V-RALLY 3 (GBA)


Real-time powerslides on the GBA

By MARTIN KINGSLEY

Quasi-3D games are becoming more and more popular on the GameBoy Advance - and for good reason. You can forget mode-7 and scaling and rotating - this is where it's at.

The latest title from this hybrid mould is V-Rally 3 - a surprisingly playable rally game. Like Tony Hawk 2 before it, this is an amazing showcase for the Nintendo hand-held.

Tony 2 (and 3) mixed a 3D skater with rendered 2D levels and, while the viewpoint sometimes got muddled, it was smooth and let's face it - quasi-3D is better than 2.5D.

In a similar moment of shocked realisation, the instant I viewed V-Rally 3's polygon-based menus, I knew that I was in for a very special ride...

V-Rally 3 has arrived on the GBA and I'm going to lay my cards on the table: This is arguably the best racing game to ever grace a hand-held gaming device.

But before we move on, know that this game isn't completely 3D. Like Tony 2, it mixes 2D and 3D to great effect. If you are wondering why they don't just make completely 3D games, that look like Xbox titles on the GameBoy, then you obviously weren't listening to your computer science teacher.

Student: "Why can't my casio watch play Donkey Kong, Sir?"

Teacher: "Because you're evil - you're all evil. Kill me, kill me now!!"

Indeed, school for some was a traumatic time, but what the teacher meant to say was that the GameBoy Advance has only a small amount of processing power. You could draw a comparison with cars - the bigger the engine, the faster you go - but I digress.

The whole notion behind rally racing (to me at least) is fundamentally perfect. While it is a competitive sport, each driver heads out on his or her own, essentially racing the clock. There's few punch-ups, little trash talk, yet still the drivers go hammer and tong, often leaving their cars in a ditch, twisted and deformed from an hilarious high-speed crash.

Sure, it'd be fun in real life, but only sleazy Dentists and blood-sucking Lawyers can afford to do it. Lucky for you and me it's a shit load of fun on the GameBoy Advance.

Gameplay and graphics wise, the collision detection needs work (car's often overtook straight through me...), the steering model takes a while to get used to and the draw-in sucks. There's clipping, texture warping, and you can often see the cars through the scenery in Rally Cross mode.

Even with these issues though, V-Rally 3 is one very addictive and ultimately playable title. Sure, it has a few problems, but once your in and playing, these things move to the periphery - they'll really only annoy obsessive-compulsive types.

The little tachometre is very useful and well placed and playing with the manual gearbox is a lot more fun than I would have ever imaged. Furthermore, the feel of driving on bitumen, then dirt, then snow is really quite astonishing. The bitumen, for example, offers supreme grip and you'll hear the wheels screech if you push your car to the limit. On the other hand, the icy stages will have you initiating the biggest powerslides in GameBoy history. The fun just never stops...

As far as the graphics go, this is a rather impressive feat. The cars are in basic 3D, while many of the trackside elements, such as trees and rocks and stuff, are 2D sprites. The track layout, however, is 3D and, together with a pretty good framerate - roughly 20fps - V-Rally on the GBA is a sight for sore eyes.

Before this, the best GBA driving fans could get were the Sega Master System type of 2D racer, which were, and still are, quite insulting to the eyes.

The tracks and stages offer a surprising amount of variation, such as steep inclines and declines, hairpin corners and long fast straights. You can even switch to the in-car view, which shows off the driver's phantom hands turning on the steering wheel.

Combined with the physical movement of the vehicle's cabin, it makes other games look cheap. You can even see the speedo rise and fall as you navigate the courses.

Just like the Playstation iterations, there are a number of modes to choose from, including link-up multiplayer. I knew the future would rock! Anyway, there's V-Rally mode, which is where most gamers will spend the bulk of their game time, time trials, V-Rally Cross and options.

In the V-Rally mode, you sort of enter a career, starting out with the smaller 1.6-litre cars, like the Renault Clio and Volkswagen Polo. Post decent times and you'll be offered a contract to race in the big leagues - the 2.0-litre turbocharged class. Here you get to drive the cream of the crop, such as the Subaru WRX STi, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII WRC-II and Peugeot 206 WRC.

For GameBoy standards, the sound effects are tip-top, and the menu music isn't too cheesy either. The sound effects can get a little monotonous at times, but the plentiful gameplay kind of negates this - you'll be far too interested in taking the perfect line through a corner.

There were a couple of things that I didn't like about V-Rally 3, one of which is the inability to flip the cars. I mean, come on, the cars have gotta flip in rally games - it's the core of rally-racing!

You can fiddle with your car's settings, but only to three different degrees in the gearbox, brakes, steering, suspension and tyre areas. Lastly, there's a bonus boost gift in the V-Rally Cross mode (where you race 3 other cars simultaneously) when you place well, which is kinda' like nitrous, yet is totally out of place.

What it all comes down to though, is the gameplay - and V-Rally 3 delivers in spades. It not only incorporates amazing 3D graphics, but makes it fun, to boot. This wouldn't classed as a simulation, but with weeks worth of gaming on offer, it comes close.

Small touches like the autosave function, zero loading times and silly driver names all add to the charm of V-Rally 3, arguably the best driving game on any hand-held device in the history of the world. If you like rally racing, or even if you're just after a good driving game - this one's the best yet.

ORIGINALITY 70%
SOUND/GRAPHICS 90%
PLAYABILITY 85%
ADDICTION 90%
ENJOYMENT 85%