PlayStation 2 Game Recommendations | mariteaux

[#] Sega Rally Championship (Sega, PlayStation 2, 2006)

I'm in my mum's caaaaaah. Broom broom.

Hearing that there was an arcade-perfect port of Sega Rally Championship (the less memorable but arguably more fun sister game to Daytona USA) for PS2 included on a second disc with Sega Rally 2006 got me interested. Not to play Sega Rally 2006, of course, but to grab the extra disc off Myrient. A Japan exclusive, this port is indeed arcade perfect, a lot of fun, and tough as nails. You get three courses, the easy-breezy Desert, the winding Forest, and the boxy Mountain track, with the goal of completing all three within the alloted time, plus what time you get from checkpoints.

Your car slides on mud and goes airborne on jumps. You gotta learn to navigate tight corners at high speeds, paying attention to your gear shifts if you want any chance of making it through Forest, let alone Mountain. I've never done it, but it's a good time all the same. The car physics and handling feel great (though the fact that the car starts each race in neutral never fails to confuse me), and the graphics and sound are about Dreamcast-quality, smooth and very easy on the eyes. You can pick manual or automatic for your transmission, and there's two cars to choose from, the Toyota Celica and the Lancia Delta Integrale, the latter of which is my favorite because boxy cars just have soul, alright.

Championship also includes a Practice mode where you can take on each course individually without the flood of other cars on the road, obviously good for practice, but also time trials if you wanna challenge yourself. (I still haven't beaten the Mountain course.) Should you complete a course, your best times save to memory card as well. It's a shame this disc is Japan-exclusive, since it's all perfectly maneuverable in English and anyone into racing games of any stripe would do well to seek it out in any way possible. Like the best rally cars, it's a thrilling ride stripped down to only what it needs to go fast.

(This disc is playable on a suitably modded PS2 from any region through ESR, MX4SIO, or other OPL boot method. I use MX4SIO myself. It also emulates great.)