Mini Review – Sega Rally Online

Rally Driving Sim

Let’s off-road!

Danny

Sega Rally Online Arcade tries to evoke what are lofty memories of what some might consider (especially myself) to be one of the greatest arcade racing games of all time, while using fairly modern technology from Sega’s 2007 update to the series: Sega Rally Revo. While this is all well and good there are some serious flaws to be considered.

First of all Sega Rally is supposed to be an arcadey take on the rally genre and, as a fan of the first two games, I get that. My main issue is that it really does not feel like I am racing in a rally so much as riding in a floaty magical capet that does not seem to be slowed down by much, this includes clipping (or bumping) into walls or other cars. In the old Sega Rally games hitting the walls would severally cripple your time but in this game it’s just a mild inconvenience.  The courses are still fun to drive around, after all they are the iconic Sega Rally courses redone in modern 3D tech after all ,but the actual racing does not seem right, not to fans of real rallying or existing Sega Rally fans and that’s a shame.

Sadly, this was the best of the available promo shots.

First of all Sega have a nasty habit of taking advantage of their loyal customers and SROA is no exception I am afraid, just like a lot of their other input that ends up being bare bones arcade or console ports. To put it bluntly, SROA has very little in terms of content. There are four tracks and about a dozen cars or so to select. Gameplay modes-wise you have Arcade Mode where you race around all three tracks plus the fourth if you manage to place 1st by the end of track three. Then there is Time Trial Mode, Classic Mode – like Arcade mode but with only two cars on the track – and Race Online which is probably the only reason you would might want this game.

This is where I am at a reviewing impasse. Yes, I do enjoy playing this game but I can not recommend that anyone actually goes out and buys it. The reason being is that you can pick up Sega Rally Revo for around the same price as this game. It’s has everything SROA has to offer but with more courses, cars, championships, and unlockables and I distinctly recall the full retail version being a lot less forgiving and a bit more fun to play as well now thinking about it. Overall I would strongly suggest giving this game a miss and I would recommend you track down that game or maybe DIRT2.

4/10