WRC: FIA World Rally Championship Arcade

"Power slide your way to the podium. Feel the raw passion of rally driving, complete with audio navigation by a co-driver. Push yourself to the limit with all seven official WRC cars, each with unique abilities. Rise to the challenge of all fourteen official WRC events plus unlockable extras. Get competitive in two player 'Vs. Mode'.

The game initially looks quite good, well developed, plays well, looks and sounds great, but that's only if you play the Super Special mode which is a multistage rally at different difficulties. It plays like you might expect a rally game to play, competing against other cars on the track kind of like Sega Rally and not just a time trial, although that mode is there if you wish. The controls can feel a bit over reactive and takes a while to get used to. Hitting the barriers can slow you in an instant and may be preferable to braking. Completing this mode will roll the credits and unlock a random stage event and you can choose how many of the tracks it has. Completing it doesnt seem to count towards anything.

Then there is Arcade mode (Grid Mode), the meat of the game. When you have run out of content to play this is how you drag out the game. What should be fun to play soon becomes tiresome as you race across fifteen tracks in all seven cars, that's 105 races! which can be played in any order you liked although initial you are confined to the different track difficulties until you reach a specified completion score. This also unlocks tracks for play in the vs and time trial modes. This has one of the worst progression systems in driving games and only hurts it in the long run as by the time the player has completed it, the opinion of the game will have soured some what.

Of course, completing Grid Mode is not where it ends. The pain continues as reverse mode is unlocked and you are expected to go through all 105 races again!!! For this longplay, normal play ends here as it is too much. However, I show each track raced in reverse once before performing some save game magic to skip to the end. Its safe to say it takes the same six hours twenty minutes to complete as the forward mode run. But wait ... there's more!!!

For anyone with the stamina to complete both sides of the grid (210 races) a Bonus Game is awarded. Some kind of Tetris game with bonus points for a line of matching blocks. I enable all block types but this made it near impossible to actually make a line of matching blocks but I manage just once near the start that shows effect on score.

The longplay will be split into multiple videos. You only need to see part one, rally mode to see what the game is about and is really the best part of the whole game. Part Two is grid mode, a gruelling run through 105 races. Your not missing much by skipping this segment. Part three will show a partial play of reverse mode and the Bonus Game unlocked for it and finally the games credits which are manually triggered at any time.


--- Part One (Rally) ---
00:00:00 Intro
00:02:00 Super Special (Easy)
00:16:25 Super Special (Medium)
00:38:28 Super Special (Hard)
01:07:40 Credits
01:10:00 Super Special (Random - 2 Tracks)
--- Part Two (Arcade) ---
00:00:00 Grid Mode (Starter Tracks)
00:47:35 Grid Mode (Bronze Tracks Unlocked)
01:59:51 Grid Mode (Silver Tracks Unlocked)
03:23:50 Grid Mode (Gold Tracks Unlocked)
05:05:10 Grid Mode (Bonus Track Unlocked)
--- Part Three (Reverse Mode)
00:00:00 Reverse Mode
00:53:10 Bonus Game unlocked
00:59:18 Credits

Youtube Timecodes:
0:00:00 - Intro
0:02:00 - Super Special (Easy)
0:16:25 - Super Special (Medium)
0:38:28 - Super Special (Hard)
1:07:40 - Credits
1:10:00 - Super Special (Random - 2 Tracks)
1:17:24 - Grid Mode (Starter Tracks)
2:04:59 - Grid Mode (Bronze Tracks Unlocked)
3:17:15 - Grid Mode (Silver Tracks Unlocked)
4:41:20 - Grid Mode (Gold Tracks Unlocked)
6:22:34 - Grid Mode (Bonus Track Unlocked)
7:39:17 - Reverse Mode
8:32:28 - Bonus Game unlocked
8:38:36 - Credits