"One of the best racing games on the Saturn."

After the terrible conversion of Daytona USA that appeared on the Saturn, SEGA made sure that the conversion of SEGA Rally that was due to appear on the Saturn was to be a lot better. And this time, they got it right.

SEGA Rally has been converted to the Saturn very well. The frame rate is excellent and much better than any other racing game released on the console at the time. Whilst the graphics are not as good as they were in the arcade version, they are still good and the pop up isn't as bad as in, say, Daytona USA.

SEGA Rally is a racing game with your racing through 3 main tracks in an effort to win the SEGA Rally Championship. You can either race 1 lap or three, and have to over take over CPU controlled cars to win.

There are 2 main cars available, these being the Toyota Celica and the Lancia Delta. I'd say that the Delta is the better choice of car. There is also one hidden car you can use if you want, but I found it difficult to use, especially compared to the other two cars.

The three main tracks are very well made. Each one has a number of turns which your co-driver will call out (eg "Easy right maybe!") with a simple colour code system used to determine if you should brake or not. Each track is set at a different location like in a desert or in the mountains. There is one additional track you can unlock and race on but I hate this track. It would have been nice if there were more tracks, but the main three are some of the best designs around.

As well as the arcade mode (which has the championship and course practice modes) there is also a time attack mode where you can set the fastest times on any track. There is also a ghost car option available if you want it, so you can tell where you are going wrong and such and where you can improve. There is also a great 2 player split screen mode, and whilst the detail is slightly decreased when compared to the one player mode, it still runs well. The arcade mode lets you race against CPU controlled cars. You have to beat the clock by passing check points and try to over take all the other CPU cars to win the championship.

The sound effects for this game are fairly good. Some of the musics used in the tracks are OK, I especially like the mountain track music, but a lot of this music you just forget about as you play the game. You can forget that there even is music playing at all sometimes.

SEGA Rally is perfectly playable with the standard Saturn control pad but if you liked the arcade version control you are better off buying a Saturn race wheel and using that instead. None arcade fans needn't bother and should just stick with the normal pad instead.

This is easily one of the best and most enjoyable racing games on the Saturn. The only real problem with it is that you may get through it and learn all of the tracks quickly as there are only 4 of them and even then one of the tracks is awful (to me anyway) but the two player mode is great and the time attack mode gives you something to continually challenge.

8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/03/05