Rally Arcade Classics Review – Zoom! Zoom!

Rally Arcade Classics Review 

Rally Arcade Classics comes to us from game developer NET2K. They are a small indie game development company and Rally Arcade Classics(RAC) is their first game. The next game they are working on appears to be an arcade version of jet fighter combat. If Rally Arcade Classics showcases their gaming philosophy, NET2K aims to create arcade versions of simulation games that people can enjoy in quick little bits. Here is a closer look to see how successful they are.

There’s almost a tabletop feel to RAC. The game’s viewpoint, which is pulled back further than usual, creates this impression. Adding to that feel is the graphic style chosen. It leans towards a clean style with no textures or dynamic lighting. There is no intent here to make the game look real and, especially for a rally racing game, gritty. There’s no dust or mud flung up on wet tracks. The cars stay clean, and they don’t show any damage.

To be clear, this art style is not bad in itself, just an artistic choice you will either be down with or not. Just a forewarning, because first impressions can color your expectations. Once I dived into RAC and tried a few challenges, its charms became clear to me. This is a fun, little – see those first impressions are really hard to shake – racing game.

Despite the apparent scale of the game, plenty of content is available. RAC includes 44 iconic cars from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 00’s. In addition, there are 48 tracks to challenge your rally racing and drifting skills. However, when you start, the game locks out much of the content. The game builds its progression on a license system. On the plus side, gaining the different grades of licenses doesn’t take too long.

This is because the license objectives are fairly generous. Their ease of attainment is because of the overall game design. There are 5 license classes – S1, S2, A1, A2, B, and C. You start out with the C license and go from there. Each license stage has ten challenges, none of which will take you longer than a minute to complete. There are three rankings for each challenge that award stars. The better you do, the more stars you collect. The more stars you collect, the quicker more content opens up.

So within the licensing system, you find the core of the gameplay loop. Each challenge starts with a leaderboard. The leaderboard shows global rankings. You can tab over to local and friend’s times as well. What stands out from the global leaderboard is how well players get under even the A or 3 star requirement. This is what RAC is all about. Getting as high up the rankings as you can.

Great Gameplay Hook

It’s a good hook bolstered by how quickly one can play a challenge. Many of them are under a minute, with a large portion under thirty seconds. The rankings and quick play time make for a heady one-two gameplay loop. You cannot progress through the licenses sequentially. Once you get your C License, you must complete C-level rally events before you can go to the next licensing test.

How quickly you can advance to the next license level depends on how well you finish in each event. Progression is not only based on rally finishes but your license finishes too. This is where the star system comes into play. The higher you finish, the more stars you earn, and the more stars you earn, the quicker you can open up more content. That content not only includes more challenges and tracks, it also includes faster cars.

  

At the game start, the cars are small and underpowered. This is fine as these cars teach you the basics of power and braking application. Especially for drifting, which is a vital skill in rally racing. Rally racing takes place on roads not meant for high-speed racing. The variety of surfaces and road configurations is endless. What makes rally racing especially challenging are the punishing turns. They are not always conducive to high-speed maneuvers. Let’s not forget the hairpin turns!

To successfully navigate the more pronounced turns and hairpins, one must master the art of drifting. Drifting allows you to slide the car around corners via sideways sliding. This is a delicate balancing act between acceleration and deceleration. Accelerate too much during a drift and the back end of the vehicle will give out. Brake too much and the car loses the slide and the best angle of attack for the quickest way around a corner. The end result is lost time.

Car Handling Feels Real

Car handling is another area where RAC excels. Given the emphasis on arcade gameplay, the cars handle much the way one expects. The game handles the all-important drifting really well. How well the game plays with a gamepad fully reveals its arcade nature. Gamepads do not allow for the precise control that dedicated wheel and pedal setups do. However, in RAC, the tuning for a gamepad is excellent. Never in playing this game did I feel like it was the game’s inability to properly translate my inputs.

Manual Shifts Too!

To make the game even more challenging, it supports manual shifting too. If you think you have your hands full rally racing using an automatic transmission, wait until you try doing so while manually shifting! There is no greater racing challenge. Going to manual shift also causes a perspective shift in the game for me. The game feels less arcade and more realistic. That perspective shift also extends to how I play the game. With automatic shifting, my preference was to use the behind the car view, while when using manual shifting, I preferred to play using the in-car view.

There are a few nitpicks. The game has no damage model, which kills immersion. Also in the challenges where you must go from last place to third or higher, you must pass the other cars to do so. Passing cars in rally racing does not happen. More annoying though is getting by other cars. The roads of rally races tend to be narrow, and passing room is at a premium. If you touch another car, your car will come to a complete stop.

Minor annoyances aside, this is a very fun arcade racer. There is a generous variety of challenges, from time trials to stage objectives to races and more. The gated progressive leveling system can seem restrictive, but the quick play eases some of the frustration. One cannot overstate RAC’s quick, bite-sized gameplay loop.

Bite-sized Rally Racing Done Right

Technically, on a PS5, the game runs with no issues. There is some use of the DualSense features. Left and right rumbling matches up with which side of the road you are on. Unfortunately, the game does not make use of the adaptive triggers for the gas and brake. Car sounds are authentic, and engine whine matches your gas inputs.

If you are put off by the punishing hardcore nature of more realistic rally racing games or just want a fun change of pace, Rally Arcade Classics is definitely worth your time. You can find the game on all major gaming platforms.

***PS5 game code provided by the publisher for review***