Rally Arcade Classics – PS5 Review

Arcade rallying seems to be making a comeback. Whilst titles like Old School Rally specifically aim for that 90’s vibe, Rally Arcade Classics aims for something slightly more modern. Netk2 Games are at the helm and what they’ve delivered is an addictive, compelling racer. It does initially seem light on stages and the structure can make for a potential grind but it does keep bringing me back.

There is a wealth of stages to dive into. Rally Arcade Classics features plenty of full events but the tour mode slices them up into bite-size pieces. As a result, the campaign moves quickly and rarely feels stale. The smallest variables like weather and time of day can give familiar ground a new challenge. It also features different event types to keep things fresh. Time attacks are standard attempts to beat the clock, drift events focus on your ability to keep things sideways and races ask you to chase down the pack.

The variety helped maintain my interest but there are sections where progress could slow to a crawl. The tour is split into specific car categories and you unlock these by completing licenses. There’s a handful of licenses to complete and they all focus around beating set times for gold, silver or bronze trophies. These trophies then translates into stars that can unlock more tour events.

Initially, the stars come thick and fast as the requirements start out very lenient. Towards the final third of the campaign, the stars need to unlock the latter licenses can feel a long way off. As a result, I found myself re-treading old ground to make the most of the previous events. Even then, the repetition did start to hit. Whilst events are short, restarts and retries are not instant. Each goes through a transition that really does hinder the game’s flow.

I’ve hit that wall and retrying old events to maximise stars just doesn’t feel as rewarding as it should. You get a trickle of credits for each event you complete and that can make building up your collection slow going. Rallies seem to be where the big pay outs are and they come in easy, medium and hard difficulties. You can also tackle them in a range of drivetrains which helps make the most of so few locations. Much like the tour events, the stages are mostly quick so they don’t outstay their welcome.

The money is spent on cars and there’s over 40 to get a hold of. These are the typical off-road staples that most fans will recognise at first glance. The racing equivalents need to be earned by completely their accompanying arcade challenge. It’s a condensed race over four stages where you have to overtake the competitors on track. It’s an interesting idea but I quickly realised how rigidly it was formatted. There’s a set number of cars you can pass in each stage and you must pass them to stand a chance of finishing first.

Chrono mode is essentially where your shakedown to your heart’s content. All stages and vehicles are unlocked with variable time and weather conditions. It can be handy to refine your performance and get to grips with some of the beefier cars. Some might find it essential but the ghost cars of the time attack events lays down a good marker for self-improvement.

Handling is consistent but it’s not fully committed to the arcade approach. It’s far from simulation either but there’s a precision required to really bring down your times. Surfaces can influence your vehicle, as can downpours and I find narrow roads really need finesse. Monte Carlo’s constant switchbacks require careful managing of handbrake turns, for instance.

It can be fun trying to understand the intricacies of each car. They’re all off-brand equivalents of famous badges and the race versions do their best to appear legally distinct from their real-life counterparts. As the horsepower climbs, so does the need for road knowledge and anticipation. The modern machines having an astonishing amount of pull that I found hard to adjust to.

Collisions can also feel jarring. Cars are rigid, heavy objects and bonking any of the roadside furniture can turn a vehicle abruptly or outright halt it. Reversing out of the situation is no guarantee and I’ve had moments where that gear fails entirely. You can reset the car to the track but, like resetting the stage, it’s not instant enough.

When it comes down to it, the driving mostly feels responsive and good. I truly hate how bogged down and slippy it can feel in wet mud but I enjoy the majority of the locales. It’s impressive that they’ve managed to make four rally venues feel fresh. There’s only a handful of stages for each rally but they chop them and reverse them enough to double that count. It’s still lacking in rally locations. I would’ve liked to have seen a safari rally or more tarmac. As it is, the broad strokes are covered but you’re not getting a full calendar.

Presentation is competent. As a game with a lighter budget, you can see where the corners are cut. Countdowns and pace notes are one-take sound clips that get the point across. They’re not detailed by any stretch but the gradience of easy to hard corners are simple enough to gauge. There’s no options to alter the timing of these notes and that does lead to situations where they arrive too late to anticipate.

Visually, it’s fine. The tiled menu is functional although the font work can look a little cheap. The liveries for the racing cars is a touch silly. They’re accurate but it became apparent they mirror logos to prevent getting too close to the sun on copyright. It would’ve been more creative to have some spoof brands on the vehicles but this method is at least weird to look at.

Rally Arcade Classics can occasionally feel accomplished. The handling is surprisingly more adept than the title might suggest. Despite a narrow swath of rally venues, Netk2 wring every drops out of the two-dozen stages. I do feel the structure of the tour can lead to grinding but the constant leaderboards do encourage self-improvement. There’s some rough edges, particularly around quick restarts but I’ve enjoyed the short and sharp twists and turns.