Games Like Road Rash
Quick Answer
The closest games to Road Rash are Road Redemption, Burnout 3: Takedown, Wreckfest, Full Auto and Twisted Metal 2. Below are 9 picks with the reason for each — what carries over from Road Rash, and what does not.
What Made Road Rash Work
Road Rash is a racing game where you punch people off their bikes with a chain. The racing is arcade and the violence is the mechanic — combat during a race, not between them. Motorcycle sims are not the recommendation; combat racers are.
Road Rash is Electronic Arts' 1991 motorcycle racing game for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. You enter illegal road races through California, punching, kicking and clubbing rival riders off their bikes while trying not to be caught by police, and use prize money to buy faster bikes. Later versions, including the 1994 3DO edition, added licensed rock soundtracks. Fans usually want the combination of racing and combat rather than realistic motorcycles.
9 Games Like Road Rash
1.Road Redemption
Made specifically to be Road Rash again, and it plays like it.
Why it fits: Pixel Dash Studios and EQ-Games' 2017 game, funded on Kickstarter, is a combat motorcycle racer with melee weapons, guns and a roguelike campaign — a deliberate Road Rash successor.
What is different: Runs are roguelike, so progress resets on a lost campaign, and you get guns and explosives as well as clubs and chains.
Where to play it: PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch.
More about this game →2.Burnout 3: Takedown
The best combat racer ever made, in cars instead of bikes.
Why it fits: Criterion Games' 2004 racer for PS2 and Xbox rewards you for smashing rivals into walls and traffic, a move the game calls a Takedown.
What is different: Cars, not bikes, and there is no hand-to-hand combat — you win fights by ramming. Crashes are a spectacle rather than the end of your race.
Where to play it: PS2 and Xbox.
More about this game →3.Wreckfest
Contact racing where the damage is the point.
Why it fits: Bugbear Entertainment's 2018 racer uses detailed soft-body damage, so contact, demolition derbies and banger racing are the heart of the game.
What is different: Cars only, no weapons, and the damage model is the point; it plays more like a banger-racing league than an illegal road race.
Where to play it: PC, PS4, PS5 and Xbox One.
More about this game →4.Full Auto
Weapons during a race, and a rewind mechanic.
Why it fits: Pseudo Interactive's 2006 Xbox 360 game is a vehicular combat racer with mounted weapons and a rewind feature called Unwreck.
What is different: Cars with mounted guns rather than bikes with fists, and the rewind button takes the sting out of a crash that Road Rash would punish.
Where to play it: Xbox 360.
More about this game →5.Twisted Metal 2
Vehicle combat, if the fighting mattered more than the racing.
Why it fits: SingleTrac's 1996 PlayStation game is an arena vehicle-combat game where armed cars battle across locations around the world.
What is different: Not a race at all: it is a last-car-standing arena fight, so there is no finish line and no cops to outrun.
Where to play it: PlayStation.
More about this game →6.Motorstorm
Off-road arcade racing with genuine contact.
Why it fits: Evolution Studios' 2006 PS3 off-road racer mixes bikes, buggies and trucks on muddy tracks, and allows rivals to shove each other off the road.
What is different: Off-road tracks instead of public roads, no weapons, and bikes are only one class among trucks and buggies.
Where to play it: PS3.
More about this game →7.Trials Rising
Bikes, physics and short punishing runs.
Why it fits: RedLynx's 2019 physics-based motorbike game, published by Ubisoft, is about balancing and throttle control over obstacle courses.
What is different: There is no racing pack and no combat — it is you against an obstacle course and the clock, and precision matters more than aggression.
Where to play it: PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch.
More about this game →8.Death Rally
Top-down combat racing with the same cheerful nastiness.
Why it fits: Remedy Entertainment's 1996 PC game is a top-down combat racer with weapons and a career of upgrades; Remedy remade it in 2011.
What is different: Top-down, with cars and guns, and far more of the game is spent in the upgrade shop between races.
Where to play it: PC; the 2011 remake also came to iOS and Android.
More about this game →9.Wheels of Aurelia
For the open-road tone rather than the fighting.
Why it fits: Santa Ragione's 2016 narrative driving game follows two women on a road trip along Italy's coast in 1978, with conversation while you drive.
What is different: The driving is a backdrop for conversation; there is no fighting and barely any racing, only the open road.
Where to play it: PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch.
More about this game →
Where to Start
Road Redemption is the closest thing to a new Road Rash, so start there. If you want the aggression in cars, Burnout 3: Takedown is the classic, and Wreckfest is the best modern contact racer.
How We Picked These Games
Every pick either lets you fight other racers during a race, makes contact and crashes the main event, or captures Road Rash's arcade tone on two wheels. Motorcycle simulations were left out. We placed the closest direct match, Road Redemption, first.
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How These Picks Match Road Rash
Road Rash is catalogued here as a racing game on the Sega Genesis. All nine picks share at least one of its genre tags — nine racing games, seven arcade games and one fighting game among them.
Going by the "where to play it" notes, five can be played on PC, seven can be played on a PlayStation, three can be played on a Nintendo system and six can be played on an Xbox. Road Redemption, Death Rally and Wheels of Aurelia are from small or self-published studios.
| Game | Genre | Shares with Road Rash | Where to play |
|---|---|---|---|
| Road Redemption | Racing, Fighting, Indie | Racing, Fighting | PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch. |
| Burnout 3: Takedown | Racing, Arcade | Racing, Arcade | PS2 and Xbox. |
| Wreckfest | Racing, Arcade, Simulation | Racing, Arcade | PC, PS4, PS5 and Xbox One. |
| Full Auto | Racing, Arcade, Action | Racing, Arcade | Xbox 360. |
| Twisted Metal 2 | Action, Racing, Arcade | Racing, Arcade | PlayStation. |
| Motorstorm | Racing, Arcade | Racing, Arcade | PS3. |
| Trials Rising | Racing, Sports, Arcade | Racing, Arcade | PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch. |
| Death Rally | Racing, Arcade, Indie | Racing, Arcade | PC; the 2011 remake also came to iOS and Android. |
| Wheels of Aurelia | Adventure, Racing, Indie | Racing | PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch. |
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