SEGA Rally Championship

The Good
I will not write a regular review for this game, as it will be like writing a review about Pac-Man. I will just make a few statements to help you on your way.

If you like racing games, then go get this game. It is very simple.. as you will start to play you will not like it much, but 3 hours into the game you will start to get addicted. The driving mechanics in this game are more addictive than Initial D Arcade Stage! I was late to work many times while I tried to improve my lap time. The fun concept in this game might not be understood by everyone, but if you are one of the types who used to play Ridge Racer (1 thru 5) for hours and hours mastering the track and control of the drift, then this game is for you. As you know, in 1995 Sega and Sony where in a heated battle for best 3d racer.. and personally I don't know whether Sega Rally or Ridge Racer 1 is better. You're definitely not on rails as you were in Namco's hit, but that game had a lot of other things to offer.

Make sure to use the 2nd version 1st Party Sega Saturn "fighter" controller or possibly the 3d analog "nights" controller to play this game. It is a massive difference from the most common, version 1 Saturn controller.

The Bad
While this first installment was just perfect, they could have capitalized on the opportunity and given the sequels more tracks and more options! While they might not have the best replay value, all the Saturn and Arcade versions of this racing series are superb, (especially the massive and very expensive, single cabinet version of SEGA Rally 2.. realistic manual transmission and e-brake to boot.. if you are in San Diego check it out inside the Sea World arcade). But stay away from the Dreamcast conversions..

The Bottom Line
This is one of those hard-core racers. Not with slow, concentrated, simulation style gameplay found in Gran Turismo 2, but more of twitch-reaction, shooter style gameplay found in Ikaruga or G-Darius.

Much more fun than the popular Sega Rally 2 on Dreamcast.

And while not really a simulation.. it is a pretty good "window" into the World Rally Championship world. If you spend the week playing this, and watch a few FIA rally events, you will be living it up. The "online" option of the Championship Edition of this game is probably the biggest argument for you and a friend to both purchase the Saturn Netlink modem, so you can call each-other up (Win 95's "Hyper Terminal" style), and at a 28.8kbs connection compete like madmen.

The Good
The physics of the car is very good. The two player battle and link battle lets you can battle with others. You can customize the car at car settings. The game also have ghosts so you can review your previous results and follow the ghost to improve your results.

The Bad
I does not like the windowed mode only works with 16 bit color mode. The cars and tracks selection is very limited. So, you will be bored.

The Bottom Line
If you like car physics, play it. If you does not like the game's cars and tracks, do not play it.

The Good
First of all, just as pretty much every SEGA PC conversion, this is a virtually flawless port of the original arcade hit, which is no small feat to accomplish and deserves it's recognition. The graphics are there, the sounds are there, and the "feel" of the original SEGA Rally are there in your PC. Furthermore, the "link-up" multiplayer gameplay that made it so popular and became a must since Daytona USA is faithfully recreated via full multiplayer LAN support. You also have a new beat the clock-like mode, where the game stores the data behind your fastest run and then reproduces it as you race in the form of some sort of "ghost" car for you to race against, essentially providing a much greater incentive than that of the usual time-trial modes.

So that's the conversion, what about the game itself you ask? Well, SEGA Rally is a rather amusing arcade diversion that is low, low, low on realism and high on action, and uhm... er... well, I guess I can tab my way to "the bad" now...

The Bad
....Ok, as I mentioned the premise behind SEGA Rally is that of a mindless arcade racer, the likes of which we have seen since the dawn of time, however SEGA Rally and many other games of it's ilk are simply a complete bore when ported to the PC or any other home platform and usually result in lame games that offer little or no entertainment regardless of how they were ported. SEGA Rally is no exception. Why? Because the mechanics behind each platforms (arcade and home) are different! And nowhere is this more evident as in the arcade racers (particularly those developed by SEGA). The reason you play a game in your home is because you really want to spend time with it, the reason you play a game at the arcades (generally speaking of course) is because you want to kill some time and amuse yourself for awhile... See the difference? What does this translate to? Arcade games are usually quick action-fests that maximize their fun factor to be played out in a time span of 2-4 minutes and just die out after that. So why was SEGA Rally (or other racing games such as Cruisin' USA or Daytona USA) such a hit in the arcades? because it perfectly understood that rule and abided by it religiously. SEGA Rally doesn't offer you a complex career mode or a lenghty campaign mode with dozens of cars to choose from... that doesn't work in the arcades. Instead SEGA Rally throws you into a "championship" of 4 short races (make that very short races) with 3 possible cars... races that are as flashy, straightforward and strategy-free as possible in order to give you that great "quick-fix" that made it such a good game in the arcades. Cool isn't it? Well as you probably guessed by now, that may cut it in the arcades, where it only costs a quarter to amuse yourself, but on the PC things are a little different and you soon realize that SEGA Rally is, to put it simple: a borefest.

The game just runs out of fuel after the first 5 minutes, sure, the tracks seem dynamic and impressive the first 500 times you race through them (which will happen quite fast since the tracks are reeeeeaally short) but afterwards, when you realize you feel like shooting that stupid helicopter and start noticing the crappy floor textures, you'll realize that 4 tracks just don't cut it, and neither do 3 lousy cars (and I'll be damned if I know what the difference is between them). And while it may be amusing to play it with some friends, the absence of any really interesting game modes turns the entire game into some sort of Twilight Zone-ish arcade hell, where you are seemingly forced to play the same 5-minutes long game over and over and over again until you die!! Wait, no... you can take the cd out and use it as a coaster! That's what I did anyway... thank god I pirated it...

The racing physics are non-existant, and while that is a pre-requisite on an arcade racer such as this, this game takes it to the extreme. As anyone who has ever seen a rally race can confirm, slides and powerturns are the order of the day but SEGA Rally seems to think that's all there is to it, making the entire game some sort of 3D pinball simulator where you just lunge your car in a general direction and bounce around the track while making turns and slides... Fun the first 5 minutes, hell afterwards...

The Bottom Line
In short, go to the arcades, look at it, spend a few quarters if you feel like it, have some fun, but KEEP IT IN THE ARCADES. Bringing it to your home will only make evident how crappy a racer it is.