Rally Challenge 2000

"A Mediocre Racing Game That Hits The N64"

There comes a point in any video gamers life when they ask the question ''Why?'' I don't see any reason why this game was created at the first place. Rally Challenge 2000 isn't a bad game but it doesn't do anything for the racing genre. Hundreds of racing titles come out each year and almost all of them are either mediocre or crappy. A couple years ago I bought a game called MRC for Nintendo 64. Years later, Rally Challenge 2000 comes out and it reminds of it exactly except with better graphics and different courses. What's the point?

Graphics-wise, Rally Challenge 2000 isn't bad. Each car looks different from each other and most of them look very nice. Sadly, the courses you race on look extremely bland. The dirt for example doesn't even look like dirt sometimes and there is occasionally slowdown when more than 2 cars are on the screen. The courses remind me of Sega Rally 2's and MRC's combined and I may be suffering from deja-vu but I could have swore I saw a track extremely like a track on MRC. I have no idea why the developers made a crowd in Rally Challenge 2000, it makes the game look even worse when you pass by them.

I can desribe the gameplay in one word: Boring. Well, maybe it won't be boring for people who never played a rally racing game before but this game reminds me of all the other mediocre games. Like usual, you can play in an arcade mode style race, championship mode, practice mode, and a vs. mode. Luckily, the vs. mode allows four players to play simultaneously making this game have a little replay value. Other than that, I rather go play some other racing game then this.

The control in Rally Challenge 2000 is a bit stiff sometimes. Turning at sharp corners at slow speeds are sometimes harder to do then when going at 160 mph which is extremely bad because most courses have 90 angles in them. Other than that, the control is what you would find in any other racing game. Not good, but not bad.

Sound-wise, Rally Challenge 2000 is a bit boring. The announcer tells you the kind of turns that are coming up but sadly that's all he says. There is a background MIDI going through the races but it gets a bit boring after a while. I wouldn't care if I was listening to other music while playing this game.

Please don't waste 50 dollars and buy this game. Only if you are a hardcore rally fan you should buy this game. Anyone else should steer clear of buying this game. For all you casual racing fans, I would suggest that you give this game a rent but that's all. Don't pay over 20 bucks for this game, it's not worth it...Trust me.

Overall Rating- 6.0
Graphics- 6.0
Sound- 5.7
Control- 6.2
Fresh Factor- 6.0
Game Life- 6.1

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/09/01, Updated 07/09/01