I was raised on isometric racers, so I’m naturally drawn to this subgenre of racing games. Road Defense Racing is a gritty, bloody, vehicular combat isometric racer that feels like it could have been launched between 1991 and 1994. The single-player campaign has players racing against 3 AI opponents to ensure they don’t finish last, and in doing so unlock the next of the 30 tracks in the game. The basic and immediate set-up is both its blessing and its curse.
Your off-road truck handles quite nicely initially, as tracks are quite simple but clearly telegraph turns with arrows on the road. Whilst this is an arcade game, braking and turning are required as if you drive into the dirt, you’ll slow down to a crawl. Each track is riddled with humans toting guns, firing at you, and with a nod to Carmageddon, you’ll be able to run them over for cash! That cash is added to your winnings from your finishing position to upgrade your truck in the shop between races. You can upgrade your engine, tyres, body (health), and how many nitro boosts you can use per race. It’s wise to spread those upgrades proportionately. If you upgrade the engine multiple times and not your tyres, you will struggle to make it around chicanes and tight hairpins.
The other set of upgrades relates to weapons. You can equip ammo for a gun, shotgun, missile launcher, and a landmine dropper, and switch between them at will during a race. The ammo you unlock is auto-replenished each race, and because the weapons are so powerful, this becomes a key part of winning. Missiles and landmines can take out an opponent in one hit. As you start in last place each race, it incentivises spamming missiles or guns for laps 1 and 2 of a race, and then carpet bombing landmines for the last lap if you are in the lead. That makes races quite “cheeseable”, so players need to actively stop cheesing the game to make it a challenge. Some circuits have unique traps like UFOs, tanks, and tankers that require avoiding, as if you touch them, you’ll blow up instantly. Others are just you, the circuit, and the AI to blow up, and they are the easiest to win. This feeling of being overpowered made the second half of the game slightly less appealing than the first, because winning became easier, even if the tracks had more hazards on them to avoid.
Whilst the easy nature of the game brings down the overarching score, I did enjoy my brief time with Road Defense Racing. I like the aesthetic and its “Mad Max with Racing Trucks” vibe it’s going for. The title feels like it’s a lost late Master System or early Mega Drive title. The game plays well, even if it’s over in around an hour with limited replayability. I’m glad I bought it at 40% off with its launch discount (£2.15) because of its short runtime, but I can see myself returning periodically to ensure some low-stakes, brain-disengaged retro racing. Not everything needs to be a revolution. Road Defense Racing is like an 80s child’s cosy retro racing slippers, and that’s ok.
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