Super Off Road: The Baja Review (SNES) (Retro WedNESday #17)
Developer: Leland Interactive Media
Publisher: Tradewest
Released: 1993
Sometimes the best days of your childhood were the ones where absolutely nothing special was supposed to happen. No birthday, no Christmas, no holiday, no reason whatsoever to expect anything other than coming home from school, watching Saved by the Bell for Kelly Kapowski or, even better, California Dreams for Lorena Costa (Diana Uribe was super hot), or even Figure It Out for Summer Sanders (though yes, that was later, not in 1995), doing whatever homework you had, and hopefully getting to play some Super Nintendo before bedtime. And then your parents go and do something that makes an otherwise completely forgettable day one you still remember more than thirty years later.
Sometime in 1995, I came home from school to discover that my parents had been to the mall, stopped by Sears, and found some Super Nintendo games in a bargain bin. They were cheap, so they bought four of them and brought them home. Just like that. Four new SNES games that weren’t there when I left for school that morning.
One was Super Black Bass, which we’ll get to eventually. Another was Wheel of Fortune, because apparently somebody at Sears thought the children of America needed to experience the excitement of solving puzzles on television without actually being on television. There was another game, too, but I’ll be damned if I can remember what it was at this particular moment. If I remember by the time I finish writing this, I’ll be sure to stop mid-sentence and let you know. And then there was today’s game, Super Off Road: The Baja.
I don’t remember what day of the week this happened. It was just some random school day. I’m not M. Bison, so I can’t confidently tell you it was Tuesday. It could’ve been Tuesday. It for sure wasn’t Saturday or Sunday, so there’s a one-in-five chance it was Tuesday. For my parents, it was the day they went shopping at Sears. For me, it was the most important day of my life.
Okay, probably not the most important day of my life. But if you know the reference, you know why I had to do that.
Anyway, imagine being a kid in 1995 and coming home to four new video games. It didn’t matter that they came out of a bargain bin. It didn’t matter that they weren’t Donkey Kong Country or whatever other major release everyone was talking about. I already had Donkey Kong Country by this point, and I’ve reviewed it right here in this column series. Nevertheless, they were new games to me, they were mine (and my brother’s), and we didn’t even have to ask for them.
That’s a pretty damn good afternoon.
Now, Super Off Road: The Baja actually came out in 1993, so it was already a couple of years old when it found its way into our house. Which, I suppose, explains why Sears was trying to get rid of it. And I’m grateful they were, because otherwise I probably never would’ve played the thing.
The game is a sequel to Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off Road, which was one of those racing games where you looked down at a little dirt track and drove trucks around it, trying to beat everybody else while collecting money and upgrading your vehicle. Simple, fun arcade stuff. You could see the whole track, everybody was racing around like maniacs, and it was a good time. I assume, anyway. I never played the first one. Didn’t even know it was top-down until I looked for screenshots of this and said, “Have I been Mandela’d? Baja wasn’t top-down.” And that’s when I found out Baja was a sequel. I was literally today years old when I learned that.
For The Baja, somebody decided that looking down at the trucks wasn’t good enough anymore. We needed to get behind the truck and actually drive through the desert.
And you know what? Fair enough.
Instead of the overhead view of the original, Super Off Road: The Baja puts the camera behind your truck and sends you racing along winding dirt roads filled with hills, turns, other vehicles, and an alarming number of things that apparently have no business being anywhere near an organized race.
It’s a completely different experience from the original game, again, I’m assuming just based on perspective, and I can understand somebody who loved the first one being disappointed by that. But I didn’t care about any of that in 1995 because I didn’t even know top-down had been a thing for this apparent series, though I had, of course, played top-down racing games. In general, they were pretty fun, so I’d wager a small bet that the original was likely at least a little fun, too. But as for Baja, I had a truck, I had a dirt road, and I had a controller. Let’s go.
The game uses the SNES’s Mode 7 graphics to create the illusion of driving through a three-dimensional environment. If you played F-Zero or Super Mario Kart, you’re familiar with the general idea, although The Baja makes much more of an effort to throw hills and rough terrain into the mix. Of course, I say that now, but back then I didn’t have a clue what Mode 7 was, and I’d guess you didn’t either. And it could go without saying, but there’s a decent chance someone is reading this who wasn’t even alive during the SNES era, so they definitely didn’t know about it back then. Damn, there wasn’t even a PlayStation then, and there’s almost six of them… how did I get so old? Okay, yes, I realize this happened in 1995 and PlayStation came out in September that year. I didn’t have one at the time, so therefore it didn’t exist to me.
And to the original point, for 1993, I think it (Baja, in case you forgot what game we were reviewing) looks pretty decent.
The road rises and falls, the scenery moves past you, and there’s a nice sense of speed when you get going. It doesn’t look remotely realistic today, of course, but what did you expect? It’s a Super Nintendo game. We’re working with a machine that also gave us a plumber riding a green dinosaur who eats turtles and shits eggs. Let’s not get too demanding about realism. Although I say that fully realizing you can tell Mario is a person, and the people who appear in this game look like pixelated blobs in people shapes. I don’t hold that against the game graphically. The important things were the trucks and the road, and they look decent.
You race through different sections of Mexico (so naturally you yell “¡Arriba!” every time you jump a hill, definitely triggering some pink-haired lady who hypothetically watched someone play this today), with events based around the Mexico 250, Ensenada 500, and Baja 1000. Rather than doing laps around a little circuit, you’re driving from one end of a course to the other, which makes the races feel more like an actual off-road journey. There are eight main course sections, and the terrain changes enough to give you the impression that you’re traveling somewhere, even if a lot of it eventually starts looking like the same dirt road with slightly different decorations. I mean, it looks like that because that’s what it is, but the point stands.
And there’s plenty of stuff on those dirt roads.
Trees, bushes, other trucks, people, animals, and folks riding around on ATVs who apparently decided the safest place to spend their afternoon was directly in front of a bunch of racing trucks. Yeah, people… I saw you skimming past that. A man and a woman (I assume their genders; like I said, pixelated blobs) just standing there in the middle of the road. Well, not the middle of the road, more to the side or in between two roads, but in the way regardless. That’s $10K lost for running over them.
Who authorized this?
Seriously, imagine attending a real off-road race and being told, “Okay, we’re going to send several trucks flying through the desert at high speed, but feel free to wander out onto the course whenever you want.”
That’s not a sporting event. That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. And it should be jail time, but this is just another Tuesday in Mexico. Thought I forgot about old M. Bison, didn’t you? Not a chance.
And the game actually punishes you for hitting certain things. Run over somebody or smash into an animal, and you can lose money that would’ve otherwise gone toward improving your truck. So now you’re trying to win a race, avoid obstacles, keep your vehicle from falling apart, and preserve your finances. See, now I’ve told you twice that you lose money for running over people. Moral of the story? If you want to upgrade your truck for the next leg of the race, try not to send some poor bastard to the morgue without one of his.
I’m playing a racing game, not trying to manage a damn insurance company.
The driving itself is pretty straightforward. Accelerate, steer, brake when you need to, and use your nitro boosts when you want a little extra speed. You don’t have to learn seventeen different buttons or spend twenty minutes studying a control scheme before you’re allowed to have fun.
I appreciate that. Sometimes I just want to turn on a game and play it. I tried playing Mafia: The Old Country recently, and it had the most boring 20-minute opening I’ve ever seen, so I turned it off. I could’ve done five or more races in this during that snoozefest.
Of course, simple controls don’t necessarily mean the game is easy. The steering can be touchy, especially when you’re flying down a narrow dirt road and suddenly have to avoid something standing in the middle of it. One little correction can turn into a much bigger correction, and before you know it, you’re bouncing around the scenery like a pinball.
And because the game has a damage system, you can’t just smash into everything and keep going forever. Damage your truck badly enough and your race is over.
That’s where The Baja can get frustrating. You’re trying to maintain speed to beat the other racers, but going fast makes it easier to hit something. Slow down to avoid the obstacles, and somebody passes you. Go faster to catch up, and suddenly there’s another ATV in your way.
I don’t know who organized this particular Baja race, but they need to be fired.
Thankfully, there’s a little more to the game than simply racing from start to finish. You earn money and can use it to upgrade your truck between races. Engines, tires, shocks, brakes, lights, and nitro boosts are all part of the equation. Improving your vehicle gives you something to work toward, and it’s satisfying when you can feel the difference between the truck you started with and the one you’ve been spending your winnings on. Developers today see this and say, “Why not spend real money instead?” Or publishers, I guess.
That upgrade system was one of the things that made these old arcade-style racing games fun. You weren’t just trying to win the next race. You were trying to build something better so you could win the race after that. It’s like an ARPG where you beat a boss so you can get gear that allows you to beat the same boss, only faster.
Or, in my case, probably spend too much money on nitro because going faster is more fun than making sensible financial decisions.
You can also make pit stops for fuel and repairs, adding another little bit of strategy to the whole thing. Nothing terribly complicated, but enough to make you pay attention to something besides the truck directly in front of you.
The game has different difficulty settings and a two-player option, although don’t get too excited about the latter. You’re taking turns rather than racing against each other on a split screen. Which is fine, I guess, but if somebody tells me a racing game supports two players, I generally assume we’re going to be racing each other, not sitting around watching each other play. That was a clever marketing bastard who made that decision. Siblings and friends take turns playing games, make it a selling point, and call it multiplayer. Thanks!
Imagine going to an arcade, putting your quarters into a racing cabinet with your friend, and then being told to wait until he finishes before you can have your turn.
That’s not multiplayer. That’s sharing.
As far as the presentation goes, the graphics are probably the game’s strongest feature. Not because they’re beautiful by today’s standards, but because the developers were trying to do something interesting with the hardware. The rolling terrain gives the game a character that a lot of other SNES racers didn’t have. I like to say “interesting with the hardware” like they weren’t coming from the NES and thinking, “Twice the bits, more power, this is awesome.” No, you will work with the limitations of the SNES because 31 years later, I’m used to the PS5.
The sound is another matter. There’s some music, there are engine noises, and there’s the usual collection of effects you’d expect from driving a truck into things. Nothing about the soundtrack is going to make me stop what I’m doing and look up whether somebody released it on CD.
And considering how many games from this era had genuinely fantastic music, that’s a shame. Not every soundtrack needs to be Mega Man X, but it would be nice to have something worth remembering after the console gets turned off.
The biggest problem with Super Off Road: The Baja is that once you’ve experienced the racing, the upgrades, and the different courses, you’ve pretty much experienced everything the game has to offer. There’s no huge roster of vehicles, no elaborate career mode, no tremendous variety of things to do. You drive your truck, try not to destroy it, collect your money, improve it, and drive some more.
And eventually, that gets repetitive. And to be fair, even with those things, it still gets repetitive. At least this race was straight. Imagine how repetitive holding left for half a mile to complete a circle is?
Now, I’m not going to sit here in 2026 and criticize a 1993 SNES racing game for not having the amount of content you’d find in a modern racing game. That would be stupid, and not even our usual good and fun kind. But even compared to other games from its own era, The Baja is a fairly modest experience. And that’s okay. It was a gift from my parents from a cheap bargain bin. Might not have been okay if it was an $80 day-one release.
It’s enjoyable in shorter sessions, and there’s a satisfying little arcade game underneath the rough edges. But it’s not something I would want to sit and play for five hours straight. To be fair, developers at this time didn’t intend for you to do that either. There was a thing called outside, and you were encouraged to go out there. Crazy, I know. Now you will play this same damn game 10 hours a day, every day, or you’re not going to complete your daily objective of your premium season pass.
Which brings me back to that random afternoon in 1995.
I don’t remember every race I won. I don’t remember how far I got through the game, and I’m certainly not going to pretend I remember my exact upgrade strategy from thirty-one years ago. I barely remember what I ate for lunch yesterday. Actually, that’s not true. I had two slices of leftover The Works pizza from Papa John’s that I ate cold. And the day before that, I mixed a can of Southgate chili with leftover Sloppy Joe mix. What I remember is coming home from school and discovering that my parents had bought me four Super Nintendo games for absolutely no reason other than they saw them for a good price and thought I’d enjoy them. And the fourth game was Family Feud, thank you!
And they were right.
I had fun with Super Off Road: The Baja. It wasn’t one of my all-time favorite games, and it didn’t consume my childhood the way WWF RAW did. But it was a game I enjoyed, and it came into my life in a way that made it memorable.
There’s something special about those little surprises when you’re a kid. Your parents don’t necessarily realize they’re creating a memory you’re going to carry around for the next three decades. They’re just buying some cheap games at Sears.
And thirty-one years later, here I am writing about one of them on a website filled with Greek gods, wrestling opinions, movie reviews, and whatever the hell else we feel like doing around here.
I suppose that’s a pretty good return on whatever they paid for it.
As for the game itself, Super Off Road: The Baja is a decent little off-road racer that deserves some credit for its ambitious presentation and straightforward arcade gameplay. The upgrade system is enjoyable, the racing can be fun, and there’s enough here to keep you entertained for a while. Unfortunately, the repetitive courses, occasionally frustrating obstacles, and limited variety prevent it from being anything particularly special.
It’s not a game I’d tell everybody to rush out and play, but it’s also not one I’d throw in the trash. There’s fun to be had here, especially if you have a fondness for early-’90s racing games and don’t mind occasionally crashing into an ATV rider who has apparently never heard of basic road safety.
On second thought, I’m wavering on Family Feud. It’s possible. I wouldn’t make the claim under oath, though. We’ll go with it regardless, because I don’t remember, and you wouldn’t have any way of knowing one way or the other.
And yes, for this one, the nostalgia is helping the score a little bit. I’ve never pretended otherwise.
Super Off Road: The Baja gets a three out of five: SUBSTANTIAL.
This one trigger some nostalgia for ya? Check out my reviews of TaleSpin on the Sega Genesis and WWF RAW on SNES or browse the full Retro WedNESday archive.
Did you ever play Super Off Road: The Baja, or do you have a bargain-bin childhood favorite of your own? Share your memories in the comments, and come back next week for another Retro WedNESday adventure!
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