When the coin-ops were starting to die out during the nineties there was one game that resisted: SEGA Rally. Even to this day it’s not impossible to still find the cabinets around, insert your money, grab the steering wheel and show once and for all who’s the king of the forest.

The launch of this new game creates a nostalgic warmth, but also a fair bit of nervousness. Any sort of ideas you might have that the original arcade game hasn’t been honoured at once feel unjustified when you start to steer the insanely sliding rally cars in the same crazy pace you did years ago. Just like before this isn’t rally against the clock but head-to-head and metal-against-metal. With thirty tracks in five different setting there is entertainment to be had for a long time. The biggest new addition to the concept are the deformable terrain. The cars leave tyre tracks in the roads and since the courses are driven for several laps the roads get incredibly bumpy and in its places really hard to drive during the last lap. A feature that works really good and means that no laps will be the same.

SEGA Rally in its 2007 clothes is a perfect game when you’re in the mood for some crazy non-serious driving.

SEGA Rally (or SEGA Rally Revo as it’s called in North America) arrived today in the mail box and I booted it up for some quick races.

It’s all very clear just by looking at the title screen that SEGA are staying true to the classic original. It’s all very arcadey, almost to the point where you want to insert coins. Today’s debut boot of the game resulted in two quick races:

1. Safari.
I chose the Peugeot 306 and the first Safari stage. It’s apparantly the easiest of the stages. The first thing I realises was that the car was incredibly edgy and was twitching left right as soon as you were even considering moving the analog stick. My first two laps were a bit like a drunken driver but I became faster and faster while bouncing on the deformed tracks and splashing through water. Ended up third after a pretty damn splendid last lap.

2. Arctic
Snow. You can’t really beat it when it comes to rallying. And in SEGA Rally you even get to plough it, leaving deep tyre tracks in the road which makes every lap a bit different and a bit more shaky. After the three icy laps I got third here as well after a much more stable race.

The nervous steering does take some getting used to, but once I started going forward instead of just counter-steering wildly I started to feel that this could be the arcade racer (or rallier) that I’ve been looking for.

Stay tuned for a small, but proper, review.

The full game has Playstation 3 launch date of September 14th for PAL regions but you can already get your hands on the wheel and try out DIRT by downloading the demo from the Playstation Store.

The demo features three modes:

• Crossover: Compete against Colin McRae himself on a twisty tarmac super special stage in a Subaru Impreza.
• C.O.R.R.: Ten V8 650hp buggies at the same raceway!
• Rally: The start of the Cuconi B rally stage in Sardinia.

Already a 700,000+ best seller on other formats, Colin McRae: DIRT is a thrill ride through a massive range of off-road racing experiences on gravel, mud and dirt, right across the globe. Race in challenging, heavyweight 850bhp cars through high speed blind corners and along perilous cliff edges in the Hill Climb events, including the world famous Pikes Peak International through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

Multiple car races take players across grueling desert terrain in Rally Raid competitions, while Rally Cross switches between dirt and road racing. There’s also Crossover circuits and events from the CORR (Championship Off-Road Racing) series in the U.S., which combines powerful buggies with exciting dirt tracks and tabletop jumps, drop-offs and moguls for an intoxicating mix. DIRT also offers a dedicated mode for rally championships and an online race mode for up to 100 players.

During September 2007 Playstation Portable owners will be able to play the new version of the classic SEGA Rally.

SEGA Rally on the PSP encapsulates everything its predecessors laid out when defining the rally genre; amazing visuals, superb handling and closely fought competitive racing. These three key features have been the chassis of development for SEGA Rally on the PSP, combining to bring players a thrilling ride through jaw dropping environments and against competitive AI, all alongside an instinctive handling system that rewards players for pushing their rally-racing skills to the very limit.

“The original SEGA Rally is heralded as one of the all time great video games and this new instalment on the PSP is a great example of updating a classic perfectly for today’s machines,” said Guy Wilday, Studio Director, SEGA Racing Studio. “With the addition of multiplayer Wi-Fi and online multiplayer, there’s scope for players to show off their skills against their friends, whilst the excellent PSP screen exudes all the visual qualities expected of SEGA Rally”.

It’s time to get your Gran Turismo HD fix of the day. We bring you four car models from the upcoming PS3 game.

The new McRae rally title from Codemasters will come to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC in 2007 and is the first game based on Codies’ new game engine Neon.

Neon is a multi-platform continuous technical development that’s already been in production for over 18 months with over 30 tech experts on the team. Neon is being used to build Colin McRae: DIRT from the ground up with technology developed exclusively for next-generation formats; there’s no adaptation of previous McRae tech in DIRT.

DIRT will feature 40 official licenced vehicles with 12 car categories.

There are way too many X’s in the title but hopefully the lame title Xpand Rally Xtreme hides a good rally game. Slipstreaming are bigger fans of circuit racing than rally but nevertheless there’s something special to go out against the clock on roads that are too narrow for comfort.

The polish developer Techland really showed in the first Xpand Rally that you don’t need big names and licenses for some good old fashioned fun. The game was a pleasant surprise and kept me busy for a while so there sure is bound to be some promise in the Xtreme version.

Coming to your PC in… erm…. I have no idea. Soon, perhaps.

The website is located here:
http://xpandrally.com/xrx/indexuk.html
And here are some screenshots: