V-Rally Edition '99

Other products by Infogrames

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00001ZUGX
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.9 x 1.2 inches ; 10.2 ounces
• Media: Game Cartridge
• Release Date: September 15, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #31,990 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)

Product Description

Editorial Review

V-Rally 99 tries to closely simulate the European rally racing experience, providing racers with a nice variety of cars and over 50 circuits located around the world. And while the attention to real-world physics certainly demands concentration, V-Rally 99 may send some drivers' patience into a tailspin.

This is not a pedal-to-the-metal racing game. Keeping control of the car is difficult, and drivers will quickly realize that success depends on literally crawling around corners at low speeds, then accelerating madly on the straights to the next set of curves and turns. Both the arcade (less sensitive controls and physics) and championship (heavy on the real-world simulation) modes demand a light touch on the accelerator and brakes to remain upright and on the track. Luckily, controls are quite intuitive and easy to learn.

However, the car's reactions to road conditions and bumps, dips, banks, and turns are very often unrealistic. Gravel and dirt tracks are too slippery, more closely resembling an ice-driving experience. Driving over an imperceptible bump may inexplicably send the vehicle into a ridiculously dramatic series of spins. Choosing the less-sensitive arcade mode provides a bit less frustration, though we certainly hope future renditions of V-Rally tone down the physics and shift the fun factor into a higher gear. --Eric Twelker

Pros:

• Over 50 tracks in such exotic locales as Corsica, New Zealand, Indonesia, and Kenya
• Good selection of cars
• Players can customize car handling and appearance features

Cons:

• Over-the-top physics model; keeping control of vehicle very difficult
• Anticipating turns difficult due to close horizon
• Multiplayer mode not overly exciting

GameSpot Review

While relatively unknown in the States, rally racing is a huge phenomenon in Europe. The concept is simple: Take a bunch of cars that have been slightly modified for racing, stick them on actual roads, and let them have at it. As such, the game has you zooming over African trails, through the center of coastal towns, and past expansive countrysides. But somehow V-Rally Edition '99 fails to capture the exciting elements of rally racing and ends up being mediocre, at best. V-Rally '99 is split into two separate game modes: arcade and championship. In the arcade mode the physics are less realistic, your vehicle is a bit faster, and you race against other cars. Unfortunately, even at the expert setting, the arcade mode is ridiculously easy. Indeed, you can roll your car any number of times and still place first. With any car on any track the secret to the arcade mode is simple: Hold down the A button to win the race. The championship mode boasts more accurate physics, which in turn make the game a bit more difficult. But even at their best the physics are sorely lacking. Sure, rally cars slide around an awful lot, but the cars in this game slide around far too much. You're almost constantly fighting a fishtail. Your normal brakes are almost useless, and the handbrake is unrealistically superior - a quick speed reduction without any rear tow. The track design itself, while loosely based on real courses, is fairly boring and repetitive. Almost all the tracks toss you a barrage of tight corners and then a huge straightaway, keeping you from obtaining any real speed. The cars themselves look very nice, but the backgrounds and pop-up keep you from enjoying the graphics for too long. All the cars look true to their real-life counterparts, and there are some simple lighting and shading effects in there. However, the backgrounds are uninspired and look terrible once you get close to them. Easily the most frustrating feature in the game is the ever-present pop-up. Even with your dopey navigator calling out the turns in his quaint British dialect, the pop-up keeps you from seeing an important turn until you're right on top of it, leading to plenty of collisions with the unforgiving borders of the track. If the pop-up doesn't get you, the sheer blandness of the backgrounds will. Most of the track is a similar shade to the background, and as such, turns tend to blend in with the rest of the background, keeping you from noticing a killer turn until you're halfway through it. Hum a simple tune and stick your head next to a lawnmower, and you'll have the audio for this game in a nutshell. For the complete experience, have a friend periodically scream "hard right" or "easy left" in his best British accent. All the cars make the same horrible engine noises, and the music is lackluster. Even the best element of the audio - your navigator's speech - is lacking. You'll easily be able to see how they separated the sound bites when you hear the unnatural pause as he strings a few turns together. While the game may not stand out in quality, it certainly does the job with quantity. In fact, there are over 50 tracks in the game and all eleven official rally cars. That's a lot of racing, even for the most hard-core rally fan. Once you've completed a few circuits, you're able to unlock the four special bonus cars. Unfortunately, you may not be compelled to race even half the tracks or get behind the wheel of more than a few different cars in the light of this game's numerous flaws. Infogrames should have spent less time bogging the game down with every rally track known to mankind and instead channeled that effort into making a better game. Even the most hard-core rally fan should be hesitant around this title, and fans of basic racing games should avoid this one like the plague.--Ben Stahl--Copyright © 1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars v rally, March 18, 2002

By	edward martin (Bramcota Lorne international Bording School Gamston England) - See all my reviews

V rally is probably my best racing game I have ever had. It almoat like you are in the car your self skiding round snowy corners or sliding round sharp corners in indonesia.
And you can go on timetrials and !-4players and race your friends in france,spain,sweden and new zeland.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good game if you stick with it, January 29, 2000

By A Customer

Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This game does what it says in the sense that the physics are fairly similar to real world driving, and that's what makes it so tough! You can execute pendulum and hand brake turns, but you've really got to practice to get them right. If you're looking to blast around a track full throttle within 10 minutes of plugging it in, forget it! This isn't Mario Kart. However if you want a good racing sim which takes lots of practice, then this one is great.

Pros: Realistic car handling, 2 player is fun,

Cons: No analog setting for gas and brakes (to my knowledge), more car setup options would be nice, instruction manual seems to be written by someone with English as a second language.

Overall, a decent game.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Challanging. Hard to keep up with leader, November 19, 1999

By A Customer

Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

It is a very good game. The only problem with the game is that it is quite hard to keep up with the leading cars.