Sega Rally Revo PSP Review

Remember when you first bought that Sega Saturn system and felt that you were duped by a lack of superb software? Yeah, but then Sega had that one killer Christmas where they had three must-have games out at the same time- Virtua Cop 2, Virtua Fighter 2 (classic) and, my personal favorite, Sega Rally. This racing game was (and still is) one-of-a-kind, a simplistic yet utterly enjoyable off-roader with all of its arcade nutrients fully intact. Well, Sega's revitalized that with a more realistic flair this time around, rejuvenating the franchise with the release of Sega Rally Revo. Believe it or not, it's actually a pretty cool racer for the PSP, despite a couple of glaring flaws.

Back to the handling. The way that the cars go into powerslides around mud slopes and snowy hills feels just like the real thing, while the game still retains that "Sega Rally" feeling. It's an amazing mixture. Our only complaint in this department is how the cars perform differently but don't have their own individual stats. It's like a car dealer being asked to explain the difference in performance between two cars and he just snickers and shows you the ticket price.

Along with a boisterous simgle player mode with dozens of tracks to race on, the game also has superb multiplayer support. Not only does it have ample Game Sharing options, but it also supports up to four players through AdHoc and Infrastructure. All these games run smoothly enough, although the loading can be quite a chore. Sometimes you're waiting thirty seconds-plus just to get a race started, something your impatient friends may not be so steady on waiting on.

But I digress. The point of the matter is that Sega Rally Revo brings the series back to life without dumping what made it so damn crucial in the first place. Sure, the announcer needs to go and the car performances should've been better judged, but the racing -- the tried and true racing -- stays the same. Love those visuals, too. And the fact that "Game over yeaaaaaah" made it is pure Sega love. So what if they've forgotten a few things? They remembered the important stuff, like the joy of going into a mud-slide and trying to catch back up by leaning into it. That never gets old, I don't care how bad a driver you are.