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#Drive Rally is a love letter to ’90s arcade racing titles like Need for Speed and V-Rally 2. It’s all about handling here, and this game gives more love and attention to the way cars feel than most. Instead of high-octane collisions or wilderness exploration, the focus stays on nailing the perfect drift and cutting half a second off your best lap. Leaderboards, a variety of tracks, and a charming art style all make #Drive Rally one to watch as it enters early access. Although there are miles of track still ahead for the developers, their arcade racer is already angling for the top spot. Rev your engines and prep that emergency break, because we’re hitting the rally circuit.
Drifts and Dodgy Tailpipes
On the car physics reality spectrum, #Drive Rally sits closer to Monster Jam Showdown than Forza and the like. These rally racers aren’t trudging monsters, but the physics supports a faster, freer style of driving. Cars feel light and bouncy as they drift around corners and squeak past obstacles, and drifting is exactly what you’ll spend much of your time doing. Despite the somewhat airy feeling of certain rides, the racing feels grounded. Whenever I planted my front grille in a tree, it was a skill issue. The first four maps (Dry Crumbs, Holzberg, Revontuli, and Vinh Vanh) all feel different, too, with a healthy selection of tracks.
#Drive Rally is designed to appeal to cozy drivers as well as competitive ones. With simple controls, objectives, and track layouts, it’s a solid entry point for driving games if you’re new to the genre. If you’re a rally veteran, however, the drifting and traction mechanics offer a surprisingly high skill ceiling. Other than earning money to unlock new vehicles, the main incentive is the leaderboard. If seeing your name in lights after a close ghost race does it for you, this one’s for you. Those top ranks always seem tantalizingly close. Master each shift and turn and make the top spot yours.
Sights and Sounds of the Open Road
The graphics are clean, simple, and stylish, looking even better in motion. Minor nitpicks such as the underwhelming exhaust effect are to be expected, but it says a lot about the game’s quality that it’s entering early access in such a solid state. The sound design in general needs beefing up, with too little music and ambient noise, however, leaving your car’s engine (and somewhat irritating co-driver) as your ears’ constant company.
There are plenty of easter eggs and cute references for attentive drivers, and there’s much more to come, assuming the devs stick to the roadmap. The co-driver system and a few other quirks take some getting used to, but Pixel Perfect Dude seems laser-focused on delivering a straightforward and satisfying racer that scratches that ’90s itch. Between the custom cars and enchanting lighting, you’re pretty much guaranteed a good automotive photo op when #Drive Rally enters early access for PC and Mac on September 25.
