| paleface [sys=PS2; cat=Driving; reg=JPN] |
| | | Sega seems to have been going for a re-creation of the tire-churning racing action of the original Sega Rally Championship arcade game, and in many respects they've done a good job of recapturing the same feel, only with more cars and modernized graphics.
On the other hand, an attempt to relive past glories will usually end up less inspired than the original, and that happens here. The sounds aren't very remarkable--the announcer in particular is less interesting than the old one, and the stages I saw were a little on the dark and dull side.
And then there's the loading times. The old arcade version put you through short little ~1 minute chunks of rally racing; after completing the section before the time limit, you hop right on to the next. All well and good--unless you have significant load times in between the very short racing segments. Unfortunately, SR2006 has significant loads between each segment, and when you're spending maybe a minute racing for every fifteen seconds loading, those loading times start to add up.
On the other hand, it handles very well, and if you can overlook the loading times, and the high difficulty, you'll probably have some fun getting to the exact same spot before running out of time every single time you try the course. Whee! But that happened in the old Rally too, and apparently everyone loves that one.
Speaking of which, a PS2 version of Sega Rally Championship came with 2006 for those who preordered, or something. It's good, still looks sharp, has some nice anti-aliasing thrown in, and runs light lightning, and there are no load times between stages. I think I like this version better'n the actual 2006 version.
Let's face it, though; even though 2006 tries to throw in some kind of career mode, these are arcade games, meant to be enjoyed in fast, tiny bites. At least, I know that I can't bash my head against that darn time clock more than a half dozen times or so before I need to take a real break from the game. |
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| | | | Not released in the US, and the EU release was canceled (GameFAQs). |
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In PSCX2 ^
Thought this was gonna be a real short session because of the weightless, revolve-around-the-center-point-to-turn cheap driving physics--but it turns out that piloting balloon animals can still be kind of compelling if there are lots of bite-sized tracks with tight time limits to beat!
That's in the arcade mode circuits, at least. The career mode though--well, it starts out badly, making you set up a monthly schedule (yes that's what I want in a racing game, punching appointments into a calendar! : PPP), then drive three times in a row along a cloudy ditch. Stick that out and...it's on to another three times down an even cloudier ditch! This mode also has some tiny bit of car tuning, which I skipped. Terminal boredom cut short my promising ditch navigation career.
Doesn't help that the load times--even sped up to PSCX2's Turbo speed--feel longer than the tracks, and that everything aside from the precisely tuned arcade time limits feels mediocre at best: graphics, music, sound, track layouts--all pretty forgettable, a far cry from that other 2006 PS2 Sega racing game, OutRun 2006 Coast to Coast! Oh well that one was a Sumo Digital port of a 2003 Sega AM2 arcade game, whereas Rally 2006 was "the first Sega Rally game that wasn't originally made for arcades" (Wikipedia) and yeah, there is zero arcade feel here.
There's no shadow under the car, which doesn't help with the floaty feeling.
On the other hand, a spiffy port of Sega Rally Championship, the original Sega Rally arcade game, came as a bonus in a slip case with the "first shipment" of Sega Rally 2006.
Oh huh Wikipedia notes that Rally 2006's "Arcade Mode" Series 4 tracks--4 unlocks after clearing 1--are remakes of Sega Rally Championship's tracks. That could be kind of interesting. I BARELY cleared Arcade Series 2 so uh...we'll see. = oo
I mean, maybe; if I get the urge for rally action I may just wring everything I can out of Sega Rally 2 first, 'cause even with that game's crummy ol' framerate, it still DOES have some of that ol' Sega arcade feeling!
Wikipedia also notes that Rally 2006 was originally planned as part of Sega's 10 year anniversary, and was gonna be called "Sega Rally 2005"--but didn't make it out until mid-January 2006. = p
I ran this through Steam and used Steam Input's button toggle function to make it so I don't have to hold down the Accelerate button. ^ _^ Works fine for this game--just like for Sega Rally 2 for DC (but the Flycast DC emulator doesn't cooperate w/ Steam Input so I gotta use JoyToKey's button toggle for that game)--'cause having gas held down doesn't interfere with the braking functions at all. : D
I recorded this session on a slightly too-narrow screen layout (it's the one that fits Sega Rally Championship) that crops the sides slightly, because I was lazy. = o It's standard 4:3, I should have tried that at least! |
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