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Retro|Spective 035: Sega Rally

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    Retro|Spective 035: Sega Rally

    Sega's 90's arcade output is a chain of iconic 3D titles with several series taking the forefront for sucking up peoples spare change. High amongst that list lies...

    Sega Rally

    Mainline Entry 01 - Sega Rally Championship
    Formats: Arcade, Saturn, PC, N-Gage, Game Boy Advance and Playstation 2
    The iconic racer proved immensely popular despite its slight content. Primarily featuring three courses and two cars, your goal was simple, complete three laps with a first place finish. Drifting through corners and perfecting racing lines was key as you moved from desert locations and through towns and mountain roads. At home a fourth course could be reached with a strong run for which a winning position would unlock the third car, the tetchy Stratos.



    Mainline Entry 02 - Sega Rally 2
    Formats: Arcade, Dreamcast and PC
    Following up the original was an obvious decision but would never be easy. The sequel arrived four years later making use of the Model 3 board and giving players new environments to race in. The Dreamcast version came the following year alongside the new console however it was once again a rushed port and halved the games framerate which impacted on the experience. The expanded content and additional cars made for a bigger game but it never had the same impact its predecessor did.



    Spin Off Entry 01 - Sega Rally 2006
    Formats: Playstation 2
    This PS2 entry tried to capitalise on the consoles huge player base and tied in to the series 10th anniversary. The game stripped out some SR2 features and its car list, mixing up the tone and content . However the game made limited impact and never saw a western release.



    Spin Off Entry 02 - Sega Rally Revo
    Formats: Playstation 3, Playstation Portable, Xbox 360 and PC
    Arriving on a new generation of consoles, the game was supposed to be a revolution in rally racers. Bringing a solid 34 cars to the new entry and three courses per environment, the games key defining feature was its track deformation that left physical tyre tracks in the mud that you had to factor in on each lap. Once again though, the game failed to ignite the series flame and no proper follow up ever came.



    Mainline Entry 03 - Sega Rally 3
    Formats: Arcade, Playstation3 and Xbox 360
    Developed alongside SR Revo, the third arcade entry saw release twice with an online variant coming a few years later. Mostly following the same structure of the previous entries, you race across each of three environments with a third place or above finish in each course giving you a final race in the bonus Lakeside course. However, the later Online variant added the Desert course from SR1 for its home port though this version was delisted just a year later.



    Share your thoughts and memories of the Sega Rally series!

    #2
    Sega Rally was a weird one for me. I never quite got into it as much as I did Daytona. This was, in part, due to Sega's decision to include both the main cars and an entire course on a demo disc (the Saturn "bootleg sampler" disc), which kinda felt like you were getting a third of the game for free, so I didn't buy it until a long time post-release.

    The home version was a pretty decent port, too. I mean, side-by-side, the Saturn version is a real downgrade but I felt that they managed to capture the feel of the arcade version extremely well. It was also a big step-up over Daytona in terms of how solid it felt; the framerate was more consistent and the draw-distance was longer,

    A friend owned it though, and we used to swap my copy of Daytona with his copy, so I played a great deal of it. One of the unsung features I remember was that you could play a "tug of war" mode in 2-player. You set a length of "rope" (in seconds) and to win, one player had to get that far ahead of another player at a checkpoint; the laps were infinite until someone lost. We would play for hours in that mode; superb fun.

    It's true that it was content-lite, however, 3 very different cars and 4 tracks was actually considered content-rich for an arcade-derived racer, comparing it to Ridge or Daytona. That being said, games like Wipeout had already started to feature much more, and I think it was only when Sony's F1 games came out that we started to expect racing games to have 20 tracks.

    Originally posted by Superman Falls View Post
    The Dreamcast version came the following year alongside the new console however it was once again a rushed port and halved the games framerate which impacted on the experience. The expanded content and additional cars made for a bigger game but it never had the same impact its predecessor did.
    One of the features of Sega Rally 2 that I loved, which is often overlooked, were the videos that introduced each car:

    Comment


      #3
      I quite enjoyed the Saturn one, but now on the rare occasions I bother to get the Saturn out, I prefer Manx TT, which is also incredibly light in content, with just two tracks.

      The GBA game is a bit of a disappointment. V-Rally is much better.

      I've tried Revo, but found it too hard on PS3, and too easy on PSP.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Asura;2268072
        One of the features of [I
        Sega Rally 2[/I] that I loved, which is often overlooked, were the videos that introduced each car:
        I too loved that and also how each car speed dial was correct (depending on make), something which you didn't see much of, back in the day.

        Anway the handling of the 1st Rally game on the Saturn is unmatched and was better than the Arcade and the physics on the main car was really advanced for its time on the Saturn; I loved the way how each shock absorber and tire reacted independently to the surface.

        Sega Rally II was amazing in the Arcade and I loved the DC version with its incredible course design and 10-year mode, just a shame the physics seemed so stiff and the handling model wasn't anywhere near as good. Worse than all that though, was the very poor (and looked like a placeholder) water and debris trail effects, which weren't a patch on the Model 3 version and really let the game down. If only SEGA gave it a few months and dropped the Windows CE and looked to code to the metal.

        Did also enjoy Sega Rally 2006, but found Sega Revo to be a total letdown, even if the Tech was nice enough. Love to see SEGA remake the DC version with Model 3 perfect visuals and put it up online on XBox LIVE and PSN with rankings, replay and online modes

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          #5
          Sega Rally, outside Arcade, was a game I didn't click with at first. It took a little bit but once you got over the initial learning of drifting round corners the game suddenly opened up to the addiction it was. The original had that Sega blue skies purity about that all the following games lacked. Whilst SR2 wasn't bad as such it was a massive letdown for me, just didn't seem a patch on the original game. I've dabbled with the ones that follow but one as much as Revo. Track deformation always seemed like a very small feature that was over emphasised at the time and Revo leans too heavily on it, a shame as there are hints of the right intentions about it but it never sticks the landing. Given Sega's recent arcade titles like House of the Dead 5, hopefully they turn their sights to a purer Sega Rally 4 at some point.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Team Andromeda View Post
            Sega Rally II was amazing in the Arcade and I loved the DC version with its incredible course design and 10-year mode, just a shame the physics seemed so stiff and the handling model wasn't anywhere near as good. Worse than all that though, was the very poor (and looked like a placeholder) water and debris trail effects, which weren't a patch on the Model 3 version and really let the game down. If only SEGA gave it a few months and dropped the Windows CE and looked to code to the metal.
            I seem to remember it had performance issues, including slowdown in the corners, which back in that era affected the game's physics too. This may have just been the PAL version.

            Comment


              #7
              Yeah there was slowdown on the JP version too, it wasn't that bad though. And if you out the cheat in, to remove the crowd, one got a more or less rock solid 60 fps

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Team Andromeda View Post
                Yeah there was slowdown on the JP version too, it wasn't that bad though. And if you out the cheat in, to remove the crowd, one got a more or less rock solid 60 fps
                tried that recently, but it makes everything look incredibly barren - bit like driving around a cardboard cut out

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by dvdx2 View Post
                  tried that recently, but it makes everything look incredibly barren - bit like driving around a cardboard cut out
                  Agreed it horrible, but it does make the game a near rock soild 60 fps.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    We used to have a Sega Rally in our local pub. Never have you seen such awesome demonstrations of drink driving on a Friday and Saturday night...

                    Played a lot of Rally 2 in the arcade on two player too, mainly on the big deluxe sit down cabinets they had in Nottingham and London. Still one of my favourite racing games.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Clue for thread 36:

                      Clue - The lost Angelou

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Sega Rally on the Saturn is the game that made me love the machine. I remember people saying it was an amazing port, so I rushed out and bought a copy from an import shop in Feltham. It was stunning to behold how Sega had managed to port the arcade game to the home so convincingly. Not only did it look the part, but it also played like a dream. As much as there weren't many stages, I became obsessed with playing it every day for months.

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