Rally Arcade Classics (PS5) Review

Gameplay

Graphics

Audio

Value

Summary: A wealth of content and responsive controls cant compensate for the generic tracks and lack of excitement in this light weight sim.

3.3

Z Rally

NetK2’s Rally Arcade Classics is a serviceable retro racer that attempts to evoke the spirit of Colin McRae, V-Rally, and the venerable Sega Rally, but ultimately misses that hairpin turn and bounces off a fence.

Despite the name, Rally Arcade Classics is more sim than arcade racer. It’s not so much nail-biting racing action as it is puttering around short muddy courses in a legally distinct Mini Cooper.

There’s a timer, but it’s a rare event that you can’t finish the course before it runs out. Your car gets dusty and a little grimy, but never takes any damage. If you miss a corner, you don’t careen off into a ditch or fly through a fence; you just bounce off the side of the road or slam into an invisible wall.

You can’t just put your foot down and drift; you need to have some consideration for your speed as you approach that long left that your barely conscious navigator has just warned you about. Either hitting the brakes a little or easing off the accelerator.

The handling of the cars is fine for the most part; you can guide the huge collection of unlockable, unlicensed vehicles with wonderful names like the Kopper, Paigot, and BVW, around each course without much fuss. Just don’t expect to be able to grind up against either barriers or opponents. You’ll just stall or spin. Then you may as well just restart the race because your chances of getting anywhere close to the gold are over.

You can’t say Rally Arcade Classics lacks content or a decent sense of progression. Taking a page out of Gran Turismo, there’s a series of licenses you need to obtain to unlock better cars and tougher challenges. Also, like Gran Turismo, they’re the trickiest part of the game. Each requires you to get bronze in a series of challenges. Getting gold can be a bit of a faff, but if you don’t mind settling for silver (or a passing bronze), there’s nothing too challenging.

Once you have a license, you can tackle Tour mode. This sees you take part in time trials, vs races against single opponents, normal races against five other racers, or attempt to rack up as many points as you can by drifting around the track.

Depending on how well you do, you’ll earn a certain number of stars and credits that are then used to unlock the next set of events and buy better cars from the Temu garage.

The problem is that despite the wealth of stages and a large selection of both regular road and dedicated rally cars, they don’t feel all that distinct.

While racing, I didn’t feel any palpable sense of speed either, and your opponents are as dumb as a box of rocks and are completely oblivious to your actions. They don’t attempt to block you or alter their course when you’re tailing them; they just pootle along the track. There’s no sense of tension or pressure; it doesn’t feel like a race, more like a challenge of how many Sunday drivers you can pass before you get to the finish line.

This sense of repetition and getting nowhere fast is exacerbated by the fact that there are only four locations and six stages. Varied weather conditions and day and night drives do mitigate this a little. However, you essentially repeat the same events whenever you move up to a license category. So by the time you finally get to tear it up in your legally distinct Imprenza, any enthusiasm you had for the game is long gone.

The presentation is also passable at best. There’s been a clear attempt to give Rally Arcade Classics a retro feel, and, for the best part, it works, looking like a long-lost Dreamcast game in tone and car detail. Though they’re not licensed, you know what each one is supposed to be, and they’re nice enough to look at.

However, the tracks feel generic, the usual mixture of dirt and country roads you’d expect from a rally game, but there’s no sense of character or place to any of them.

The lack of any damage to the car or the environment on impact detracts from the experience too. Especially when you run into a road sign at 80mph and you just bump into it. It doesn’t fall, your car doesn’t spin out. There’s no squealing of tyres or a crunch of metal. The sign doesn’t bend.

On the flip side, the weather and lighting effects are decent, and the dust and grime that accumulates on your car is a nice touch.

The audio is passable. The engines rev, but there’s no pops from the exhaust, no distinct rally sounds or cheers from onlookers. Your navigator sounds bored, rather than helpful. I would have settled for a little Sega Rally cheese, but alas, that “long easy right” is delivered in a tone like a sat nav rather than by someone who sounds like they’re auditioning for The Price is Right.

Meanwhile, the soundtrack is completely forgettable. I wouldn’t call it generic; it’s just there.

Final Thoughts

Rally Arcade Classics’ retro-styled simcade action works for the best part.

The cars handle well and look the part, though they don’t always sound it. Meanwhile, the limited selection of generic tracks are serviceable, but don’t elicit any sense of place, even if the decent weather effects and night races do help stave off the action feeling too repetitive.

There’s plenty to do, but no sense of tension or speed during the races, and zero challenge during the time trials and drift events, which makes working towards the top-tier cars a bit of a slog.

Overall, it’s all just… well… fine.

About the Author

Gareth Newnham

Rally Arcade Classics (PS5) Review