SEGA Rally Championship series

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JaySevenZero
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SEGA Rally Championship series

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for SEGA Rally Championship 1995 for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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Seph
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Re: 477 - SEGA Rally Championship 1995

Post by Seph »

Sega Rally was one of the first games I got on my Saturn and, other than possibly Nights, it was the one I played the most on that console. This is arcade racing at its finest.

It's strange to think that a game with only a handful of cars and tracks could have so much replay value, but Sega were the masters of the arcade racer at this time and knew to wring every bit of fun into their engines. Even the navigation still brings a smile to my face ("very long easy right, baby"). I remember picking up a second hand memory cartridge for the Saturn and finding that someone had left some ghost times on for Sega Rally, which was a nice additional challenge after unlocking everything in the game.

Me and a few friends are hoping to hit an arcade club close to our area and it has a Sega Rally cabinet, so I'm curious to see if it still holds up, at least as a gameplay experience.

I'm not sure if you will talk about the second game on the show, but my very brief opinion is that it was also an incredibly fun game that looked fantastic on the Dreamcast. I didn't play it as much as the original, but it's one of the games I still held onto from that console. Maybe it's worth dusting off again too. I never played any of the others as I went off racing games for some reason after we hit the PS3 era, but if anyone thinks they're still worth trying I'll give them a go.

Three word review: Game over, YEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!
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seansthomas
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Re: 477 - SEGA Rally Championship 1995

Post by seansthomas »

I dread to think how much money I put into the arcade version of this game on Southend seafront. I never got any good at it, but just adored the feeling of sliding my car around on that machine.

The seat felt like being in a real rally car, the pedals gave good feedback and the gear stick was highly satisfying to click into place. I feel like I can still recall the mud spray hitting the screen.

I was jealous of every Saturn owner who got to play it at home and still hope for a Sega Ages port that gives it the same love that the team showed Virtua Racing a year or two ago.
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Alex79
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Re: 477 - SEGA Rally Championship 1995

Post by Alex79 »

Remember when pubs used to have arcade games in them? Around the age of 16 I started drinking in the Golden Cross in my hometown of Redditch. It was well known for being able to get served underage, so all of us college students went there just about, erm, every day! They had a few games in there over the years, but my favorite was Sega Rally. They had a full, sit down cab, and we'd spend hours in that place, hiding from lectures, eating chips, drinking beer, playing chess and dominos and handbrake turning round mud splattered tracks. I don't have a huge amount to say about the game itself, other than it's still one of my favorite arcade racers, the speed and the handling just felt perfect. The game will always occupy a specific, nostalgic time in my life, and I've got a lot of hazy, happy memories of thrashing that Toyota Celica sideways around corners at 90mph.
seansthomas wrote: March 28th, 2021, 9:20 pm...still hope for a Sega Ages port that gives it the same love that the team showed Virtua Racing a year or two ago.
This would be amazing. Hope they can do it at some point.
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Billy
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Re: 477 - SEGA Rally Championship 1995

Post by Billy »

No racing game has ever felt as good to play in my opinion as Sega Rally Championship. The perfect drifting, the sense of speed, and that absolutely BANGING soundtrack. This was constantly in my Saturn.

Yes there were only 3 cars and and tracks but this was Sega on peak blue-sky form and gameplay here is king. It is still irresistible in my opinion.

Personally, I remember this fondly for being one of the games my Dad would try to play with me. I didn't care if he couldn't get the hang of it. It meant the world to me that he wanted to try.
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Iain[Ian]Ianson
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Re: 477 - SEGA Rally Championship 1995

Post by Iain[Ian]Ianson »

This game is special.

I played hours and hours of the Saturn version with my best friend. We did the championship over and over, seemingly endless time attack sessions, and a boat-load of split-screen too.

I remember how amazed we were that when randomly racing in opposite directions on the desert track, and one player jumped high over the other oncoming car on the big hill jump, you could the bottoms of the car were textured in split-screen. Such detail!

The control is sublime, the weight of the cars so perfect, the sound so deep and throaty, the colours so rich. No dirge and grime, just crisp mountain air, blue skies and the feeling gliding through it all to jazzy piano in those end of race replays. It’s the pinnacle of 32-bit arcade presentation for me, alongside the likes of Soul Edge.

If only some of the other arcade ports on the system were so technically impressive. But it feels like one of those lightning-in-a-bottle moments.
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Sinclair Gregstrum
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Re: 477 - SEGA Rally Championship 1995

Post by Sinclair Gregstrum »

Sega Rally is lightning in a bottle.

From the first day I played the game on Christmas day 1996 on my brand new Sega Saturn, to this very day, it just plays perfectly. I would change nothing. I don't want more cars. I don't want more tracks. I don't wish the handling was any heavier or any lighter. That this corner or that corner was any easier or trickier.

The game is as tightly crafted and perfectly refined an experience as you will ever find, and considering it's a pretty early doors fully 3D 32-bit/arcade video game, that is all the more extraordinary. These were the days of wobbly polygons, janky cameras, and not an analogue stick in sight. Developers were figuring out what the hell they were doing as they were doing it, and if you play virtually anything from that era today, while there's still a lot to love in many of those games, there are also glaring issues all over the place. With Sega Rally, that's just not the case (at least for me personally!). For what it is, a straight-up arcade rally racer, it is glorious, and it will still be glorious in another 25 years.
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Iain[Ian]Ianson
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Re: 477 - SEGA Rally Championship 1995

Post by Iain[Ian]Ianson »

Sinclair Gregstrum wrote: April 9th, 2021, 3:11 pm Sega Rally is lightning in a bottle.

From the first day I played the game on Christmas day 1996 on my brand new Sega Saturn, to this very day, it just plays perfectly. I would change nothing. I don't want more cars. I don't want more tracks. I don't wish the handling was any heavier or any lighter. That this corner or that corner was any easier or trickier.

The game is as tightly crafted and perfectly refined an experience as you will ever find, and considering it's a pretty early doors fully 3D 32-bit/arcade video game, that is all the more extraordinary. These were the days of wobbly polygons, janky cameras, and not an analogue stick in sight. Developers were figuring out what the hell they were doing as they were doing it, and if you play virtually anything from that era today, while there's still a lot to love in many of those games, there are also glaring issues all over the place. With Sega Rally, that's just not the case (at least for me personally!). For what it is, a straight-up arcade rally racer, it is glorious, and it will still be glorious in another 25 years.
Brilliantly said.
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