World Rally Fever: Born on the Road

WRF is pretty sweet, on the whole: visually VERY appealing (especially if 'scaler' games by SEGA and Taito are your kinda thing), it sounds great and it runs super smooth, exactly as you want your arcade racers to be. Where does it fall, then? Well, in my opinion, it's a little bit too cheap, to the point it gets frustrating. With no Practice or Single Race modes, to help you getting accustomed to the (often evil) track design, the only way to git gud is to engage the classic world championship over and over again, and... Well, prepare to get decimated by one of the most relentlessly aggressive AI I've ever seen in a game like this one. Trials and tribulations will eventually pay, even though World Rally Fever remains quite brutal overall: its cute, anime look is definitely deceiving.

World Rally Fever is part of a group of racers that may seem a bit out-dated now. It's the Outrun and Power Drift formula of scaling 2D sprites to give the impression of 3D. Due to the early technology, these games are generally very simplistic, and have have much more basic psychics and such compared to what we're used to. Heck, even when this game came out, we had seen things like SEGA Rally Championship which was technically miles ahead of this game. So why am I giving it 5 stars? Simply because FROM this sub-genre of racing games, this is one of the best. If you look at it as what it IS, rather than what it could be, it's a damn fun arcade racer, that's easy to pick up and hard to master. There's also a nice weapons system, which adds a lot to the game (these aren't really common in these kind of racers). My only complaint is that the camera automatically turns when a corner is coming up, causing your car to turn a bit as well. This is confusing at first, since it takes a while to figure out how much you should turn around each corner, or if you even need to turn yourself at all. You still do have to steer around the majority of the corners, so the challenge is still there, but it's confusing at first. So when it comes down to it, what World Rally Fever does is done well. Know what you're getting into when you download this games, and chances are you'll enjoy it.

If you're a fan of classic arcade racers like Power Drift or Outrun, World Rally Fever is right up your alley! This is as arcadey as can be; the title looks and feels like the best Sega "Super Scaler" game ever made and, despite being made by Team17, perfectly executes the mid-90's anime look it's going for. It looks & feels like a lost Neo Geo classic! The game has a unique driving model. Pay attention and you'll notice you sort of pivot your car at a greater and greater angle, "tilting" it until you find a sweet spot that lines up with the road perfectly, then go with it until the next section, where you re-adjust your tilt. It's very responsive, and works great with a keyboard and mouse as well as with a controller. Unfortunately, there is too large of a "hit stun" on the car. So after jumping, they'll get locked in their bounce anim before you can turn or jump again. Same thing goes for all recoveries; hitting obstacles or getting hit by items too. It's just brutal; stops you dead for 4 seconds or so. And there's no collision while your car slowly accelerates - so everyone else can just zoom through you instead of you blocking them. However, the sense of speed is great, as are all the details on the track. Everything's very over-the-top in the best way. There are also cart racer-style power ups too. The musical tracks are generic, but energetic, compositions that lend themselves well to the race. They have a genuinely awesome retro sound that'll get you jonesin' for your Sega-CD. And while the flaws can frustrate, and it gets pretty difficult at times, there's also a lot here that's plenty fair and enjoyable to play. Most of the time, it's a fun challenge - as long as you put in an effort. If you have fond memories of stuff like Outrun, Power Drift or Super Mario Kart, and want to experience a hidden gem there, then definitely give World Rally Fever a go! The game is well-made, gorgeous to look at, and downright exhilarating - it's so much fun!

I wondered how come I never heard of this gorgeous looking game and after playing it I know why. It handles TERRIBLY and is VERY unforgiving. Your car will auto-turn in every corner, but will over or under steer, so you need to correct it in a sort of forced steer that begins and ends with no warning or indication. This means you could end up jumping an obstacle diagonally because you coudln't straighten out, while the game will finish the auto-turn mid-air and you slam into another obstacle. If you attempt to do a hard turn without the track's auto-turn, it's very very hard and you're better off slamming into an obstacle so the game will reset you on the track. Speaking of obstacles: when an opponent hits an obstacle, they spawn and quickly get back on track, but if you do, the car stops for a second, blinks for about two seconds while sliding to a good position and then you can slowly accelerate again, because opponents accelerate much faster than your car. Acceleration varies per driver, but the game will not tell you which is better and worse, you have to try them out to find out. They range from absurdly slow to rather slow, as far as I tested. This wouldn't be so infuriating if it wasn't for the track design, that assumes that you have much more control over your car than you actually do. All that said, the scaling looks gorgeous and the music is fittingly punchy. Sound effects are ok and a tad repetitive. Better watched than played. With a few corrections it could be good though, could someone patch the fun into the game?