Are you obsessed with racing on a dirt track? Do you feel like old school is better than what's current? Let me introduce you to Rally Arcade Classics, developed by NETK2GAMES; it was released September 23rd, 2024. We are close to the one-year anniversary of its official release! The developer is based out of Barcelona, Spain, and is a team of veteran programmers that started out as teenagers messing around with systems like the Commodore and Amstrad. The game throws you into the action. Rally Arcade Classics instantly reminded me of Gran Turismo and Ford Racing. No fluff about having to set up settings or customize your character. Just good old-fashioned racing. This game is like taking a trip to the past of booting up your OG PlayStation or PlayStation 2 and jumping right into a race. That being said, this game isn’t just a throwback; it developed its own style of achievements and checkpoints to keep up with the times. One of those being a license qualification in order to race different cars.
The game feels smooth in its controls and gameplay. It has a basic control system of go, stop, steer, and reset. I am playing this on the PlayStation 5, so I use R2 for gas and L2 for brake. Obviously the thumbstick is for steering, and they have a reset similar to Forza using square. The drifting is automatic; the sharper the turn, the more you drift. This is easier to do on the dirt track; however, it is trickier on pavement. The other aspect to this game that I had a love/hate relationship with is the weather. The wet weather caused it to be harder to control while trying to turn corners. It also cycles between daytime and nighttime. Driving in the dark isn’t “hard,” but it does make it more difficult to see the turns quickly. That being said, I like the authenticity it holds for rally racing. For example, you have a co-pilot calling out turns like “easy left turn” or “hard right turn ahead.” It also warns of hazards like big hills causing you to get air.
Progressing in Rally Arcade Classics is simple yet surprisingly extensive. Your first task is to qualify for the “C-Class” license. From there you earn stars to be able to progress to the next license, which allows for more tracks and cooler vehicles. In order to get the max stars in a race, you have to get first place. I found that some of the time trials have been the hardest to achieve a perfect score. I enjoy the license aspect to unlock more cars and tracks. I love how it mirrors real racing by showing that you need to gain experience in order to move on to the harder tracks and vehicles.
Moving on to the visual aspects of Rally Arcade Classics, it focuses on European locations. Starting off, you race in locations around Finland and then move on to other countries in Europe. This makes sense considering the developers are based in Barcelona. They give you a good mix of dirt tracks and full pavement to give you a full handle on the different ways to handle turns and straights. The art style in this game is done very well; you can tell they took pride in their work. People actually have form instead of just cutout blobs on the side of the track. They use bright colors and themes to fit each season based on the settings of the race, and the graphics of the game are smooth and don't get choppy when going high speeds while driving.
Overall I recommend Rally Arcade Classics to anyone that appreciates a good racing game. If you find yourself spinning at the multitude of options that Forza provides, or if you prefer something simple to jump into and not a simulator like the new Gran Turismo, then this game should be in your library. I really enjoy playing this, and I have also found that it could be good for the whole family. I let my five-year-old son try this out, and he loved it! The controls are simple enough that you don’t have to worry about pressing multiple buttons just to get the car moving. It offers simplistic pleasure yet an extensive track list and just the right amount of customization for cars you can buy. The game is currently on multiple platforms, specifically PlayStation, Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo. It’s priced affordably at $19.99 unless you purchase it on Nintendo. If you own a Switch, you can get this game cheaper at only $11.99. These prices are based on purchasing the game digitally.
Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product.
