Let's face the facts; not everybody has what it takes to make it as a professional rally racer. Sure an elite few can kick back with their spot-on physics racing on actual locations around the world, but some of us out there desire a fast-paced, unrelenting experience that pumps adrenaline nonstop. In steps SEGA Rally Revo, a reincarnation of one SEGA's oldest franchises that is purely about arcade racing. While the concept of keeping the pedal to the metal nonstop seems like it could be loads of fun, unfortunately for this game's case racing seems more like a chore than anything else.

Has the Race Started Yet?

Arcade racers are supposed to be all about high speed, bumper-to-bumper pursuits without any of the other frills included in the more realistic titles. You won't find yourself messing with any gear ratios or modifying body parts to make your ride more aerodynamic, but instead the setup is rather straightforward. You can choose from one of three classes - Premier, Modified, and Masters - but the differences in these classes are essentially negligible. In fact, the only customization option you have is to suit your vehicle for off-road environments or to have it tuned for higher speeds.

Once that's all said and done with, you now have the option of choosing 15 tracks spanned across 5 different locations. In case you can't do the math, that's a mere 3 courses for each environment, so expect to feel shortchanged. The tropical levels are fun because you can sling mud around and watch it stick to cars, while the arctic courses do carry a wintry feeling. Still, regardless of the scenery changes the lack of creative level design sticks out like a sore thumb.

Essentially, any given track consists of two basic terrain types. Sure there's a noticeable difference when switching from wet pavement to arid desert, but there's only two overall "feelings", if you will. Either your car grips the surface or it slides around as if you're in an uncontrollable hydroplane for the whole race. Throw in a few semi-sharp turns with a hairpin here or there, maybe add some water to drive through or a small to jump to go off and that's it, you've just made your own SEGA Rally Revo level. Aside from seeing the Northern Lights in the arctic setting or some giraffes while crusing in the safari, the levels have hardly anything memorable about them. As such, you'll find yourself going through the tracks without having to stay on your toes at all.

To add insult to injury, the driving physics also leave a lot to be desired. Basically, once you head off the starting line you'll hardly ever let go of the accelerator. The steering controls are oversensitive, so racing with a keyboard is out of the question for the most part. The biggest problem lies within the incredibly forgivable damage system though. For one thing, you can head perfectly straight into a turn and just ride an invisible wall that won't reduce your speed significantly. Furthermore, when collisions occur the cars merely bounce off one another, so it's not even fun to try to slam your opponents around. Instead, you'll find yourself going through the motions of slamming the gas, roughly maneuvering your way through corners, and repeating over and over again. While it's not impossible for arcade fanatics to get a kick out of this game, most gamers will feel ripped off for even just paying the MSRP of $39.99.

At Least it looks Good, Right?

Even if the controls aren't the greatest in the world, sometimes a beautiful racer with an intense sense of speed is enough to be worth trying out. Again, SEGA Rally Revo fails to live up to expectations in this respect. After seeing what a technical masterpiece DiRT was, upcoming games certainly had big shoes to fill. Apparently, the developers at SEGA were so disheartened that they used a graphics engine that looks like it might be from the last millennium. The car models aren't very intricate, the environments lack creative design, the particle effects are downright lame, and to top it all off there's a fair amount of clipping too.

While graphics don't necessarily reflect the overall quality of the game, one could argue that it offers a pretty accurate prediction in this case. The requirements are very modest, in its defense, by only requiring a 2.0GHz Pentium 4 or equivalent with almost any 128MB graphics card. Some of the real old systems out there might not have 5.0 GB of Hard Drive Space or 1 GB of RAM, but any PC capable of playing any game from the last couple of years should have no trouble running this.

Still, it feels like SEGA put hardly any effort into this game whatsoever. The menu system is merely a bunch of photographs that you can navigate through like a slideshow. The championship mode is uninspiring, as it too does only the absolute minimum by stringing together races and calling them tournaments. The soundtrack is dull and listless, and the cars don't even have any sort of personal characteristics, so it really doesn't matter which vehicle you choose. The only real positive thing to say is the inclusion of deformable environments. This only means that after driving over certain terrains cars might leave grooves in the road which will stay for the rest of the race. If you have vibration feedback you'll feel more rumbles when you ride over the grooves, and it's also supposed to help increase grip although the difference isn't too clear.

SEGA Rally Revo in the Long Run

In its favor, this title actually did a decent job in terms of multiplayer. Races for up to 6 players at a time are available, and as long as you find someone with a decent connection you shouldn't experience any major issues with lag. These races seem leaps and bounds ahead of DiRT because you're actually racing against other people, not just competing against their ghosts. You can come into full contact with other live players, which can make for some interesting race strategies. Still, with only circuit races available it's hard to justify buying this game for the online considering how much of a turnoff the controls will be.

Conclusion

While SEGA Rally Revo is generally unappealing to the mass of gamers out there, it's still possible that those with an extreme passion for arcade racing could have an alright time playing this game. The dated graphics and drab sound effects don't help things out either, and the lack of variety leaves this with little replay value. For the most part, unless you remember playing the original over a decade ago and want to relive your video game history, then maybe you won't like you got the short end of the stick. But unless you already know what to expect and still want to go ahead and purchase SEGA Rally Revo, there are tons of other titles already available that trump this game in longevity, presentation, and entertainment value.