V-Rally

.: By: Jason Surguine :: Device used: E-125 :: March 8, 2001 :.

When I first heard of this game and saw the in screen shots, I was actually pretty impressed and wanted to play the game as soon as possible, so I downloaded the demo… and was very let down and thought that the game just didn’t live up to MY expectations.

However, I admit now that my expectations were pretty high, being an avid racing game fan, I was looking forward to something more along the lines of the Ridge Racer series (which I still think is possible on the PPC). The game is actually more along the lines of the Rad Racer for the original NES, or more recently the Gameboy Color title Top Gear Pocket. So, I lightened up a little (considering that I owned and even enjoyed playing Top Gear Pocket) and took a second look at the game.

V-Rally is your typical racing game, where you race around a track in several different locales trying to achieve the best time. There are 3 different modes of play:

• Championship Mode, where you try to finish the tracks in the best time/best placement as possible to advance.

• Arcade Mode, where the object is virtually the same, except you are able to advance to the next race as long as you finish the course in the allotted time, making timed checkpoints along the way.

• Practice Mode, where you can practice racing on the courses you have already played to try and improve your racing skills.

The game starts up with a nice looking title screen that shows these game play modes along with the options selection. The options consist of sound on/off, show traffic signs on/off, difficulty level (Rookie, Pro, and Ace), Speed Display Mph, Kmh, Language, and Analog controls on/off (which really doesn’t affect anything because you can still use the analog controls when it is off…). Another thing I like about the title screen, is the cool racing-game-title-screen music that plays - this game almost acts and looks like a real game, well the menus at least.

Graphics in this game are actually above the standard PPC par. The menus in the game can easily be mistaken for menus in Ridge Racer 4 (w/o the 3d models obviously), and are done very nicely. The in game graphics, while not in a 3d rendered world, are still not half bad compared to many other PPC titles. There are no real graphical glitches and the sprite used in the game are presented well, albeit there simplicity, and the animation of all the sprites and the "moving" road are very smooth with no lags or stutters.

They even put "weather" effects in the game, where the snow looks pretty nice and well done, but I’m still trying to figure out what the other effect is… do you folks in England get Black Snowfall? Hmm, maybe it’s rain…? The nice scrolling background image looks cool too, even though it isn’t using the full 16-bit color of the Casio screen.

The layout of the in game screen is the typical behind-the-car view and includes your car’s position in the race, time elapsed, best time for the course, Mph/Kph, and the gear your car is in. There is also a useless screen at the bottom that shows what car you are in (just in case you forgot and you needed to know half way through the race) and the what course your are on (no not a map of the course, just the name and a pretty picture).

Alternatively, if you selected the analog controls you get to see a virtual pad of sorts that you can use to control the car via the stylus, however this pad still works when the pad isn’t shown (in analog control off mode) and can still be used with the only difference being you don’t have to hold up to use the gas. They should have used this worthless space and put something useful here like a rearview mirror and maybe a nice-looking speedometer or something useful.

Now for the play control. You have four cars to choose from, yet they all pretty much handle the same, the only difference is Max Speed (160, 176 or 192 Mph) and Acceleration (Slow or Fast), there are a bunch of pseudo-charts that represent what I just said plus Grip and Brake, but they’re just for show and make absolutely no difference in the gameplay, if you ask me.

The most bizarre thing play control-wise is that there is no acceleration button (with analog control off), it just accelerates for you and when you brake (there is a button for that luckily) it obviously slows down for you. After awhile I got used to this and almost liked the fact that I wouldn’t have to acquire a new callous on my thumb just to accelerate in this game, like I’ve had to many other times for other racing games.

It still bugs me that I HAVE to use the brake all the time, instead of just easing off the gas. This makes me wonder why they wasted space showing what gear your car is in, when you have no real control over it. The steering control is pretty standard for this type of game and is nothing to scream (or even whine) about.

The actual game play is what you can whine (or eventually be screaming at the top of your lungs) about. I’m not sure about how many of the programmers at Palmtop studied Physics, but the ones that did, decided not to use any of the laws of it in this game. I’m not a Physics major but I do know that if I’m driving my car at 150 Mph and another car comes up behind me and hits me, I shouldn’t come to a complete stop while he passes UNDER me. To me, that just seems illogical.

In fact, the car comes to a complete stop whenever you hit anything (or anything hits you), this gets really bad because of the poor hit detection of the sprites on the side of the road (which make you do a hilarious car-flip across to the other side of the road when you hit them going anything relatively fast, even if it’s a small stick on the ground, which defies the law of gravity) and because of the poor AI of the other cars.

At first, I thought the AI was really cheap, and always trying to cut you off from any path around them, or aiming to hit you on purpose from behind, because they know they can just drive right through you and make you stop. However, it turns out that it is really just really dumb AI, and everything just follows a cheap pattern, which you can figure out after a couple of hours of playing this game. If you can see past all of these shortcomings, and use your brake a lot and learn not to touch anything, the gameplay can actually be enjoyable, even if all 10 tracks in the game are virtually the same.

I was so stoked about the sound in this game after the music on the title screen; then I started playing the game. After the title screen, there is no more music, not even when you’re driving. Music is Essential in a Driving game! I can’t believe they left that out.

Well, maybe the sound effects will make up for it. No engine sound? No engine sound. How can you make a driving game with no engine sound? I want to hear my motor, I want to hear the other cars motors (since there’s no rear view mirror, it would be nice if I knew I was going to be passed under by another car) and I want to hear tires squeal (nope, doesn’t have that either), I don’t want to hear a weak <chunk> sound when I hit a stick or a car, or a weaker <crack> sound when I hit the same object going faster.

I also REALLY don’t want to hear some lame guy saying "hard right" and telling me what kind of turn is up ahead, the signs do well enough. The people clapping when you finish the race or you make a checkpoint on time (in arcade mode) is okay, but gets old after the second time. The sound in this game is decent, for a puzzle game. This, however, is a racing game, and therefore the sound is pathetic. The only way I could look past this was by loading up MiMidi player and playing my favorite console racing game tunes while I played this game. Actually once I did that, I actually started to enjoy the game, and I would suggest it to anyone who will play or has played this game.

I thought I should make a few suggestions before finishing the review. If another racing game comes out, it should have graphics that show off the PPC, MUSIC, Racing game sound effects, More cars (with actual variances in the capabilities), the ability to upgrade your car, many more options than I can even list right now, these are just a few. Oh and even a cheesy ending when you beat the game on the most difficult level other than "Congratulations" would be nice too.

After all is said and done, I actually believe that this is a decent, playable game. Sure, it isn’t the best racer in the world, and it’s definitely rough around the edges, but after spending sometime with it and learning how to tame the controls, it can be enjoyable. And I will say this, it is the best racer for the PPC so far.

In Top Gear:

• Decent to good graphics

• Decent play control

• Best racer for PPC yet.
  

Broken Down:

• No music

• Bad sound

• Cheap/Stupid AI

• Poor physics

• No gas pedal button

.: Game category: Sports Games :: Reviews Index :.