Sega Rally Championship 2

"150, very very long easy left, maybe!"

The original 1995 Sega Rally was considered one of the greatest arcade racers, and arguably one of the best games on the Sega Saturn. The game's fast pace, great graphics, and high difficulty kept gamers hooked. As great as Sega Rally was, gamers couldn't help but complain that the game only had 2 cars and 4 tracks. Worse still, one of the four tracks was hidden and difficult to unlock, and the tracks were no more than a minute and a half long. Longevity qualms aside, everyone loved Sega Rally. In 1998, Sega Rally 2 hit the arcades with new tracks, more cars, and updated graphics. Then in 1999 a port was announced for the brand-new Sega Dreamcast. After an imperfect Japanese release, the game was reworked and Sega Rally 2 was released in America. SR2 did everything a sequel should: offer additional content while keeping to its roots.

Presentation

SR2 was one of the Dreamcast's earliest titles, and a port from Sega Model 3 arcade hardware. Despite all this, the Dreamcast handles the game quite well. The game menus have an appropriate arcade-feel and are easy to navigate. The track briefings and car configuration are also well done and intuitive. One of the nicest praises I can give SR2 in terms of its presentation are its loading screens. Yep, you heard me right. The loading screens look fantastic. Granted, you'll only see them for 5 seconds at a time, but the screen shows the game's title, locale name, and a ‘Start!' message in front of a stylized picture of the locale you're about to race in. It's a high-res image with a lens blur, worthy of being desktop wallpaper, and it adds to the game's style.

Graphics

We are looking at a game that is 10 years old (as of this writing). The graphics can't hold a candle to the recent Sega Rally Revo, but you know what, they're not bad either! The cars and tracks are nicely detailed. There is some fade-in, but it's far enough in the distance that it doesn't get in the way (the co-driver's instructions definitely help). Rain looks like rain, snow looks like snow… tracks are played at all times of the day, and the color palettes adjust accordingly. Tracks played at night are illuminated by your headlights and the road/scenery responds to the light in real-time. One other nice touch are the spectators that will line the ends of the track. Some of them take pictures and you'll see little camera flashes (it looks really cool at night). Sometimes animals will walk onto the road and dash away when they see you coming. These little touches proved that the Dreamcast can more than handle Model 3 arcade ports.

The original Japanese release played the game at 60fps, but would immediately drop once you took in a hairpin or overtook a car. For the American release the framerate was stabilized at 30. The game still drops the rate a bit every time you make a turn, but it's much more subtle and the game is still completely playable. But when you hit a straightaway and the framerate stabilizes at its max, the sense of smooth and speed is incredible.

Audio

Sega Rally 2's sound effects are more than adequate. The only real sound effects you'll hear are the roaring engine and screeching brakes. I always lower the sound effect volume in the options menu so I can hear the co-driver and (more importantly) the soundtrack better.

Then there's your co-driver. Your co-driver will announce every single turn you make. First how far away the turn is (in meters), then the length of the turn and the sharpness. Hence my tagline for this review, ‘150, very very long easy left'. A turn icon will also flash on the screen for a visual aid. At first I thought this would get really annoying and redundant. After playing a few races I found myself relying on the co-driver's every word. As you get better at SR2, you'll be going too fast to react to every turn by yourself, and the co-driver gives you enough time to split-second prep for how you want to handle the turn ahead. With so many turns and similar looking tracks, you'll never memorize where the turns are, so the co-driver is a godsend. You can choose from a male or female co-driver, but the male voice is much better. The co-driver's instruction, as I mentioned before, is the perfect counter for the graphic fade-in and night/fog courses.

Finally, there's the soundtrack. There's no other way to describe it except it's very Sega. And I absolutely love Sega. Genres range from driving rock to dance/club to smooth jazz. I especially like the tracks for Snowy and Riviera. Snowy's track sounds distinctly like it was composed by Richard Jacques (Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic R, Daytona CCE). You'll either love SR2's soundtrack, or hate it. I personally crank it all the way up.

Gameplay

So what made the original Sega Rally so great, and how does Sega Rally 2 do it better? Sega Rally consists of 4 quick races against opponent cars, and more importantly, against the clock. The game requires you to get past each checkpoint as fast as possible, accumulating as much game time as you can. Your game time carries over to each track, so if you took a while on the second course you might not have enough time to reach the 4th course's checkpoint. While keeping your time, the secondary goal is to finish in first place. You will start off in 16th place and have to work your way to first over the four courses (and it'll take you that long). Although the courses don't last more than a minute and a half, each track explodes with personality. Races are played rain or shine, day or night, and have you driving over various road surfaces. You'll drive in mud, gravel, tarmac, snow, ice, etc., sometimes all in the same track. To be the best at Sega Rally you'll have to know your car inside and out, how it handles on each surface, trust your co-driver, and finish in first. The rally might be over in less than 5 minutes, but it takes immense skill to race well, and its brevity keeps the addiction factor quite high.

The original Sega Rally had only 3 courses, 4 if you were really good. Sega Rally 2 sports more than four times as many: 16 (17 if you're really good). Also instead of two cars you're given about 8 by default with the opportunity to unlock at least 10 more. Compared to the first game this is a huge improvement. There are six locales in the game: Desert, Mountain, Snowy, Riviera, Muddy, and Isle, the last two being Dreamcast exclusive. Each locale has 3 tracks (each rated on a 5-star difficulty scale), except for Riviera which only has one. Each of the courses burst with life, and the DC exclusive tracks keep up to par (if not exceed) the original arcade ones.

Like every other arcade-to-Dreamcast title, there's an Arcade Mode, which is a carbon copy of the arcade game. Exclusive to the Dreamcast is an ‘original mode' of sorts, called the ‘10Year Championship'. An expanded version of the arcade mode, 10Year is basically ten different variations of arcade mode. Each rally (of four courses) is called a year, and you complete each year in order until all 10 are done. To avoid redundancy, each track has variable weather conditions and visibility factors, and before each individual race you can tweak your car depending on the road surface and weather. This mode keeps the arcade feel but at the same time gives it just enough depth (not too much to make it a simulator) to be an enriching Sega Rally experience. And it's difficult, too. Just completing the last few years will make you break a sweat. Then try to finish each year in first place. Go ahead, try it.

Besides Arcade Mode and 10Year, there's the obligatory Time Attack. Then for fun there's a car edit feature, so you can make your perfect machine, and a car exhibition that shows a demo of the car in action with narration of the car's specs.

The controls are responsive and the Dreamcast controller performs well. Your car's handling will depend on the road surface, weather condition, and your personal adjustments. You can have your car's control be as tight or floaty as you want, and with the versatility of the tracks you'll be racing on, the option to adjust almost everything is a great touch.

One of the biggest disappointments when SR2 was released was that the American version would not have network play. Seeing as now all of the servers (for the most part) are down, that's not a problem. SR2 also has a 2-player mode. I've never played it, but I'd assume it's a simply executed splitscreen with maybe a hair more fade-in/slowdown.

Replay Value

What saved the original Sega Rally in the replay value department was its addictiveness and difficulty. Sega Rally 2, having much more content, still thrives on this same addictiveness and difficulty. The fact that you can beat the arcade mode or a year in 10Year in less than 5 minutes makes this perfect to play if you have a few minutes to kill. But despite being fun in quick bursts, SR2 will take skill, prowess, and passion to master. Completing the race is one thing, but completing it in 1st place is something totally different. It may very well take you 10 years to place first in all ten years of 10Year. Also, SR2's fast pace makes you a victim of the ‘just one more go' syndrome, and you'll find yourself playing this for hours on end. Then of course there's Time Attack, which brings the replay value up to indefinite.

Then there's the unlockables! Your reward for finishing first in arcade mode and a year in 10Year is a new car. Your reward for finishing first in the 10th year of 10Year (good luck) is the bonus 17th track, and finishing that in first gets you a new car as well. Not only do the new cars race better, but completionists will want all the cars anyway.

Closing

Sega Rally 2 is a gem. I'm not a huge fan of racers, but I'm a huge fan of Sega, and this game doesn't disappoint. SR2 is a fast-paced thrill. Its arcade feel, great visuals (even to this day), perfect soundtrack, energetic co-drivers and the ever-ticking clock make this game the adrenaline ride that it is. Again, its difficulty level is quite high, but it doesn't detract from the game because it's just too much fun to play.

One small bone I have to pick is the game's savefile. The savefile alone is 60 some-odd blocks (why?), and custom cars take up even more space. There's even a record viewer app for your VMU, which lets you take your best times with you on the go, but that's no small file either. Just make sure you have a lot of VMU space (or just buy a new VMU) if you want to get the most out of this game.

Even if you aren't a fan of racing games, give this one a try. Rally racing is different from other racing genres, and Sega delivers in spades with SR2. Fans of racers will love it, and otherwise fans of Sega will love it.

Final Comment: Why does Riviera, arguably the coolest locale of them all, only have one track design?

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/12/08

Game Release: Sega Rally Championship 2 (US, 10/31/99)