never seen him and Batman in the same room.

Wayfinder

What the hell is Wayfinder? Oh, right! It’s that MMO that wasn’t going so great, so the developer and publisher split, and it dropped its online requirement, becoming something different entirely. Glad it turned out decently. That kind of drama can be deadly to a game, so it speaks to the developer’s passion that they were able to turn it around.

Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered

I’ve already made this joke, but Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered is only sort of remastered. It looks practically the same as the Xbox 360 release but maybe a bit less murky. There are some new costumes, though. It also plays the same, which, as it turns out, I’m not a fan of. I played it back in 2011 and was lukewarm on it. However, I thought with my added years of analytical experience, I might be prepared to fully embrace it. Nope, I guess not.

Fruitbus

I talk about this in the review, but I’ve wanted a good food truck game for a while now, but it seems like each time a new one arrives, it doesn’t live up to the concept. Fruitbus unfortunately continues that trend. I really hate being negative toward such a cute game from a small development team. I need to play more edgy games from big publishers so I can get proper mad.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure

I have never played a Life is Strange game. I’m actually impressed that they’re this popular given that it belongs to a pretty niche genre. Did they take over The Walking Dead fanbase? It’s cool regardless, and Madison Benson says the newest one is another quality entry in the series, so those fans should be pleased.