Off Road Challenge is an N64 racer plagued with problems. The biggest overall flaw is that the game is a poor conversion of a poor arcade title. This is one game that shouldn't have come home.
Off Road Challenge, for all intents and purposes, is Cruis'n USA with dirt tracks and off-road vehicles. It even inherited Cruis'n's sluggish control and frame rate. The game has inherited its name from the old three-player arcade game, Ironman Ivan Stweart's Off Road, and it's retained a few basic elements from the old game. Winning races earns you money so you can upgrade your vehicle in five categories: acceleration, shocks, nitro, top speed, and tires. You also find cash, nitros, and other goodies during the race. The most frustrating thing about Off Road Challenge is that you aren't allowed to actually go off the road. You're kept on the track by an invisible barrier. The only fun you'll have while racing is running into all of the wacky stuff that comes across your path like trains, planes, and UFOs.
The graphics in Off Road Challenge are by no means good. The weak frame rate accompanied by the really bad pop-up makes for one of the most visually impaired racing games on the N64. There are three different camera views to change from during the race. A chase view, a closer chase view, and an inside-the-cab view. The sound effects and music are pretty annoying. The sound of the tires sliding out is just bad, and the different music tracks are all kind of weak.
All in all, Off Road Challenge is a flawed conversion of an arcade game that just isn't any fun at home. Anyone who is interested in this game shouldn't be.
