Sega Rally Online Arcade

So with the Saturn celebrating 16 glorious years since it first lightened up the lives of videogamers and Sega-heads everywhere, what better time than now to bring us back a piece of unparalleled Saturn driving glory?

Now, for a mere pittance of 800 microsoft points, you can re-live the magic of the original '95 Saturn Sega Rally Desert stage, only with the beautiful graphic quality of 2007's Sega Rally Revo and the sublime bouncy arcade car physics of Sega Rally 3!

This really is a Saturn fan's wet dream. At the moment the only cars you can race the Desert stage with are the Toyota Celica ST205 or the Lancia Super Delta HF Integrale, with no sign of Sandro Munari's Lancia Stratos HF so far. Whether this, as well as the Forest and Mountain stages from the original will eventually be downloadable or unlockable remains to be seen.

As for now, the joy of this blast of admittedly limited nostalgia is satisfying enough; with the addition of online leaderboards showing the best times worldwide, as well as the ability to race on the famed '95 Desert Stage against online opponents through xbox live - there is some longevity to be had here.

I've played it to death! My best time on the track so far is 2:31.79 with the Toyota Celica (automatic gears.) The handling is superb, plus the right noises and commentary on the soundtrack to really get those Saturn juices flowing!

If you haven't got a 360, it'll be out soon on PS3. Failing that, get your Saturn out and play the original! Despite the pixelllated visuals, the gameplay and handling are as good as ever!

Rally Cool!

A member of the AtariAge forum is selling his 1995 model Toyota Celica GT, one of the automobiles featured in the video game Sega Rally Championship. Judging from the pictures, it's in fantastic shape for a fifteen year old car, with much work done on the body to keep it in tip-top quality. There are even a few modern amenities, like a touch screen GPS that's the next best thing to a passenger barking "Hard right! Easy left!" in your ears before every turn. It's hard to say if this machine is street legal, but if you spent any time playing Sega Rally Championship during the Saturn's brief glory days, you're sure to agree that it's damn awesome.

The auction for the Toyota Celica GT has started at $2500, with the reserve price expected to be twice that amount. It's a small price to pay for driving and retro gaming excellence.

Sega Rally Championship - PS2

Just a quicky here. Here's some footage from the PS2 port/remake of Sega Rally 95 (I have it, yeay!). The guy playing is quite good (lol, "quite", he plays a lot better than me...), the video shows all the courses including the elusive Lake Side track and it shows off quite well the graphical improvements of this version, so I thought it deserved to be posted here. Enjoy

Sega Rally PC

Well folks its been a while since I posted anything of relevence here at the SJY. Recently the good ship has been steered and captained by the ever wonderful Teutonic Wunderkind, our most wonderful contributor, the mighty elend!

Well hopefully I'll contribute more as I'm blessed with a fabulous six weeks off work! Yes, the job of teaching has it's blessings. After a year of attempting to educate my charges and even more importantly, bestow some social skills upon them, I've got the chance to chill out, drink, watch movies and more importantly blog and play games!! Hurrah!!!

So, on to gaming and more importantly, onto Saturn gaming!!! Firstly I'd like to share with you the wonders of Sega Rally PC. As I've often documented on these hallowed pages, Sega Rally 1995 is one of my favourite and oft played games on any console. As the title that was bundled with my first Saturn, it holds a special place in my heart.

As you wander round supermarkets in the UK, you'll often find a bargain bin with Sega titles from it's former consoles, ported for PC gamers. They're released under the "Grab it!" franchise and usually retail for £1. So far I've had House Of The Dead 2, Sonic R, Sega Rally and Virtua Fighter Evolution, all for the princely sum of a mere quid.

This summer, or more accurately this week, I've been loving Sega Rally PC. A direct port of the Saturn original (it's graphically and in terms of playability the exact same game) but for some reason, sitting in my living room, surrounded by the Krishna family with a lap top on my knee, playing the game is an absolute joy!

Bizzarely enough, for some reason it's actually easier to complete the Championship stages on the PC than it is on the Saturn. I'm using the arrow keys and for some reason I'm cornering better and finishing with ease! Stiil no sign of the elusive Lakeside stage as of yet, but I live in hope...

What is a tad disappointing is the Link Play feature, which alludes to (but doesn't promise) the chance of playing rivals over the internet. This of course was one of the features that only a very select group of Saturn owners were privy to, via the Saturn's revolutionary online 'Netlink' internet peripheral.

So far my attempts at connecting to the internet on the PC version have been unsuccessful.
There's precious little on the back of the box to guide you... I quote:

'LINK GAME MODE... Race rivals near and far. Full screen action allows you maximum enjoyment in this PC original.'

Hmmm! Am I the only one who finds this limited description somewhat vague?



But it's not only PC ports that have entered Krishna Towers! Why no! I purchased my latest Saturn software just yesterday for three English pounds! Why it's Saturn PAL original Titan Wars!

If I'm absolutely honest I bought it for the shallowest of reasons:

1.) I didn't have it in my collection...
2.)The blurb on the back...

"Over 40 minutes of full motion video starring Claudia Christian. Switch between chase plane and cockpit views. Dominate 30 levels across nine worlds. Your wingman will watch your six (?) and feed you tactical data."

I've yet to play it but I'm looking forward to that rendered video! I'm setting aside a few days for Saturn only gaming this holiday. I'll report back as soon as I've given the Saturn the love it deserves! Until then, adieu! Here's some video to wet your appetite..

VF 5 R... The legacy continues

Despite poor sales of VF5 (even though critical acclaim was high) and a corporate loss of thousands, nay millions of dollars, pounds and yen (!) This year it seems that Sega and AM2 stil want to put out a new version of Virtua Fighter. It's not VF6, but VF5 R...

Apparently that means two 'new' characters, one being the already seen VF3 character Jean Kujo ( a frankly shite Sumo wrestler) looking apparently better and hopefully playing a little better. The other is apparently a totally new character.

The game was unveiled in the Japanese city of Akihabara, at a Sega themed bar, where there were arcade cabinets that sported the new game. My only thought on the subject is that our beloved Saturn franchise has been given a new lease of life. When you also think that there is a 2008 re-vamp of the original Sega Rally, it would seem that the fabulous games afforded to us on the Saturn, still live on in the current millenium! Happy days!

Here's the low down...

"It seems that last week Sega Japan gave gamers a chance to play on the new version of Virtua Fighter 5, at it’s location test. If you happened to be strolling along the electronics district of Akihabara anytime between the 25th June and 1st July (yesterday), then hopefully you will have seen this event.

According to Wired blog, GameLife, Sega was showing the game off at the Club Sega in the centre of the district. However, I’m not sure which Club Sega that might be. When I went there, there were two Club Sega’s about 50 yards from each other - and due to a massive hang over and ridiculous temperatures, I didn’t fancy exploring much more of the area. So no doubt their are more Club Sega’s around the district.
Anyway, Sega was showing off over 30 cabinets, and giving gamers a chance to test out the two new characters in the game.

New to this latest version of the game is a new karate-practicing character known as Jean Kujo, and the return of sumo wrestler Taka-Arashi (he last appeared in VF3).
The game is said to allow IC Cards from VF5 Ver.D to work with it - allowing players to use their old save data and customise their characters.
VF5 R features new stages and a new “Danshi Mode” where players are able to train their characters and learn new moves.

No final date has been set for the game’s release, but the cabinets at the “Shinjuku West Exit Club Sega” will remain in use even once the location test is over."

Enjoy the screen shots, courtesy of Sega Nerds...

Sega Rally 3

Well it took me an age to grab this underwhelming video for y'all, but it seems like Sega have paid homage to it's 13 year old classic, by updating it's '95 beauty with next gen visuals that play out all the old familiar stages. Here's the updated version of 'Desert'. Even with this shockingly poor 'over the shoulder' home video, I can see I'm gonna love this game!

Apparently it comes replete with a state of the art scaled down car shaped cab, with the latest in motion sensor technology and a lovely, whopping HD screen. And it's Sega rally 95. But in 2008. With glorious state of the art visuals.

Not the horrendously poor, shoddy 360 effort that was Sega Rally Revo ...apparently, (mentioning no names...) Nebacha... LOL!

Let's hope we hear more soon!


Sega Rally 3 - Desert 95 from HeavyElectricity on Vimeo.

Sega Rally Revo - final verdict

So, folks, I finally did it, I've acquired the final retail version of Sega Rally Revo (just Sega Rally in Europe, actually), hoping that it would be different (aka, more playable) than the demo I tried some time ago. Guess what, it isn't. It plays exactly the same, which can either be good or hellish, depending on the player. For me it was the later. After putting the game in I tried the first championship and guess what, after barely winning the first race, I lost the second. The second! OMG, I was barely starting the game and I was already losing, not because of my inability when it comes to virtual rally (I'm an ace in Colin McRae Rally) but because I couldn't control the fucking car properly!

I got so pissed off that I immediately turned off the console and smoked a cigarette, trying to calm down (yup, I smoke. With me it's a disappointment after another, isn't it? At least that's what my mom says...). With smoke in my lungs and heavy metal in my ears, I eventually got relaxed enough to try again. This time I tried to mess with the options, but no good, there's no options when it comes to the handling of the cars. Then I had an idea, what about the d-pad? We all know the 360's controller's d-pad sucks ass (the only complaint I have with an, otherwise, almost perfect gamepad), but hey, what the heck, let's try it out. Guess what, it worked! It's incredible how the game got so more playable! I was finally able to control the car properly, and although I still don't quite like the gameplay of this new game, I was at least able to win the first championship.

Not bad, but so far Sega Rally Revo is still probably my worst acquisition when it comes to Xbox 360 games, which makes me sad, being a Sega fan, and it's quite a mystery since, judging from the respective demos, I love the latest Virtua Tennis and Virtua Fighter games. Talking of those, I think I'm going to grab me some Virtua Tennis 3...

Sega Rally Revo Weekend...

As well as enjoying the delights of Area 51 this weekend, the main thrust of my gameplay has been the excellent Sega Rally Revo on Xbox 360. Typical of me, I have had the game sitting under the TV since Christmas Day, and only this weekend did I decide to give it a play.

I'm absolutely hooked! As the guy in the video explains, it has many a references to the original game and indeed the developers at the British based Sega Racing Studio, had an original Sega Rally Arcade cab (like the one I'm pictured in below) in their building so that they never lost sight of the glory of the first incarnation.

The game also provided me with my first ever online play, as I raced total strangers over the magic of the internet. That's it, I'll be obsessing over this title for a long time to come, trying to shave seconds off lap times and unlocking all the unlockable content!

It could very well knock the original Sega Rally off the top spot for my favourite driving game of all time!

Under the Influence

Man, what a find! Here's a Saturn-centric clip from a British television series called Bad Influence. It features three of the best games in the system's library, including Virtua Cop, Sega Rally Championship, and that most killer of apps, Virtua Fighter 2.

What's most peculiar about this clip are the celebrities used to test drive these games. They're Gladiators, yet quite clearly NOT the American variety I remember watching as a teenager (or now, for that matter). It's surreal to watch one of these muscle-bound, spandex-clad brutes sit down to a game of Sega Rally, then politely observe, "I say, these graphics are cracking good! Jolly good show, I say! Blimey, I would certainly enjoy a spot of tea right now..."

Saturn Splurge!

I've got Sega Rally Revo sitting there under my TV. A graphically lucious, 360 compatable, current gen, rallytastic treat. So what did I just do for the last hour and a half? That's right, I sat and played the original on my Saturn, trying to shave seconds off my time so I can beat the World Championship. I then played about twenty minutes worth of Sega Rally 2 on the Dreamcast, to see how it compared to the original... Quite frankly it didn't.

Still a great driving game, the Dreamcast version feels too heavy, clunky if you will. Having held the Saturn controller for so long, the Dreamcast controller felt too weighty and strangely so did the car it was controlling. But I digress...

My evening started off trying out my recently accquired Saturn demo disc"Sega Flash Vol. 3" given away free with Issue 15 of Sega Saturn Magazine (January 1997). As well as video of Fighting Vipers, NiGHTS, Virtua Cop 2, Dark Saviour, Bug Too and Mr. Bones, this lovely disc also contains playable demos of Virtual On (can't say I was that impressed), Tomb Raider (Yay!) Sega Worldwide Soccer '97 (only one half of a match though!) and Daytona USA CCE (driving the Hornet around Dinosaur Canyon), which inevitably lead me to think... "Hmm! driving... Saturn... SEGA RALLY!" and that was that... With the familiar ignition sound, I was off... But I digress once more...

I've been a bit naughty friends... I've had a bit of a 'splurge' spending-wise on coveted Saturn items... let me share with you the recent Saturn goodies I've secured from eBay over the last week... I'm currently waiting for them to arrive...

The first thing was... Virtua Fighter Remix. Apart from Virtua Fighter 5, I now own every incarnation of the franchise. This re-release or 'update' of the original had higher-polygon models, and believe it or not, a copy was sent free to every registered Saturn owner in the US!



*Harumph!* another smack in the eye for European gamers... But a copy is now winging it's way towards Krishna Towers so I can't complain...

And talking of Virtua Fighter, one of the purchases I'm most excited about is... (wait for it...)


"Virtua Fighter THE COMIC!" Issue No.1, produced by Marvel. Now I love comics, particularly Marvel Comics and this one's about Virtua Fighter characters! I never even knew it existed till I stumbled across it... Happy days! And at only £3 including postage, it represents the biggest bargain of the splurge!


OK, next. Pandemonium... Sound familiar? This is a game I loved on the PSX, but I never knew had a Saturn release. A medieval jester-themed platformer, this psychedelic bounce-fest is a real blast, with gorgeously garish graphics, weird monsters, freeze and fire rays, slides and trampolenes and mushrooms... Lots of mushrooms! Great stuff!

A paradoxically 'hot property' on the SJY at the moment, I just couldn't resist buying Winter Heat, the Alpine themed brother of the wonderful Athlete Kings. With all of the lovely video recently posted, plus all of the reccomendations for my Saturn colleagues it was a must buy!


But perhaps the one I'm looking forward to getting the most is Burning Rangers! The wonderful review by J, plus his demands for it's Wii remake, have left me salivating for the game. But, not one to do things by half, I'm not just getting the game, but also a rare Japanese demo of this hallowed title! Now this little bundle set me back nearly £30! So I guess you know how much I want it!

I'll let you know how it all works out!

Game over, yeaaaahhhhhhh!!!

It's hard for me to understand why, in a blog created by an avid Sega Rally fan, no one seems to care about the new game in the franchise! I know there's nothing like the original on the Saturn (actually there is, the Sega Rally 95 port for the PS2 I talked about a long time ago), but this new game was actually starting to look pretty good! In fact, just today, during my daily visit to PTgamers, I found reviews of the PSP and PC version, both with a pretty good score (16/20 and 17/20, respectively). I know you can't understand shit of what they talk about in the reviews, but I think the score is universal: 16/17 in 20 is a pretty good score! (Halo 3 got 17, for example...)


I too have an opinion of the game, the Xbox 360 version (identical to the PC one), for I've downloaded the demo just a couple of days ago, and unfortunately my opinion is different...

From the moment I started my first race I felt that the handling of the cars was just wrong. They feel weight-less, like cardboard boxes or something, and they turn way to much. You just need to press the analog pad a little for the car to turn wildly, sliding uncontrollably. Throughout the whole race you feel like you have no control over the car, which is a real pain, and not fun at all! On the other hand this seems to be solely my problem, since nobody else seems to rant about this. In fact everyone praises the gameplay of the game.


So, why can't I seem to enjoy it? Too much Colin McRae? Probably not, since I still can make some pretty good runs in the good ol' Sega Rally 95. Well, whatever it is, it's really a shame, since the other aspects of the game are pretty ace. The graphics are absolutely gorgeous, with tracks filled with vibrant colors, like we hardly see this days. There's also a major innovation, the deformable terrain, that ensures no two races are the same. It's something Motorstorm for the PS3 introduced, but that Sega Rally does much better.

So, in conclusion, I think the point is, if you're interested in this game, make sure you try it first. Don't be alarmed by my ranting, as I said, the problem's probably mine, but in any case there's nothing like trying it out yourself.

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

Well this is something of a comparative micro-review of three of the Saturn's driving classics! Today marks the day when I first fully road tested my Saturn steering wheel peripheral, and put some serious time in with both my oldest and newest Saturn games!

But let's start at the beginning shall we? The games I'll be reviewing are Sega Rally, Daytona USA and Sega Touring Car Championship . I have to say that the review might not be completely objective. Sega Rally was the game that came bundled with my Saturn, is the most played of the bunch and holds a somewhat sentimental place in my heart... Daytona USA is a game I fell in love with at the arcades, and was sought out on eBay to add to my collection. Sega Touring Car is the one I've played least and therefore is something of unfamiliar territory. But still, time is short, so let's crack on shall we?

First of all, let's talk about the steering wheel. Oh dear... having again sought this particular item off eBay when I first discovered there was one, I was crushed to find my new peripheral didn't work. However, I tried again to purchase one and Gamestation came up with the goods, and I managed to secure one for a fiver (£5)... (I then sneakily returned the broken one to Gamestation and swapped it for some games... ;) A word to the wise, unless your a compulsive collector, avoid this particular peripheral... Unlike light guns, it doesn't enhance your driving experience or recreate the arcade feeling...

OK First Category: Steering Wheel Compatability

Sega Touring Car: Even using the options to tweak it's sensitivity, playing STC with the steering wheel leaves you crashing from one side of the track to the other. It's an unforgiveably "drifty" racer anyway and the car tends to slide all over the place, therefore, progress is nigh on impossible.

Daytona USA: Thanks to the generous choice of cars available, it's possible to select a car that has more road hold (at the expense of acceleration and speed). This actually allows for something of a counter-balance to the sensitivity of the steering wheel, and makes Daytona easily the most playable in this particular category!

Sega Rally: Equally if not more unplayable with the steering wheel, despite my familiarity with the layout of the track. Overall experience - pretty bad! Disappointing!

Category 2: Longevity

Sega Touring Car: With a limited amount of cars and tracks, STC holds the least appealing longevity. Coupled with the impossible drift, your quite likely to press the "off" button before you've even checked out what the game has to offer. The franchise is not due to be continued into the current gen of consoles.

Daytona USA: As previously stated a wide variety of cars and tracks mean that Daytona probably has the most lasting appeal. Plus the AI cars are probably the most forgiving, meaning that racers like myself will probably not throw the controller down in a hissy fit and give up on the game. The franchise actually made it as far as the last gen, with a graphically gorgeous version being released for the Dreamcast. Don't rule out a reincarnation at some time in the future!

Sega Rally: The outright winner, due to the fact that it continues to be part of my gaming life to this day, a good twelve years after I first played it. The game somehow encapsulates the driving experience, and unlike it's STC counterpart, the drift is actually useful to the rallying genre. A slightly biased winner there, but it's my review and therefore I'm allowed! It's third reincarnation is due out on the PS3 soon, and it looks like it's going to be well received!

Category 3: Graphics: There's not much between them really, compared to todays fayre, they look a tad blocky and pixellated. But they need to be judged within the context of the time they were produced, and on those terms they're all pretty good.

Sega Touring Car: Not to dissimilar to it's Rally cousin, however the mechanics that attend to you in the pits (which I keep annoyingly driving into by mistake) look like stick men drawn by a three year old. So it's losing some points on that front alone!

Daytona USA: Bright, bold and brash like it's Nascar reality. The cars look great and there are some nice touches like a cliff face with a Mount Rushmore like rock carving of Sonic in the distance on the first circuit.

Sega Rally: The first circuit will have you sucked in, with it's running zebras and hovering helicopters. For it's time it was pretty stunning. Again, I'm not sure whether my feelings for the game are romanticising my outlook, but I think this just pips Daytona in terms of visual appeal. Plus the sunset in the unlockable Lakeside circuit brings a tear to my eye... LOL!

Category 4: Wow Factor!

Sega Touring Car: Definitely a game which looks like it has more potential than it actually does. When I can play the other two, its unlikely that this game will be placed in the Saturn too often...

Still the Toyota Supra cabinet in it's arcade incarnation (see video below) is pretty impressive...

Daytona USA: The fact that you can tear arse through hordes of other cars in this game, plus its playability factor is pretty high. It says something for the game, that despite it's revamp for the Dreamcast, I'd still rather play the Saturn version. With a modicum of care, you can progress nicely through the Arcade mode. However, for the true Daytona experience, the arcade version is the only way to play....

Sega Rally: Quite possibly THE best driving game ever made, this game is worth buying a Saturn for in it's own right. From the moment, you press the start button and hear the car ignition, till you drive off into the sunset on the unlockable Lakeside Circuit, this game is a clear winner. As fresh today as it was in 1995, the attention to detail was so good that the Sega development team actually sampled the actual car engine noises for use in the game, and spent many an hour bumping round real rally circuits in real cars to ensure their virtual counterparts were accurate reflections. Plus Sega Rally had online functions... In 1995!

Category 5: Soundtracks

They are all cheesy AND brilliant. Fluctuating between rock and techno, the soundtracks to each game fit like a glove. Too close to call!

Category 6: Price

Sega Touring Car: £2.99 (plus free game as part of the BOGOF deal at Gamestation)

Daytona USA: £2.99 (plus free game as part of the BOGOf deal at Gamestation)

Sega Rally: I once picked up a copy for 20p! Beat that!

OK, so after that very unobjective and unscientific analysis, I'll just add up the secret points on my magic calculator...

And the unsurprising winner is... SEGA RALLY! Hurrah! (Whistles and Cheers!)

For great reviews of each game look here , here and here

This is FK, for Sky Sports, saying "Keep your eyes on the road and both feet on the wheel..." Goodnight!