Sega Rally Championship review

Game: Sega Rally Championship
Platform: Saturn
Genre: Racing (Arcade)
Developer: SEGA
AKA: Sega Rally Championship Plus (JP)

Reader review by pickhut

June 08, 2005

There weren't that many rally games out when Sega Rally Championship was released. Add to the fact that there probably weren't that many GOOD rally games, and you'll understand why so many gamers have fond memories of this Sega oldie. Well, that was then. Now we have all kinds of rally games coming out of developer's asses, making for plenty more to choose from. So, looking back, was SRC actually a good game, or were we too hungry for a standout title to even notice if it was? Well, um.... hey, love Sega music?! This title has plenty of it!!

In this championship brought to you by Sega in the nineteen-hundreds and ninety-fives, you'll get to choose between a Toyota Celica GT-Four and Lancia Delta HF Integrale, and race against fourteen other Ridge Racer car wannabes over the span of three courses (and if you're good, four). Your car will burn through the scorching desert filled with zebras and elephants, navigate its way around a steep hilltop in the forest course, and tear through towns and tight turns in the mountain course as you fight for dominance in this race.

Obviously, it'll take a couple of tries to actually complete the championship as you get a good feel for each course and the car's handling. But once you've got the hang of it (which should be around 15/20 minutes), you'll go through each of the courses with such ease, take the first place position, and beat the entire game within the first hour that you've started playing. Yes, that's it. The biggest mistake Sega did was make this a simple arcade-to-Saturn port job. Just bringing SRC to the console as it is simply wasn't a good idea considering how short the game is. They've included a time attack mode, but shit, that's the equivalent of adding a versus mode to a fighting game port. The lack of anything new to the home version of SRC just comes off making this look like a lazy or rushed conversion. Hell, the only reason I keep coming back to this game is to listen to the music, or what I'd like to call it, Sega Cheese.

Ah, Sega Cheese, where a tune from a game sounds really lame at first, but after hearing it a couple more times, you'll start loving it, even though it's still pretty cheesy. Lots of Sega games have these, and this one in particular has plenty of them: the mellow-dramatic guitar tunes during actual gameplay, the awkward reggae beats between replay sessions, the exercise music that plays during the lake side replay, and the classical "Game over, yeaaaaaaah!!" ditty at the game over screen; believe me, this game has plenty of them. Another thing Sega is famous for are their corny songs, and this game only has one. You haven't lived until you've heard the incredibly lame vocals of My Dear Friend, Rally (or 90% of Sega songs).

You know it's a damn shame when the music is the only reason to keep coming back to Sega Rally Championship. It may have been a nice, short experience in the arcades, but for the Saturn version, they seriously needed to put more effort into the game. So, if you're looking for a fun, arcade-type rally game, don't try to nab this on eBay. Instead, check out the sequel on the Dreamcast (which actually added lots of stuff to the home version) or RalliSport Challenge for the Xbox, they're a lot more better than SRC. Unless you wanna get the game just to listen to the soundtrack, in that case...... rock on?

Rating: 5/10

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