Time to rally
The first in a long running series of rally games endorsed by the sadly missed Colin McRae, this is a fine driving game which should be in any fan's collection alongside Sega Rally and Network Q. It doesn't do anything radically new to the genre, but simply gets everything right by offering an extensive range of cars, tracks and options, and combining it all with a great sense of speed and excitement. As you'd expect, the main focus here is on a fairly epic rally tournament, that sees you racing across five different countries, with a good selection of cars to try out too. The countries include Greece, the UK and Australia, and each have their own unique challenges thanks to their different terrain types, while the cars include both four wheel and two wheel drive models, with a total of eight available. In addition to the main championship mode, you also have time trials, a practice mode and a couple of others to try out, including two player, which is perhaps where the game shines the most. Although this is showing its age rather, if you can get past any such prejudices, you're in for a good time here. The range of tracks and cars gives things plenty of replay value, as there is a real difference between them all, and they will take some time to master. There's a great sense of the thrills and spills of a real rally, and everything whizzes along at a fair old pace. The visuals are obviously looking less than slick nowadays, being a little blocky, but apart from this, Colin McRae still holds up well.
