Many Sega Saturn fans race like it’s 1995 on a regular basis thanks to Sega’s sensational classic Sega Rally Championship. But what if there was another way?
Race like its 1995 is the tagline for DDI Rally Championship, a title which, at first glance, may look familiar.
If it does, then that’s because this upcoming racer from Dangerous Derk Interactive is a tribute to Sega’s racing great. It’s the work of this one man development studio that aims to bring back those mid-90s racing thrills that we love so much. Right from the menu screen the Sega Rally vibe is there, from the logo to the chequered background with the cars and game name, just like that of the original Sega Saturn port. It even has a cool little bassy tune that plays in the background as you select you modes and car.
The cars from Sega’s classic are present and brilliantly incorrect, with icons such as the Yoyota Helica, Lanica Belta from Martian Racing and Lanica Stratosphere. There’s a number of other cars to be unlocked which resemble those from Scud Race, Sega Touring car Championship and Daytona USA too.
There’s a few modes of play including the standard Practice and Time Attack options. Playground is an interesting one where you drive around an open world environment attacking loops and jumps. It all feels a bit like Lego Forza Horizon and despite there being no clear objectives, it’s decent fun.
But what you’re really here for is the Championship mode and this is where the Sega Rally love affair really kicks into gear.
The starting spot on the Forest stage absolutely screams Sega Rally with the crowd, the banner and the helicopter all evoking the look of Sega’s classic. The Heads Up Display also nails the look of the original and the aesthetics are pretty much all intact, even the legally distinct Stratos has the look you’d expect, and enemy cars too have a very similar colour scheme to the original Sega Rally, with those troublesome red white and blue and purple cars.
DDI Rally takes you on a tour of the original game’s biomes, with some Sega Rally 2 thrown in for good measure. Forest, Mountain, Desert, Alpine and Lakeside make up the Championships course list and while the tracks are completely original and not remakes, they have visual touches that call back to AM3’s games, such as the Church and Castle on the Mountain stage.
Visually the game looks the part despite some relatively simple visuals in places, there’s some nice lighting work and the game zips around at solid 60 frames per second on the maximum settings even on my creaky old PC.
Music and sound too feel nigh on authentic with a soundtrack that manages to almost replicate the musical style of the Saturn music tracks, from the soft rock stylings of the races to the cool musical interludes between courses.
One major difference is switching the navigator from Sega Rally’s iconic easy right maybe spouting guy to a young lady, but to be honest I feel the voice work fits really well and freshens up the whole experience.
What matters most is how it plays, and if you’re expecting this to play just like Saturn Sega Rally, you may be disappointed. The handling instead feels like a halfway house between Sega Rally 2 on Dreamcast and V-Rally on the original PlayStation. That’s not a bad thing at all, as both of those games have their fans. Moreover, dozens of games on the PS1 and N64 tried to copy Sega Rally’s formula and failed miserably, so DDI Rally not playing like its inspiration isn’t a disaster, and there are plenty of options that allow players to tweak the handling.
In fact, the more I played of this, the more I liked about it as time and time again I found myself challenging my times and trying onto get onto the games’ leaderboard, a trait that it has picked up from the original Sega Rally almost perfectly.
It cannot be stressed enough: This is an early access game, only version 0.0.13 as things stand. And even more importantly it’s made by one man. To be this playable and fun at this stage and bear the hallmarks of perhaps the greatest arcade racer of all time is no small feat.
As such, it’s not without its issues. Even if we put the subjective handling to the side, the physics model is a little crazy, I’m not sure if it’s intentionally mad at this stage, but it certainly feels jank. I’m also not in love with the sense of progression. The first course should ease you in, but you’re met with a hard right within the first 10 seconds, whereas stages like Mountain felt like a breeze. So yeah, there’s some pacing and difficulty curve points to iron out, as the visuals and gameplay see more polish.
But really, this is an incredibly enjoyable game even at this early stage and a wonderful homage to Sega Rally. It’s absolutely one we’ll be keeping an eye on and we urge you to as well. Add it on your Steam Wishlist today and check it out.
Links to DDI Rally:
Official Page – Official DDI Rally Championship website
Steam Page – https://store.steampowered.com/app/2512080/?snr=1_5_9__205
Husband, Father of 3, Analyst, Gamer and Half of The SegaGuys podcast.
Dan is a HUGE SEGA fan, and the Saturn is his favorite game console of all time!
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