World Rally Fever: Born on the Road

I have to agree most People: + Game looks really good. + Style is very good Anime like, normally western Games look very amateurish when copying that Style + Music is ok + Nice Locations - Controls are floaty, you could get used to it but - The Levels throw many Obstacles at you - And these have a bad Hit Detection This really kills the Game for me sadly.

I was initially excited by the artistic Japanese style and it made me reminiscent of mario kart so I bought this. Music is also a good touch but beyond that boredom starts. First I don't like that every other kart starts off faster than you. There isn't any variety to SFX just engine sounds and the few projectiles. You have the ability to jump but timing has to be perfect or you slow down. When you hit a wall the game moves you automatically to the center. All the carts look the same except the drivers. You do have the option to choose your driver but I didn't notice any difference of actual driving capabilities. If you do choose to buy it here's a HINT: to accelerate hold the gas button as soon as the 2nd to last light turns on! It's really not worth to buy this even for the graphics, go watch some manga instead!

I picked this up for a dollar and can't even say it was really worth that. From the store page it reminded me of Rad Racer or Outrun so I got it but honestly it feels very archaic compared to both of those. Your vehicle takes a long time to get up to speed after hitting an obstacle and due to the graphics it can be hard to see down the road. You can see in some of the promo screenshots there is some persistent vertical screen tearing, I'm not sure there's any way to fix that, but it's jarring when you're racing and the screen jitters like that making it difficult to judge what's coming up. Steering seems okay and your only real goal is to pass the other racers and finish in the top 3 to continue to the next race or you game over and have to use one of your limited continues. But overall it just doesn't feel very smooth to drive the cars because of how objects appear as you approach. I only tried a couple different drivers but it seems they all use the same car and control the same. I can't really recommend this game unless it's out of nostalgia because you played this back in the late 90s and want to re-live that. Even by the time it was released there were more fluid racing games in this style, Rad Racer and Outrun as I mentioned, released in the 80s, and F-Zero had been out for five years by the time this came out and felt incredibly smooth. Compared to those this still feels dated. Not a terrible game but not something I really want to devote time to learning and getting better at, not when there are so many better racers out there. This version has a config menu you can apply a variety of different filters if you're into that.

Like everyone else here, I commend the graphics, they are great, eye popping and something very reminiscent of early 90s arcade cabinet racers, using layered sprite graphics. Where this game falls flat is the gameplay. AI is on a set path, the steering is more of a suggestion that anything, the cart will go round corners on its own, but you steer it to keep it on the track, and avoid obstacles. Hitting obstacles can make or break a race, and quite often you will end up at full lock steering, and crashing into them multiple times. This game is worth a punt on a sale for less than £1. but dont pay it at full price.

Take this as Ghouls and Ghosts of racing games. The challenge is really related with memorization, and failure is needed to progress no matter how good or bad racer you are. That's the reason I fell many player get frustrated with this game, but that's the reason I am so addicted to it. This game is amazing for what it is.