 There were certain games back in the early to mid 90s that were seemingly everywhere for whatever reason. Like remember Brutal Pause of Fury? You couldn't pick up a gaming magazine without seeing like 3 or 4 full page ads for that freaking game. I remember the Funko Land in West St. Paul, Minnesota had a big cardboard cutout of one of the characters along with a huge poster, and that game was always available for rent. And why is that? Because it just wasn't very good, so it made the endless ad campaign really annoying more than anything else. Another game that was somehow absolutely everywhere was Ivan Iron Man Stewart's Super Off-Road. Not only were there ubiquitous advertisements, but this game, which started as an arcade game back in 1989, was ported to everything under the sun. I'm talking Amiga, ZX Spectrum, DOS, Commodore 64, Gameboy, Game Gear, Lynx, NES, Master System, Genesis, and yes, the Super Nintendo. But the big difference here is that Super Off-Road is actually pretty dang fun, especially with more than one player. As you can see, the likely reason this game was able to be ported across so many different platforms is because of the exceedingly simple design. Yeah, it's a racing game, but all the racing takes place on one screen. Sticking with the Super Nintendo Edition, you just press left or right on the D-pad to steer, B to accelerate, Y to use a Nitro, and that's really all you need. In addition, Super Off-Road is one of the first games where you race to earn money, which you can use to upgrade your vehicle, and you can choose to increase acceleration, shocks, tires, your top speed, or Nitros, otherwise known as boosts of speed. In my experience, it's best to increase acceleration and your top speed any time you're able to. You can get away with ignoring the other three, but it can't hurt to upgrade tires or shocks at least once. Nitros, however, well, they may be cheap, but they're not worth it in my opinion. They just don't work all that well in this type of setting. I mean, the steering is sensitive enough as it is, which I'll get into later, but if you use a Nitro at the wrong time, it could potentially send you flying in the wrong direction. Plus, I've found that if you use a couple Nitros, your computer AI opponents will start using them as well, so it's really not worth it. And that brings me to the difficulty. The computer AI here is just ridiculous. At least one or two cars will kick your ass, in particular the yellow car and the gray car, the latter of which is supposedly Ivan Ironman Stewart himself. At least that's how it was in the arcade game. It is ridiculous how much faster they can be. I mean, I've had races where I've ended up getting lapped twice by the yellow car. Unfortunately, the Super Nintendo edition of Super Off-Road is not four-player compatible. You can only play with up to two players. This game was released in December of 1991, so yeah, it was made far too early, and there wasn't a four-player adapter yet. Despite the game only supporting two players, it's still a fantastic multiplayer game, mostly because the gameplay is so simple. I mean, everything is right there in front of you, and the controls are really easy for absolutely anyone to figure out right away. So I give the game props for that. However, unfortunately, this kind of simplicity does have a downside to it. And that's just that there's such a small margin for error, like literally small. All it takes is just a tiny oversteer on one turn, and you end up facing the wrong direction. And before you know it, you're completely out of the race. The smaller tracks with tighter turns amplify how sensitive the steering can be, so while the gameplay basics are easy for anyone to pick up, this game is tough to master. The Super Nintendo version features 16 different tracks, as opposed to just eight in the original arcade, so that's pretty cool. You have to finish in the top three in order to make it to the next race, with the goal being to finish as many races as you can with the most money, I think. Each race ends when the leader crosses the finish line on their final lap, but other than that, there's not a real structure here as far as I can tell. No circuits or championships or anything, just one race at a time and upgrade your vehicle, and that's totally fine. One thing I need to point out about the Super Nintendo version in particular is the music. It sounds awesome. OK yeah, there's some classic Seinfeld bass in there, but few games have such good distorted guitar sound. Tim and Jeff Fohlen were responsible for the soundtrack here, so you know it's good stuff. I should mention that Super Off-Road received a series of sequels, with the Super Nintendo getting Super Off-Road the Baja, which is a completely different style of racing game. This is just arcade-style racing, with kind of a crappy frame rate, unfortunately. I guess it's an OK game for what it is, but I prefer the original Super Off-Road just because it's something unique. Every other sequel that followed, like Off-Road Challenge or Off-Road Thunder, also had the same approach. So, which port of Super Off-Road is the best to play today? I mean, obviously, you can't beat the original arcade cabinet with three players, complete with the steering wheel. Those are the best. Even the steering wheel accessories for home consoles can't replicate the Super Off-Road arcade feel, because those steering wheels had a certain feel to them that accounted for that small margin for error that I talked about earlier in regards to turning. I will say the NES version of Super Off-Road does support four players, but it's really not that good of a port. But if you want to play this with more than two players, then that's the way to go. Super Off-Road for Super Nintendo is a pretty good arcade port. The controls may not be perfect, but they're reasonable enough, and the game structure itself makes this one so easy for anyone to pick up and play. But there's enough nuance in each track that makes the game tough for anyone to master. As a two-player or multiplayer game, the Super Nintendo edition of Super Off-Road is a good time. And I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.