Sega Rally Championship 2

"Arcade perfect? No, but just as fun!"

SEGA Rally 2 has a lot to live up to. When it came out in Japan it was the most anticipated title so far for the Dreamcast. At the last Tokyo Game Show the game was shown only on a video that looked more like a PC translation than a game designed for the Dreamcast. The poor quality video along with recent delays of the launch date made people skeptical about Dreamcast's capabilities of handling the conversion. So how did it turn out? Amazing, but unfortunately you can tell it was rushed.

It comes very close to its Model 3 Step 2 big brother in most areas, and surpasses it in extras. Twelve exclusive cars, a secret track, new lighting effects, and a bonus game all can be found only in the Dreamcast version. The pop-up isn't very noticeable, the sound effects are great, the scenery of the tracks and the cars themselves look fantastic. In fact some of the nicer aspects of the game aren't a part of the gameplay. When you downshift the car backfires causing fire to shoot out of the exhaust lighting up the back of the car and ground. Lighting from front headlights are in real time, lighting up the ground, walls, and other cars as you speed through the courses. Weather effects like rain and snow are nice features especially since they affect the gameplay. Fog is added not to hide pop-up, but rather for effect. Crowd interaction is cool too. Some daring spectators wait on the track until you appear, snap a quick picture, and then scurry off the track before they get hit. Not exactly part of the gameplay, but nice eye candy.

The one major flaw of the home version is a frame rate problem. It's not a bad frame rate, it just varies too much. The jump between 60-30 FPS is noticeable, and annoying. More than likely the US version will not have this fault, they probably will have enough time to fix it by then. Other than that, I honestly have no complaints.

The handling of the cars is superb. Fans of the original will have no problem picking this one up, but novices might have a tough time learning the powerslides. The nature of the sport makes the game a bit easier for new people since you are just racing against the clock. Players don't need to worry about computer controlled cars cutting them off. Your car doesn't even slow down when you hit them! Learning the cars and the tracks are all that's needed to win. The game while being extremely realistic, never loses site that it's an arcade game at heart. This means it's a blast to play! Those lucky enough to have the Dreamcast modem hooked up can race against four other players at once (full screen with no lag!). All of this adds up to one of the best racing games I've played. Highly recommended, but wait to see if the US version is better.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99