In the early-to-mid 90s, Electronic Arts had an awesome combat/racing hybrid franchise going called, "Road Rash." The main thrust of the game (no pun intended), was to drive your souped-up racing motorcycle as fast as you could while beating the holy snot out of the other people racing against you. You could use clubs, chains, fists, feet and classic, never-gets-old tactic of just running people off the road to accomplish your goals and, ultimately, win the (highly illegal) race.

The "Road Rash" games (six in all; published from 1991 through 1999) were a blast to play, whether alone or against a friend. Sadly, EA just stopped making them in the 32-bit era. Sure there have been whispers and rumors of a new "Road Rash" in the 15 years since the last one, "Road Rash: Jailbreak" on the original PlayStation, but EA never delivered.

Now an indie studio, Dark Seas Games, has picked up the ball that EA so egregiously fumbled. With the help of a successful Kickstarter campaign, their spiritual successor to the "Road Rash" legacy, titled "Road Redemption," is now available as an early access game on Steam, according to Polygon. Check out the video below for some intense, in-game action.

"Road Redemption" features a reasonably hearty XP-based upgrade system, insane physics and multiple game modes. That's on top of the basic premise which, like its forefather, "Road Rash," has you driving at high speeds and trying to utterly annihilate as many other motorcyclists as possible...as it damn well should.

"Road Redemption" will be available early in 2015 on the PC, WiiU, and the Xbox 360.