The original PlayStation and a copy of Colin McRae Rally are why I’m sitting here typing this. Without that game, I wouldn’t have started following the World Rally Championship. I wouldn’t have gone into journalism and I almost certainly wouldn’t have ended up in a full-time role that combines rallying with writing.
But here I am, and pulling at my nostalgia gland is Old School Rally.
In an age of always-online, live service battle royale nonsense, this is a classically formatted racing game. Just you against the clock (literally), driving a car as quickly as possible, in one simple package, and it’s even available on physical media.
The visuals are equally simplistic, very obviously so – the low-poly look is nearly identical to the aforementioned Scottish world champion’s first two eponymous PlayStation titles.
Which is clever, as in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, several million copies of Codemasters rally game were sold. But, trying to play them now requires an old disc and an out-of-date console, which may not work with a contemporary display. There are retro consoles and converters, but many are not cheap. Then there’s emulation, which is only for those with a PC or a questionable handheld from eBay or Amazon.
So here’s a brand-new game, with the retro looks, that loads instantly on a PlayStation 5 in widescreen. I think there’s a market for that.
Namly, me. In theory, at least.
There are some notable changes and omissions to the format, however.
The first change is a car collection element. Again, this is right up my street, as I am playing the game with a Renault Megane Maxi and Skoda Fabia WRC model sat under my monitor.
Apart from a small handful, each other vehicle (32 in total) must be unlocked or purchased, and when doing so, it will sit in diecast form on a virtual shelf. So not only do you earn another car to drive, you fill up your model collection too.
This is a brilliant idea, and is personally my main incentive to keep playing through the campaign.
The vehicle handling, however, certainly isn’t. I wasn’t looking for realism here, and it’s rightly absent. This is an easy game to drive.
I would prefer a little more nuance between all-wheel-drive and rear-wheel drive, and perhaps more obviously, Group B-inspired machines to be savage in their on/off responses – after all, the aforementioned first Colin McRae Rally had a Group B Audi that was a monster.
But that’s a relatively minor quibble. The bigger challenge is steering that goes from lock-to-lock too quickly, with a razor-sharp turn-in that belies a rally title. Then there’s the mid-corner drifts, where the physics system can seemingly give up. Sliding is too difficult, and besides, it’s gone 5 pm, so it’s off home. It’s tricky to maintain a smooth drift, sometimes, firing back in the other direction.
The net result is an unsatisfying momentum killer. Odd.
Not as odd as the bumper camera, mind you, which appears to be attached to a drone rather than a car, as it floats through a stage.
There’s a distinct disconnect between the theme and the on-gravel performance, which is a shame, as the details are all in place. There’s even a hidden UFO, a reference to 1990s cheat codes, and unlikely unlockables, such as a tractor.
I can get over the lacklustre handling – even in the face of the recently released Super Woden Rally Edge, which I find drives in a more polished fashion – but I struggle with the lack of competition.
Unlike the retro titles the graphics reproduce, there are no rivals. No names on screen, controlled by the computer or AI, to compare stage or split times with.
This is odd, again. Part of the appeal of another indie racer, Rush Rally Origins, for example, is the mashed-up driver names. A lack of this makes Old School Rally feel a little hollow.
Especially considering that if you complete a rally, there’s a cute podium cutscene. But I didn’t beat anyone to get there.
Instead, each stage has a target time. Beat that time to continue your event. Don’t surpass the marker, and you must restart the stage. There are no positions or cumulative times, like how rally actually works, or checkpoint time extensions like an overtly arcade Sega Rally title.
With the possible exception of the sinuous Chinese stages, there’s little need to listen to the pacenotes either. There is a Vs mode, with one car on stage alongside you, but collisions are switched off.
This makes for a pretty mindless experience, in much the same way as eating crisps while watching Googlebox is. Which may be what you’re looking for. There’s something to be said for calming gameplay and not watching Oscar-nominated period dramas every day.
To put it another way, a colleague described it as “the perfect game for a lunch break”.
Old School Rally is charming. The visuals and model collecting combine to deliver an intoxicating mix of 30-year-old memories. I love the idea underpinning its existence, and I’m over the moon that console versions and physical editions exist.
However, the driving experience and lack of rivals mean, in this instance, it’s perhaps best to let sleeping dogs lie.