‘‘Rally Arcade Classics’’ is a game that is quintessential for someone of my generation in some ways. It harkens back to the times of true Arcade racers...It’s a throwback."
Motorsports, in its purest form, is just racing time and going as fast as you possibly can. Running as hard as you can for the length you need to run. All forms. Formula 1, NASCAR, hell, even racing on the playground at school. Racing is something that gets into you, and you can’t let go. I remember arcade racing games at our local burger joint and movie theater as a kid were the ones I always wanted to play. They caught my eye. So when our EiC (Nathan) passed me an email for ‘Rally Arcade Classics’, I knew I had to give it a shot and see if my glory days at ‘Milton’s Burger Hut’ were still intact.
‘Rally Arcade Classics’ is a spunky little arcade racer that takes you back to what some consider the best times of rally and overland racing. We kids in the late 90s never got to see the years of Lancia’s and Ford’s ripping through the forest or small European cities. You’re set to climb the ladder, grow your licenses, and work your way to the top to become a champion. You go through your process to earn your ‘Class Licenses’ and move through several forms of racing, including ‘Time Attack, Drift, VS, and Rally’ (obviously). You’ll build your skills and buy new rides to move through the ranks, class by class, to make it to the top.C
The game itself leans into the arcade feel, ya know..hence ‘Arcade’ in the title. It’s a game that features some depth and content, but it’s nothing like ‘Need for Speed’ or ‘Forza’ when it comes to depth of content. It does offer a lot of fun for itself. Gameplay is honestly solid and is pretty fun. Racing on dirt is way more fun for me than on asphalt, too me and my time driving. The cars carry good weight and good speed overall. Sliding around isn’t the best at times, especially on paved roads and any asphalt or harder surface, really. Now, I’m not expecting this to be F1 or iRacing levels of racing quality by any means. Again, ‘Arcade’ is in the name. Contact with objects feels ‘flat’ most of the time. There isn’t any real bounce. If you hit the wall or another car, you just ‘slow down’ like as if you’re running and then hit mud. It just all kinda stops. You also ‘bog’ a lot. If you don’t keep your speed up in corners, then you gotta EARN it all back. Definitely noticeable on dirt courses. There were several uphill dirt courses with tight corners that were hell for me, with them being time trials.
Something I experienced in my time playing was really tough frame rate stutters during competition. It didn’t make the game unplayable, but you really had to be aware of the car and what you were doing. At the time, I was on a controller. I did one run through on just the keyboard, and it stopped. Not really sure what that was about. Another ‘issue’ that I personally was buying cars. For me, it felt REALLY hard to earn enough credits or coins to be able to buy newer and faster cars to advance. I found myself really grinding a lot of the low-end series and events to just earn enough money. This really slowed the game for me and took me out of the experience. It wasn’t something that ended it for me, but it made me somewhat frustrated at times.
It won’t be the next Forza or the next great sim, but it doesn’t need to be at the end of the day. It’s a charming little arcade racer that, even for all its quirks it takes you on a journey. Back to the days of eating too much pizza in the arcade at a birthday party. Going wild cause mom let you have all the quarters in the ashtray of her 1998 Ford Explorer and running to the cabinets to play whatever arcade games are there. In a world of sim racing rigs, VR headsets, and top-dollar racing equipment, it’s nice to have something that gets racing and rally back to its basics. So go order some greasy pizza and maybe an ice cream, and rip around the course to be the new World Rally Champ.
