Younger gamers may find it hard to believe, but there was a time when corporate giant Electronic Arts didn't focus mainly on sports games, yearly sequels and movie licenses. This company was actually founded with the goal of helping individual developers bring their unique vision to the market. It resulted in a lot of great, original games.
EA Replay brings those days to mind with a collection of 14 classic games that originally saw release on the SNES and Genesis consoles back in the mid-'90s. We took an early build of this admittedly rockin' compilation for a test drive. The results, however, are mixed.
The Road Rash games are easily the cream of the crop, here. With Road Rash 1-3 (oddly, only the second one has a multiplayer options), you get a taste of the racing/combat genre's roots. The simplistic controls hide fantastic depth, as you can duke it out with opposing motorcycle riders at top speed using your fists or weapons you steal from them; simply race clean and hope for the best; or kick them into oncoming traffic as you streak by.
The only weirdness is that the games' original soundtracks have been replaced by some really bad generic rock. Considering Road Rash on the Sega CD and 3DO had one of the best licensed soundtracks in history, it's a shame that collection of songs wasn't used here.
