Rally De Europe

The Rally De series started with Rally De Africa in 1998. It was an arcade-style rally racer that successfully managed to capture the feel and fun of Sega Rally on the Saturn. However, Rally De Africa lacked the a Time Attack mode. Rally De Europe was released in 2000, and while I’m still waiting for them to add Time Attack, the graphics and car handling are much improved over the Africa version. The game lacks any official World Rally Championship cars but it uses convincing clones with fake names. The track design isn’t as well done as the classic tracks of Sega Rally, but the races are still fast and challenging.

The best part of Rally De Europe is the Zen-like control system. Gravel feels like gravel, tarmac acts like tarmac, and the powerslides and skids are dream-like. Diehard racers and beginners will both be pleased. After you complete all the Europe rallies (or cheat past them), a second game opens up: Rally De Africa 2000. This mode allows you to race on the old 1998 tracks with the 2000 game cars. In all that gives you 10 tracks and over a dozen cars. The game also has an exclusive feature called Memory Card Battle. It appears that you record a race on your card and then you email it to a friend via a Dexdrive file, sort of like a low-tech online challenge. Once you have your chum’s save, you can race against their ghost car.