Mud, gravel and asphalt - each surface behaves differently under the wheels and you feel it in every slide. Sega Rally Championship from 1995 brought something to arcades that no one had managed before: rallying where it is not just about speed, but about reading the terrain beneath your tires.
The game again came from the Sega AM2 team and ran on the powerful Sega Model 2 board. Its crucial novelty was an elaborate driving model across different surfaces. On solid road the car held its line precisely, while on gravel or mud it slid into controlled skids. The player thus had to learn to manage the car's weight, brake and steer the slide with the throttle, which turned ordinary cornering into a genuine art. On top of that, the track gradually got rutted as cars passed over it, adding to the feeling of a real race being run on it.
Sega Rally became renowned for being accessible and deep at the same time. A beginner enjoyed a brisk drive, while a master polished the ideal line by tenths of a second. Famous too was the iconic co-driver's voice calling out the corners and the encouraging shout Game Over, Yeah! Together with the finely tuned controls, this made it one of the most influential racing arcade machines of the nineties.
Its arcade success was confirmed by the port to the Sega Saturn, which ranked among the finest conversions of an arcade game to home hardware. Sega Rally received sequels and its physics model influenced how other developers looked at rally games for years.
Even today, Sega Rally pulls you in instantly. It is pure, focused fun where every corner is a small challenge and every well-executed slide a small victory. It belongs among the titles that defined how a racing arcade should feel.
Why play: For the masterful feeling of driving over shifting terrain that turned arcade rallying into an unforgettable experience.
Game 62 of 258 for Arcade
