Arcade racing games are among the least popular genres today – and while PGRC probably won't start a new renaissance, it does evoke the spirit of Sega's classic arcade games.
It's a slippery slope
When every major publisher is working to maximize a potential customer base of a hundred million developments, it's nice to see some independent developers putting aside all economic considerations and seemingly innovating to their own tastes – even if sometimes this situation is just a very small situation that can For a particular one to provide them with an audience. We won't go any further: Parking Garage Rally looks and acts like a Saturn port of the never-before-seen Sega arcade racing game from the '90s. I hope some readers' eyes will glaze over at that description – those who were there will certainly remember the impressive power of Sega Rally and Daytona USA – but I think it's likely that most of you are too young to remember the idiosyncrasies of Saturn's visual games, and its different and equally limited technological limitations About PlayStation, or the unforgettable atmosphere of Sega games in its golden era. No problem, it's been brilliantly emulated by the very talented developer of the Jelly Car series, Tim Fitzrandolph.
The title pretty much says it all: although we're visiting America's famous locations, following the example of old arcade classics, this time the designer has relegated the gathering to narrow corridors, steep switchbacks, and walkways that describe the sharp turns of parking garages – and, better yet, it You can move more freely here and there in the wide spaces on the roof. The gameplay is not just about racing, but much more about millimeter-controlled detritus, optimally reminiscent of mechanical ballet – all other elements of the game are built on this. When we slide the car into a corner, we can use the directional buttons to select whether we want to slide in a tight or wide curve, and with this very simple solution, impressive sliding combinations can be delivered, even by running sideways all the way through a four-story parking garage serpentine.
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Although precisely interlaced curves are necessary to find the shortest possible route, our car, decked out in adjustable paint, reacts almost magically to these maneuvers. If the slide is long enough, yellow and then blue sparks will be shot, like a Mario Kart effect, and if you release the drag button, you increase your speed slightly for a few seconds. This bonus is not active for long, but if you manage to release another fart even during it, another speed bonus is added to the previous one – and these accelerations can even be accumulated infinitely. So, several shorter slides are more advantageous than a terribly long rear end, as the car accelerates them all separately – but the handling advantages don't end there. When the tailgate is activated, our car receives a significant additional downforce, i.e. jumping becomes more difficult, and the seconds spent in the air uncontrollably become much shorter.
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All of this is so well encoded in the control and physics of the car that it doesn't require any complicated tactics – in our first races, we might still be carefully reaching for the drag button, but once we can slide perfectly between the pole and a parked car, we savor it and will instinctively take advantage more and more of the opportunity. . The simple structure of Parking Garage Rally Circuit makes it easy to master: there are three car classes, eight tracks, and the three recognized prizes. Bronze unlocks the next location, Silver unlocks Endurance mode (each checkpoint here gives you extra seconds, and the goal is to complete as many full laps as possible before time runs out – in Hungarian, it's about building an Outrun), and Gold allows competitors to enter the game.
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Since we are always competing against ghost cars due to the narrowness of the track, the latter does not mean real multiplayer, but it gives the perfect incentive to match the tricks of those who are a little better than us and beat their scores. (By the way, there is also a “real” online multiplayer game with up to eight player races, but here we also see others as ghosts.) By default, the game always downloads the three ghosts in front of us in the relevant box set of tracks of the car category in the global rankings , but there are probably up to 250 ghosts on the path selection screen that we can play; It's true that you can't really learn from this crazy crowd, but the primal chaos looks good on screen. Just because the game, as I mentioned, perfectly mimics the capabilities of Saturn. This means not only a few polygons, smoke-ghost effects created with dithering, and features influenced by Goraud shaders, but also a 4:3 screen, limited viewing distance, 320 x 224 resolution and 30 frames per second. Before anyone starts burning up their 4090, I'd like to quickly tell you that fewer purists can run all the settings mentioned – of course the game will never lose its Saturn vibe, but if you want to play the game in 16:10 with the two lines filtered out, You can do it.
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Did I mention the many, many nods reminiscent of the 90s: in the main menu, an excited man reads the game's title, most of the levels have adopted the famous Sega blue sky, and even the ska-jazz music gives the game a very enjoyable foundation. It's also worth noting that almost every course has some extras: huge boulders falling from Mount Rushmore to roof level, a power outage in the New Orleans stadium parking lot disrupts the race, and in Chicago you have to maneuver between parking garage blocks with crazy tricks. Although the eight turns aren't much, with the score chiseled by milliseconds and the competing spirits calling for it, it's barely noticeable. I'm especially glad that the indie game revolution has finally caught up with arcade-style racing games – the genre is experiencing a creative renaissance. I don't know if we should hope for something like this, but now the double of Victory Heat Rally and Parking Garage Rally Circuit will be useful to all fans of the genre.
Parking Garage Rally Circuit has been released exclusively for PC. A later release is expected on Switch, and if successful, on Sega Saturn as well.
The test game was provided by publisher and developer Walaber Entertainment.
summary
In terms of presentation, it feels like it just came out of 199X, but Parking Garage Rally Circuit is a particularly fresh experience, thanks to the back-and-forth gameplay. It's a real arcade-style racing game, where putting chips together is the secret to victory – and the real tricks can be learned by watching the ghost cars of players better than us.
Key Pros of the Parking Garage Rally Circuit:
- Finally, some authentic Saturn nostalgia;
- Great handling and fun car physics;
- The pin-based gameplay is addictive,
- The inclusion of ranked competitors is a great incentive.
The biggest disadvantages of the Parking Garage Rally arena:
- The three car categories mean only three cars;
- Some somewhat more difficult trails would be nice.
Laszlo Benny
