Colin McRae Rally 2005

Colin McRae Rally 2005 brought to mobile phones one of the most respected rally brands of its time, only shortly after the release of the console and PC original. Gameloft attempted to translate the series' key elements - stages through forests, gravel, and snow, vehicle damage, and a striving for a realistic sense of driving - adapted to control via a simple phone's numeric keypad. The player drove through a set of stages divided by surface and weather, each track placing different demands on pace and cornering precision, gradually unlocking further cars corresponding to various rally classes.

For its time, this was an ambitious project on mobile - simulating a rally race with different surfaces and skid physics on a phone without analog controls was no easy task. The result was necessarily a simplified conversion, yet it managed to preserve the sense of difference between driving on asphalt and on gravel, an important part of authenticity for fans of the series. Visually, the game benefited from a behind-the-car view and simple but legible environment models, with individual locations clearly differing in both color palette and the type of vegetation along the track. The audio side focused mainly on the roar of the engine and the sounds of jolting over uneven surfaces, which added to the feeling of a struggle with the terrain.

The Colin McRae brand had a strong name among motorsport fans thanks to its association with the real-life driver, and even the mobile version benefited from his popularity at a time when rallying enjoyed huge interest in Europe thanks to television coverage of the world championship. Players appreciated being able to at least get a taste of the tension of driving blind based on pace notes, a hallmark of rallying. Today the game is interesting mainly as a historical curiosity - evidence of how publishers licensed big motorsport names even for the smallest possible platforms, and of just how far mobile gaming has since moved toward full-fledged simulations with elaborate vehicle physics.

Why play it: For rally fans who wanted to at least get a taste of the tension of driving blind based on pace notes, with Colin McRae's real name on the box.