When I was a kid, my favorite video games were always flight simulators and racing simulators. I never really liked games where you were controlling a character. I guess I thought it was inherently unrealistic. At least with racing and flight simulators they were based off real-life models and physics.
In the mid 2000s one of my favorite games was RalliSport Challenge. I believe originally it was written for Xbox in 2002, but it was a Microsoft Game Studios game, so there was also a Windows port. I didn’t have an Xbox, so I played the Windows version. I loved RalliSport Challenge. The racing aspect was so fun and hearing the co-driver call out pace notes to you as you flew through icy, snowy or gravel road courses. It felt just like you were racing in the WRC (World Rally Championship) which I was very into at the time.
Of course now, that game looks dated. When I got my iPad Air I was excited about the prospect of playing really nice games. I’d seen lots of demos of how well the 3D engines ran on iOS and it seemed like a perfectly capable gaming platform to me. Sadly though, I never really found any games, especially racing games, that I genuinely enjoyed. Too many of them seemed to be of the free variety with micro transactions and in-app purchases to get upgrades. I don’t like that model. I’ll happily pay for a game if it’s good and fun to play.
So last week I took to the app store with a simple $5 budget looking for a game that would be fun to play, and maybe take me back to my teenage years playing RalliSport Challenge. I was quite surprised to come across a title called Colin McRae Rally. Back in the mid 2000s, there was a PC game called Colin McRae Rally. It was really cool and far more realistic than RalliSport Challenge. But this game in the app store couldn’t possibly compare to that, right? I looked at the extra details. It was created by The Codemasters Software Company…the same company that created the original Colin McRae Rally game. I checked out the screenshots and the videos. It seemed to be the real deal and at only $3 it was under my $5 budget. No in-app purchases. Just racing.
What’s my verdict? Really, really cool! The graphics look great, the cars look great, the physics are very realistic and even the rally gameplay is very true to life. Each rally is composed of several stages. After every two stages, you are given a time budget to repair your car. If you don’t repair it, believe me, it drives noticeably worse. If you can keep the car together and beat the clock through enough of the stages, you’ll win the rally.
Like many racing games, you’re only allowed one car choice, and one rally at first. In Colin McRae Rally it’s the Ford Focus and the Australia Outback rally, respectively. Once you come in first place in a rally, you are given another car choice, and ability to enter other rallies. Cars available in the game include the aforementioned Ford Focus, Subaru Impreza, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, and even a Group 4 (the precursor to the infamous Group B) relic, the Lancia Stratos.
The controls are pretty good but the realistic physics take some time to get used to. This isn’t an arcade-style racer where you can just lay on the throttle and never use the brake. When I play it on my iPhone, I prefer the accelerometer tilt-to-steer controls. On my iPad, I like the onscreen left/right buttons. Regardless of steering method, you also have onscreen controls for the throttle, brake and handbrake.
Overall, I’m really happy to see such a realistic and fun game being offered in app store after being so disappointed with so many others. If you’ve ever been interested in a nice, worth-the-money game in the app store, I’d have no hesitation recommending Colin McRae Rally.