Art of Rally

Long before the release of Sega Rally and Dirt, rally racing games looked like this. They were simple and overhead, as demonstrated by 1991's Thrash Rally and Rally Bike from 1988. The new game Art of Rally takes a page from those early racing games and delivers a stylish throwback with just enough modern enhancements to not feel dated. It may not convince you that every racing game should be overhead, but this sophomore release from Funselektor Labs is a great way to pass the time while waiting for DiRT 5.

Art of Rally is a game that is nostalgic for the past. Not the origins of racing games, but rather the sport itself. It breathlessly fawns over the cars of the 1960s and 70s, hoping that you'll also fall in love with their quirky stories and unexpected history. I can almost hear my father sipping a beer and telling me all about the good old days, when cars were created by real artists and the drivers believed they had a higher calling. It's a soft-focus trip down memory lane, savoring every sip of nostalgia.

Personally speaking, I have no reverence for this era of rally racing. Or any era of rally racing, for that matter. I love the games and the danger associated with driving on the largely off-road courses, but I hadn't really put much thought into the history before playing Art of Rally. What this game does so well, beyond being a well-crafted racing game, is being so enthusiastic that you can't help but share their love for the early days of rally racing.

The good news is that you don't need to be a racing historian to enjoy Art of Rally; you can be a know-nothing just like me. All you need to have is a love for racing games and a desire to come in first, because that's what's asked of you in this surprisingly robust overhead racer. It's a journey through the 1960s, 70s and 80s, taking us around the world and showing off a wide variety of stylish cars. It's intense and often harrowing, but also laid-back in a way that is more relaxing than your typical rally game.

One thing that I really love about Art of Rally is how it eases us into the action by throwing the player into a number of free roam events. There's one for each country you visit -- including Finland, Sardinia, Norway, Japan and Germany. This allows us to not just get used to the camera perspective and vehicle handling, but also take in the amazing sights littering each course. This mode reminds me of the early Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games, where so much of your job was to collect tapes and letters. You do the same thing here, along with finding the scenic views that each county is known for and locating all of the hidden vans.

This is a great warm-up for the main course, where we travel through the years and take on the stiff competition. If you've played a racing game before, then the progression won't come as much of a surprise. We work our way through the different classes by driving faster cars through harsher conditions, earning new vehicles for coming in first without restarting. Every event has you competing in multiple races, some of which will have you driving at night or through the rain. There's a nice variety of locations and conditions to race in, so it never feels like we're seeing the same few courses over and over.

Click For the Full Picture Archive

Like a lot of rally games, this one has you battling the time more than other players. Sure, you'll still need to go fast if you want to come in first, but there are never other racers on the track. This often makes it feel like it's you vs. the course, which is appropriate given some of the turns you'll have to make. This is all about mastering each car's handling, which can be a little tricky at first with the overhead perspective. Thankfully, it won't take long for everything to click, and once it does, you'll find that Art of Rally is tough to put down. With so many years and events to race through, I found myself devoting long afternoons and evenings to the game, always with the hopes of coming in first and collecting all the cars.

Unfortunately, the events start to feel a bit lonely without anybody else on the track. This is a game in serious need of ghost cars showing us how far ahead (or behind) we are at any given moment. Perhaps there's something like that when you race online against friends, but I wasn't able to test that out in the pre-release version. All of the single-player events have you on the track by yourself, even when you're in free roam. This takes away some of the excitement and urgency you normally get from a racing game, and I hope that in the future they add ghosts or other players to the events.

On that topic, I was a little disappointed that the faster events weren't, well, faster. The vehicles are supposed to be more powerful as we go through the years, but the game does a bad job of conveying the speed. Perhaps this is one of the downsides to the overhead perspective. The speed increase is gradual at most, to the point where it's sometimes hard to tell that you entered a new class. It doesn't help that the performance is a little iffy, with wildly unstable frame rates (no matter what settings I used).

But even with these problems, the developer's love and enthusiasm for rally racing made this game impossible to resist. I love the simple yet stylish art design and the laid-back feel to every stage. Best of all, the game is packed with content and modes, including online multiplayer events. Even if overhead racing games aren't normally your thing, Art of Rally is still worth taking for a spin.