English
Gamereactor
reviews
Sega Rally Online Arcade

Sega Rally Online Arcade

First things first: to point out that Sega Rally Online Arcade isn't a repackaged digital version of the Sega Rally game that came out a few years back.

Subscribe to our newsletter here!

* Required field

And in similar vein to state that it's a stripped down version of said game would be wrong. The clue's in the title: "Online Arcade".

This is a conversion - with tweaks - of Sega Rally's arcade fraternity. That means the type of Championship that was built to swallow pound coins, not time. The game holds five tracks in all, three forming the backbone of the multi-stage main single player game, with the fourth serving as the backdrop for a game-ending one-on-one race against a CPU Houdini, such is its ability to disappear round corners in a flash.

The fifth is by no means least, given it'll give Arcade fanatics a tear in their eye. This track sits separate in its own 'Classic' Mode, such as it a buffed up replication of the very first Sega Rally Desert track with the two original cars, the Toyota Celica and the Lancia Delta, going head to head.

Along with Championship and Classic run-throughs, you've got the option of Time Attack, Single Race (stacking you against a race course rammed with competitors) and split-screen or online Multiplayer.

Sega Rally Online Arcade
This is an ad:
Sega Rally Online ArcadeSega Rally Online Arcade

It's lean frame is what you'd expect if you were honest with yourself about what a XBLA title for 800 Microsoft Points would deliver. It's enough if the bite-sized experience, the sort that ends up on the social gaming night playlist or squeezed in as breather between those 20-hour game epics, offers a quality experience. Which Sega Rally does, once you've overtaken its other issues.

With five tracks to its name, each needs to shine. The 180-hairpin corners of Alpine and the weaving track at Lakeside are fantastic offerings, but throw into sharp contrast just how simple - boring even - the opening track duo of Tropical and Canyon are. While some opening race courses are absolute stormers with enough curves and set-pieces to make them definite contenders for repeat run-throughs, these two, in the beginning anyway, lack any real grip.

Talking of grip, the car handling will throw you to begin. Was Sega Rally's garages really so full of lightweights? There's little heft or sense of gravity's forces pulling on these rides; they're as light on the road as fluff on a ice-rink. It's only on sand or snow that you feel any tactile feedback, any sense of grip. On the tarmac only the speedometer gives an indication whether your nailing power-slides. Otherwise it feels like drifting with all the fury of an oddly-coloured cloud.

This is an ad:

However, blame the changing landscape of the rally scene - we now expect, and are used to, cars whose handling need as much attention as an ex-Big Brother contestant. Breezy arcade handling? It feels like we're getting off too easily.

Sega Rally Online Arcade
Sega Rally Online ArcadeSega Rally Online ArcadeSega Rally Online Arcade

Yet it's the hook for the game's longevity, the online six-player multiplayer, that reverse these issues out of the scrapyard and back into the fast lane.

Your indifference to a lost second here, a drop of mph there, an imperfect corner or two, is replaced with the competitive streak that comes from racing against your peers. The wide generous corners of Tropical and Canyon become another chance to nip in past another driver's wider drift and up the ranks, and finding the sweet spot for your own perfect corner is now something worth pursuing.

Shame then that finding an online match is a hit and miss affair - perhaps the release coming too close to Codemaster's Dirt 3 forcing racers to hold onto their coffers for something with more substance. Competitiveness is saved then as Time Attack mode, which has been relegated in recent years to the sidelines by the racing genre for meatier SP campaigns, returns to its original prominence here. And there's always split-screen if you're wanting some human heat chasing your back bumper for pole position.

The game's skewed at a price that doesn't take the piss for what it's offering. It's definitely one of the better racers on the digital market (and the best Sega offering now Outrun Arcade has sadly been phased out) and for those of us who fed the series of arcade cabinets throughout the years, a one-time cost to have one of the all-time racing classics parked under the hood of our console seems cheap compared to what we've paid in the past. Again, its good to have the option of a brief arcade blast between the more buffed titles in our library.

But this isn't a racer for those wanting a realistic rallying experience - Dirt 3 will likely fill those wishes - and for fans that want their Sega Rally to have the trimmings expected of today's market, the retail edition can be picked up for fairly cheap as well, and could offer a more attractive proposition. However, for those who always felt a pound coin in the pocket equalled a doorway (or gearstick) into ten minutes of pure arcade pleasure, get ready to unload around six quid - it's a lot less than what you would have lost in the arcade fifteen years ago.

07 Gamereactor UK
7 / 10
+
+ Multiplayer is basic but uncomplicated. + Inclusion of Classic Mode is a nice touch.
-
- Only two tracks offer any real challenge. - SP won't last.
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

Related texts

0
Sega Rally Online ArcadeScore

Sega Rally Online Arcade

REVIEW. Written by Gillen McAllister

This is a conversion - with tweaks - of Sega Rally's arcade fraternity. That means the type of Championship that was built to swallow pound coins, not time.



Loading next content