Arcade Rally English Version
by Lukas Petrik
An arcade racing game with an overhead view!
| Get to the finish first while avoiding the obstacles! | |
| This game is basically an overhead car race. You accellerate ahead of the others while trying to avoid crashing into obstacles. In the easier difficulty levels, you can basically move at a snail's pace and still win easily. As the difficulty gets higher, the cars go faster, and so you have to keep up. What makes this game interesting are those obstacles. Only one comes out on the screen at a time (seemingly random), but you can lose time hitting them and possibly even crashing your car. There is a nice meter at the top of the screen that tells you how much damage you can take. When it gets to 0%, you lose. You can choose from three different cars with different attributes. You can also set the difficulty level. The actual game engine was dealt with decently, but I did not like how everything only happens to you. If you crash into something, your car is damaged and you start going in reverse. The AI can crash into from behind or from in front, and they never seem to get damaged enough to stop the race. You can't simply pick the strongest car and strong arm your way through or try out other strategies. It is unfortunate that you can't turn while going in reverse either, because it can really slow you down when you hit an obstacle or another vehicle. |
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| This game is actually pretty good looking. It was not like I was playing some kind of 3 color game. The details were kind of nice, like seeing the numbers on the cars or the specular lighting on the water (which for some reason causes you to crash instead of slide). The dirt picking up from the back of the cars was kind of a nice touch as well. While this is not one of the more beautiful games made in QB, it is pretty good in its own right. | |
| This game needs better controls. It obviously uses INKEY$ for its movement. This results in a delay when you try to turn out of the way of an obstacle while going 60 MPH. It can be a real pain. A better keyboard handler would have been nice. Otherwise, there is not too much wrong. | |
| This game uses the PC Speaker for sound, and basically what you get are the roars of the engines. You also get to hear your car's body damage as it is inflicted. Other than that, there is only the intros to the race and the game. | |
| Even at the lowest difficulty level, you must practice self-control. Going 100 MPH (or over 60 even) can be hazardous to your health. Your car can only take so much damage, and crashing into obstacles will slow you down greatly. It can take awhile to get used to the controls, but when you do, the game's main challenge is from avoiding obstacles. The AI basically moves at a static pace, without changing at all. They also turn quickly out of the way of obstacles, so it can sometimes be unfair, especially in the higher difficulty levels. | |
| Besides avoiding obstacles, you must get to the end in time. There is not really an award for doing so, and the controls can be frustrating so you might not want to keep playing the more difficult levels. I thought it was interesting enough, but I would have liked better controls and maybe a nice award system, like a top ten times or something. | |
| This is an example of a game that could have been something better. It had a good concept, and it seems to be implemented quite well for the most part. Those controls need improvement. I would suggest trying it out, but it might frustrate you more than entertain. | |
| .zip file: 42KB download |