Burning Road (Game)

Burning Road

GAME » on September 30, 1996

Arcade racing game for the Playstation by French developer Toka. Inspired by Sega's Daytona USA and referred to by reviewers as "a Daytona USA clone".

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Overview

Burning Road is an arcade racing game exclusively available for the Playstation console. It was developed by French developer Toka and published in the US in 1996 by Playmates Interactive Entertainment. The game shares many similarities with its arcade counterparts (such as Daytona USA), ranging from the time limit imposed on course and transmission selection, loose physics and a short range radar that shows the traffic immediately surrounding the player's vehicle.

The game is notable for including a full race replay at the conclusion of the race, which is something that was extremely uncommon at the time. Additionally, it supports link mode for two players to race head to head on two Playstation consoles and two televisions. Finally, the game supported the official analog controllers at the time (steering wheel, dual analog, flight stick, etc).

Courses

Three courses are available to race on and it's possible to race each in "mirror" (reversed) mode by simply turning around at the start of the race. After a brief period of being told that it's the incorrect direction, the race will continue as normal in the opposite direction. After completing the three tracks on "Championship" mode, the next three are done on the reversed versions.

B'eginner' - A European-themed course, with green countrysides and windmills providing scenery throughout the fairly basic, roughly tri-ovular track. A helicopter hangs low above one of the jumps. Some obvious nods to Daytona USA's easy track, such as a cliffside with the company's logo on it (echoing the similar placement of Sonic in Daytona USA).
Advanced - South American jungle-themed course with rickety bridges, an ancient temple, waterfalls and even a snow and ice covered portion. A stunt plane flies above the course at set points for added scenery.
Expert - Rain drenched nighttime cityscape with sharp right angle turns at points. Contains an airport with a low flying jet that passes over the course towards the end of the lap.

Cars

There are four vehicles from which to choose. Each has differing statistics for handling, maximum speed and acceleration. None of the cars have names associated with them in the game or in the supporting documentation.

Blue w/ White Stripes - Second lowest acceleration, second highest handling and the second lowest speed. Has, "Toka" on the front side of the car. When racing against AI opponents, their versions of this car will be in different colors.
Red w/ Fox Logo - Second highest acceleration, but the weak handling make this the most difficult car in the game to use. Its mass is roughly equivalent to the blue car's, making it difficult to offensively push opponents into the wall and off the track.
Black Monster Truck - Superb handling but a low top speed. Highest mass and best handling of the available cars allows the driver to play a more offensive game, manipulating opposing racers into crashing into walls, each other, or simply driving off the road (and thus rapidly losing speed).
Yellow and Green w/ Nitro decal - Highest acceleration and highest speed. While the handling is second lowest, its mass is second highest. This offers the driver an unparalleled amount of freedom in balancing their offensive and defensive driving. Considered by the fanbase to be the best of the available cars.

Reception

Burning Road met with a lukewarm response from critics, with Gamespot reviewer Jeff Gerstmann awarding it a 6.0 ("Fair") and stating, "Burning Road is, for the most part, a Daytona USA wannabe" (link). Many other reviewers noted the similarities between it and Daytona USA, citing its aforementioned time limits and radar in addition to the musical selection, announcer's voice, crash view, hood deformation and physics.

Legacy

While a direct sequel would never be made, Toka did release a spiritual successor in the form of Explosive Racing (X.Racing in Japan), though it would not be released in the United States.

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