Sega Rally Championship

So is Sega Rally a better GBA driving game than all the Mode 7 titles? Well, it's certainly a fair bit blockier?.

Considering that rally racing isn't nearly as big here as it is in Europe, the GBA certainly has a lot of rally games in its library, doesn't it? Sega Rally is notable right off the bat for two reasons: It's a port of Sega's fantastic series of arcade and Dreamcast games, and it's in full (albeit laughably blocky) polygonal 3D.

In terms of play style, Sega Rally sits somewhere between the ultra-arcadey V-Rally and the much more sim-like World Rally Championship for the PS2. Even on the GBA, the game starts out easy-peasy but soon gets much more difficult, requiring you to learn the intricacies of car tuning after a couple of legs. This challenge isn't always fair?the average frame rate and overtly cruel weather effects make driving a chore in spots?but it makes for a much more rewarding game in the long run.

Ultimately, however, one's opinion of Sega Rally will have to revolve around the graphics. Look at these screen shots and ask yourself: Do I mind playing a racer that's this blocky? The game is deeper than V-Rally 3 (its nearest competition), but the graphics barely even hold a candle to those in Infogrames' title. As a result, Sega Rally is difficult to assign a final score to?it's a little hard to see on a real GBA, but the pixellation would make it look devastatingly ugly on a big TV screen. If this sounds like an issue to you, then perhaps the game's best assigned to the "Wait until GBA SP" pile for now.

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