SEGA Rally Online Arcade

[Jason]

SEGA Rally Online Arcade, a new HD title inspired by SEGA Rally Revo and SEGA Rally 3, will be racing onto PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft in 2011. SEGA's arcade and console favorite will include a collection of new features, including the ability for gamers to race their friends online!     

SEGA Rally Online Arcade brings back all the features players could want from the popular arcade and console racers, including Championship Battle mode and Time Attack, while adding an exciting online racing mode that lets players battle it out with up to five drivers around the world. Featuring a brand new achievement system, 13 rally cars to choose from and online leaderboards, SEGA Rally Online Arcade will deliver lap after lap of intense rally action when it arrives on consoles in 2011.

[webdanzer]

That could be fun.  I had some fun with the original boxed release for the 360.

[Jason]

I'm getting this for sure. I which there was a release date for it since "arriving in 2011" is pretty vague.

[Jason]

This is now available on Xbox Live for only 800 points. I'm downloading the trail right now.

[Jason]

I bought it. Not overly impressed...only 5 tracks and 13 cars. Not bad for $10 though.

[GB_Simo]

I've seen your leaderboard entries, mate.  You must at least be able to tell us what the scenery looks like...

Sega Rally Online Arcade is essentially a port of the Sega Rally 3 arcade game.  The only things that really make it over from Sega Rally Revo (is that the title it ended up with in the USA?  After much deliberation, it was plain old Sega Rally over here) are the cars, which can't all be lifted from SR3 because Sega no longer hold the necessary licences.  For the same reason, the recent arcade reboot of Daytona USA makes no mention of Daytona USA and has nobody at all singing "DAY-TOHHHHH-NAAAAAA!"  You can't imagine how much that upsets me.

But I digress.  If you've never played Sega Rally 3, you need to know that it's a lot like Sega Rally Revo would be if you surgically removed the depth from it.  The tracks still deform but the effect is less pronounced and the races are shorter, so it has little impact.  The handling, which was easy to grasp anyway, is now of the "brakes?  What brakes?" variety - I'm using the brake on one corner in the entire game and I could go around that corner without them if I had to.  There are 5 tracks, 1 of those a reboot of the Desert track from the very first Sega Rally and another inspired by that game's rock hard Lakeside finale.

You can run a quick race, a Championship over the 3 default tracks which works much like the old Sega Rally games - start last, work your way up, get to the end of track 3 in the lead or it's game over - a time attack or Classic mode, in which you run a head-to-head on the Desert course reboot using the Toyota Celica and Lancia Delta from the original.  Achievements are designed to encourage repeat play but you could probably bag all the single player ones in an afternoon if you put your mind to it, while the online might be brilliant but I'm not intending to renew my Gold subscription so I don't really know.

If you don't have Sega Rally Revo (and if not, you should probably remedy that now, or even sooner), it should now be available at bargain basement prices.  A new, boxed retail copy would set you back less than a download of SR Online Arcade here in the UK.  That's the way to go if you're hankering after a Sega arcade racing fix.  If you decide to go the Sega Rally Online Arcade route anyway, you'll be getting a short, fun, instantly accessible game full of the usual Sega touches - bright primary colours, mid-race flypasts, rocket launches, a bobsled overtaking you, that kind of thing - and I really won't blame you, because in spite of everything I just said, I love this game to pieces.

[Jason]

Adam, it's been a while since I played Revo, but the graphics in SROA seem to be the same or slightly better. I remember having a hard time controlling the cars in Revo, but I got comfortable driving the cars in SROA pretty quickly. I'm not sure if they made changes to the handling or if I was just able to finally grasp the controls though. My only real disappointment is in the number of tracks. Maybe more will be offered as DLC in the future.

[webdanzer]

I played the trial, and all it did was remind me that I enjoyed playing Sega Revo quite a bit a few years ago, and since I still have it in its case in the back of my entertainment center, I'd be better off pulling it out and playing what seems to be a much better and deeper overall game instead of spending another $10.

I mean it's fine, but it did nothing to convince me to pick it up instead of or even addition to Revo.

[Jason]

Derek, I agree with you...I would not have purchased SROA if I owned Revo.

[webdanzer]

Derek, I agree with you...I would not have purchased SROA if I owned Revo.

Thanks for the confirmation.  It really did make me want to go play the other, though!  Loved the dirt deformation...

[GB_Simo]

Derek, I agree with you...I would not have purchased SROA if I owned Revo.

Indeed, and as I said, if you own neither, you'll pay the same for Revo and get far more content.  A point that's worth making, though, is that if you're not looking to trawl through a multitude of championships but would rather just have a 10 minute thrash every so often, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with SROA.

I don't think the graphics are much different, Jason, but then Sega Rally 3 and Revo were developed side-by-side so I would imagine it's been running basically the same tech throughout.  The handling certainly feels similar but simpler, as befits the coin-op origins.  I should probably back-to-back them and check that out but I'd be inclined to agree with that.