V-Rally Game by Infrogames Reviewed by Andrew Oakley evilandi@cimmerii.demon.co.uk Size: 8 megabits Save: Password Released: April 1999 (Europe) Works with: Colour Only (Mono version sold seperately may differ) **************************************************************************** Opening Snide Remarks: Having just been given a Gameboy Colour, I just wanted to find a game that really exploited the colours. Luckily, I also managed to pick a really good game! **************************************************************************** Gameplay Descripion: Here in Europe we're not very keen on racetracks. We prefer rallies. In short, you get to crash into scenery and you don't go round and round the same boring track over and over again. Forget speed, rallying is simply more interesting, we reckon. So I was pretty pleased when I found this rally game for the Gameboy Colour. Now I realised straight away that an 8-bit Gameboy is NOT going to be able to compete with 3D polygon fests like Sega Rally or Carmageddon. But the world of 8-bit racing has still come a long way since my old Commodore 64. Now I've tried Gameboy racing games before and they're mostly a poor bunch. F1 Racing was a particular disapointment. However, V-Rally really shines. It's excellent. For starters there are four cars to choose from- a nippy Peugot, a road-hugging Subaru, etc. Each have their own handling specialities which are rated on-screen so you can make an informed choice. Some accelerate faster, some hold the road better, some have a higher topspeed. Next you select the course. You need a password to access the harder courses. Each course is made up of four trails around international countries- Italy, France, Egypt etc. Then you get started... and wow, the graphics! More on the graphics later. The first course is quite easy, to get you used to the controls. The foreground is a flat 3D view of the road with obstacles zooming past on both sides. In the background, highly detailed scenery swiveles into view as you turn corners. The road conditions, obstacles and background are relevent to the current country you're rallying through. Meanwhile warning signs pop up in the centre of the screen to let you know about impending turns. It's when you get onto the second and subsequent courses that things get interesting. You have hills. Yup, never thought I'd see hills on an 8-bit racing game. The road suddenly banks up or veers off downwards. Great! There are also on-road obstacles such as oil patches and potholes. To top it all there are jumps. You have to remember to slow when you touch down after the jumps or you roll the car for sure. Then you get different road surfaces which make the car skid or slow it down a bit, plus there are weather conditions such as snow which falls down the screen. There are two modes of gameplay. Arcade mode has time limits for each stage- reach the checkpoints before the time runs out or you're out of the race, which is great for a quick game. Then there is Championship mode when you have to get your best time on all tracks. I reckon you'd have to devote several days to complete a Championship game! Liked: Choice of cars. Hills. Jumps. Hated: Nothing. **************************************************************************** Graphics Description:Wow. Amazing. Get this to show off the Gameboy Colour. The background scenery is highly detailed and almost photo-like in quality. Alpine mountains, Italian landmarks, desert landscapes. The cars are amazingly well animated. They turn sideways when you take a corner. They bounce on two wheels when you bash into a competing car. And they roll over when you hit an obstacle- sometimes you get lucky and land on your wheels, sometimes not. Roadside obstacles are good fun, in particular I liked the sheep on the New Zealand trail. Some obstacles stick out slightly into the road such as the roadwork barriers on the Italian level, so you have to keep your wits about you. Some of the obstacles are a bit cartoony compared to the background though. The perspective of the obstacles and the competing cars is great; they zoom in to view smoothly and in perfect sync. Liked: Detail. Colour. Animation of cars. 3D perspective. Hated: The roadside is a bit flat, but you can't expect a fully 3D road on an 8-bit. **************************************************************************** Sound/Music Description: Thumping good tunes during the title and inter-game screens. The music really is some of the best I've heard on the Gameboy. Bog standard effects during the gameplay itself. In-game music would have helped. Also I didn't notice any sound effects from passing competing cars. Liked: The end-of-game password music. Way cool. Hated: Dull car sound effects, could have made a bit more effort there. **************************************************************************** Play Control/Game Design: Control is dead simple left/right with the pad and accelerate/brake with A and B. Really easy to pick up, but skilled players are rewarded by learning to take corners properly. Once you've mastered the easy course, you get to attempt the more difficult ones. I think there are 6 courses each split into four trails across dozens of different countries. Plenty to keep your fingers occupied, and lots of different stuff on the international trails to keep your eyes interested. The bummer is that it's password time again, no battery save. Add to this insult, the injury that you have to go into a really obscure options sub-menu to enter the password. Another minor niggle is having to select English as the language on the start-up screen- French is the default. Even though I can read French this is still a bummer. Since it has no battery it defaults to French every time. On US and Japanese versions this is probably different. Liked: Simplicity yet room for skill. Lots of different courses. Hated: Passwords. Language selection. Obsure menu. And no manual gear option- automatic is the default. **************************************************************************** Improve: It'd be pretty difficult to make a better rallying game for an 8-bit processor. I'd be happy to be proved wrong if they could squeeze 3D track edges into it, such as hedgerows, barriers, fences or cliff faces. Obviously a battery would help, I hate passwords. And maybe a manual gear option for us Europeans who just love our shift-sticks? You just can't control an automatic quite as finely, especially on corners. RIYL: Nothing else even comes close. **************************************************************************** Final Words: The best racing game for the Gameboy, full stop. **************************************************************************** Score Gameplay: ***** Graphics: ***** Sound/Music: **** Play Control/Game Design: **** Personal Opinion: ***** Total: 23 Final Score: 92% **************************************************************************** Currently Known Codes: Medium level access password: FAST