If a developer is going to dangle the carrot of Road Rash as an inspiration, then I’m going to be interested. That’s exactly what Motor Racing Battle aims to emulate, in a 1-2 player procedurally generated combat racer. Armed with your weapon of choice, it’s you against the AI or a giant evil boss to see how you’ll fare. The problems come when you realise the game is designed around mobile trappings, but there is an acceptance dalliance to be had, if you don’t mind things feeling a bit soulless and floaty.
One thing Motor Racing Battle does well is offer up a selection of comedic vehicles and weapons. Want to race on a rubber duck? Sure! How about a toilet or a hospital bed? You can unlock those, too. You’ll start off with a standard bike, but through repeated races, you’ll earn currency to unlock other vehicles. They do come with stats for turning, acceleration, top speed, and health, but the most expensive vehicles aren’t always the best ones to race. Choose what works for you.
What’s more important is choosing your weapon. Again, you’ll start with a standard bat, but all kinds of weird and wonderful objects and guns will become available to buy the more you play. Weapons have strength, range and fire rate settings, so a giant ladder may reach quite far and hurt a lot, but it may have a longer animation and recovery time between hits. Deciding if you want to use an object and attack those on either side of you, or equipping a gun to attack those directly in front of you, is a big tactical decision. Guns are easily the best choice in boss battles, but elsewhere, it’s a personal preference. What may sway the decision for you is that guns auto-aim, whereas many melee objects have inconsistent hitboxes. Far too often (almost every race), I’d be visibly hitting an opponent and they’d just drive on untouched.
Motor Racing Battle builds procedural racetracks that change visual cues every 10 levels as you progress by scoring a top 3 finish. Sometimes this can be tricky to achieve, as Motor Racing Battle has some extreme rubberbanding at times. Steam off ahead, and the AI will suddenly have more straight-line speed than you for no reason. Quite literally stop driving, and the AI grind to a crawl. Often, races are decided in the final 10 seconds. Whoever has the cleanest run and maybe hits a boost pad will triumph. Combine this with auto acceleration, and the driving and racing elements of the game are a bit lacking. Skill is required to not drive into traffic or other hazards, but you can still scrape over the line in a semi-decent position with poor driving and collect coins for new weapons and vehicles. Steering has that mobile floaty numbness to it. This is far from the worst physics I’ve raced with, but it lacks precision and finesse.
Whilst the races start to bleed into each other in a procedurally generated slop that lacks character or charm, at least the graphical settings switch up dramatically every 10 levels. The visuals are well done, like a high-end endless runner, and I mean that positively. The game runs smoothly in 2-player splitscreen, although the lack of a dedicated reason to race each other feels like a missed opportunity to reuse the game design for something more meaningful. It’s just two players grinding the levels, rather than one. I’d also like to commend the idea of having boss battles. These unlock every 10 levels and offer some variety as they’ll shoot or throw objects for the player to dodge and avoid. After a few sequences, you can then pull alongside and beat the vehicle to a pulp, and this is why equipping the gun for these bosses is advantageous. You don’t need to wait, you just get shooting!
Motor Racing Battle is as bland to play as the title is to read. This feels like it’s been built for the lowest common denominator to appear in search engine results, rather than have a heart and soul. Whilst nothing is technically broken or wrong, there is no gameplay spark to be had here. It’s just a long grind on very similar roads, trying to hit opponents who take little notice of your existence anyway. This is not the Road Rash I was looking for, and I can’t recommend it for anyone other than gamers looking for a mindless mobile-like runner experience with added guns and baseball bats.
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