If you crave the experience of hurtling through space, surrounded by the sweaty bodies and wild screams of humanity’s dregs, you need to see Wal-Mart on a Saturday... What I mean to say is... Road Rash: Jailbreak satisfies every guilty craving you’ve ever had during rush hour, burns off “road rage,” and brings motorcycle combat to new levels. It doesn’t do this by looking slick, or even sounding slick. To be honest, it’s not even superslick to play. But it’s fun! A real notable in graphics would be the excellent speed Jailbreak maintains. Somehow, in a racing game, it’s less important that things look great, as long as they go by quickly. Crash animations are awesome, and it’s especially nice to slam into a light pole, slide 50 feet, and then get run over four times in a row.

Music is provided by a bunch of up-and-coming bands, and most of them sound good. Some are annoying after time, but Jailbreak includes a “jukebox” option to let the player choose which tunes play during the game. Nice.

Road Rash: Jailbreak is true to its legacy of motorcycle combat, but adds a few twists to the old formula. The main action lies in moving up through the ranks, either as a punk proving himself on the street or as a beat cop cleaning up town. To move up as the biker, you’ll have to place in the top three, and there are plenty of rashers that will try to stop you from finishing at all. As a cop, the clock is ticking, so you can either move ahead by nailing a quota, or by capturing a specific rasher, mid race. In both these modes, the job is made tougher by obstacles in the road, pedestrians and a mob of angry bikers out for blood.

Extra modes include a great Multiplayer version, which is either two- or four-player Cooperative or Versus. The hilarious thing is that in cooperative, one player drives while the other rides in a sidecar and beats down passersby. Good stuff! And because it’s still about the racing, there’s a Time Trial mode for bikers that don’t feel motivated purely by carnage.

Of course, there’s more to fight with than just fists. Special merit in races, like hits and knockdowns, will earn special weapons. These are saved up, and can be exchanged on the fly for variety. For players lacking in merit, it’s also possible to steal a weapon from one of the other rashers and give him a taste of his own medicine.

Each track contains mixed themes, so they don’t feel like the same circuit again and again. One run starts out on a wide desert strip with no cars, but ends snaking through low hills on a narrow strip of road in heavy traffic. These touches, even if not realized in brilliant detail, make Jailbreak fun to play. Eye candy, mostly. Also in this category are the character models, which look good in the selection screen, but play exactly the same. Cut-scenes are done as video clips of two weird bikers, just... uh... being weird? Bike choice is pretty limited; each promotion in rank includes an upgraded bike, and even though there are always “Arcade” and “Simulation” models, I couldn’t tell enough difference in how they handled.

As racing games go, Jailbreak is moderately difficult. While not having the mad learning curve of Wipeout, it’s definitely not kart racing. In-game physics aren’t intended to be incredibly realistic, but they’re good enough to keep me from saying it’s a buggy game. Collision detection feels good, and the bikes ride heavy on the road, not bouncing around and defying gravity. The courses don’t have too many curves, but with plenty of distraction on the road, there’s enough challenge in higher levels to keep anyone playing. Multiplayer adds more than a little bit of replay value, especially in the Versus mode.

Electronic Arts did a great job designing the controller setup for Jailbreak. Anyone who has driven a motorcycle will appreciate the fact that the right analog stick controls throttle (like a real bike), while the left stick steers. Shoulder buttons are used to dish out pain, and “super” moves can be executed by button/stick combos. I never found much time to work the combos to full advantage, and they sometimes take too long to connect, but watch out if they do! Driving controls are simple, and the biggest issue is keeping an eye on the road while picking the right weapon and using it. Besides fists, there are chains, pipes, and supercharged weapons you can earn over time. All the non-driving controls are on the shoulder buttons, and these range from simple attack moves to combos, changing weapons, and taunting the enemy. Learning to taunt is great because it gets someone in hitting range, saving you time speeding up and slowing down to demolish them. The only other race function is a speed-burst that is awarded primarily for high-point rounds. With this “Nitro,” a few taps to the throttle send the bike flying ahead for a brief time, before coming back to normal speed. The only danger in this maneuver is that it’s not hard to “Nitro” your way into a wall or car that you couldn’t see over a hill or blind curve.

Surprisingly, the most confusing game mechanic is the save system. Between races, it’s possible to save, but EA didn’t design things very intuitively. There’s no auto-save option, and the menu for save/load is tucked away behind a bunch of other options, making it difficult to find. Also, the options’ setup, when the race begins (such as character and bike choice), remains the same unless you start the game over completely. The main thrust of Jailbreak is racing and combat, both of which it pulls off well. It’s not revolutionary, but neither is Velcro. It works, it’s easy to get the hang of, and who can deny the pleasure of beating a fellow motorist’s brains in with a monkey wrench? Recommended as a rental, and a must for motorcycle racing fans.