➤ Rally for champions 🎮

It is always strange to be faced with games made by a single person: on the one hand one is pushed to appreciate the commendable effort behind their realization, but on the other hand one is often forced to recognize imperfect final results, the result of solutions craftsmanship and inevitably less general care than when the work is managed by an entire dedicated team. Maybe what stands out is an original and interesting idea, in the most fortunate cases. Rush Rally 2 is precisely a product belonging to this category, built piece by piece by Stephen Brown alone, an English developer with several years of experience behind him on triple A titles. It is, as easily understood, a fairly conventional rally game, therefore inevitably lacking the famous "interesting and original idea" above. So this is a mission lost from the start or the most classic of the exceptions that confirm the rule?

Rush Rally 2 is arguably the best rally game available on mobile platforms

Pikes Peak of my desires

Incredibly, the latter is the correct answer. Rush Rally 2 is undoubtedly the best rally game currently available on mobile platforms, as well as generally one of the most brilliant racing games available on the Apple and Google stores. This is the sequel to Rush Rally, which just over a year ago proposed an interesting approach to the automotive discipline through a top-down view that recalled the great classics of the 16-bit era. This second chapter changes the cards by choosing a more modern solution, through 3D graphics with a camera from behind the car or from the hood.

The approach is largely realistic, and this can be recognized both from an aesthetic point of view and as regards the driving model. Starting from the latter, the developer was able to find a perfect compromise between the desire to offer simulation mechanics and the ability of the touch screens to satisfy this ambition: although the numerous control configuration options allow you to choose the virtual keys also for steering management, the best solution is certainly the one that delegates this function to the accelerometer and therefore to the inclination of the device, while the accelerator, brake and handbrake remain with buttons on the screen. In this way you find yourself fully enjoying the accurate physics implemented, obtained by exploiting the real telemetry data, which reproduces a different behavior of the car depending on the terrain, and which allows you to effectively manage counter-steering and drift. The result is an engaging and rewarding driving experience, reminiscent of the early Colin McRae of Codemasters. Compared to the latter, Rush Rally 2 lacks any type of official license, a factor which translates into invented drivers names (albeit inspired by those of the most famous interpreters of the discipline, such as Colon McRay, Bichard Rurns or Sebastien Okay) and in anonymous cars and with advertising logos only similar to the real ones.

The cars are "only" eight, divided by performance categories, while the tracks are 72 set in various parts of the world such as Finland, Sweden, Australia, Argentina, Spain and so on. Also from the point of view of the modes, Rush Rally 2 goes on the classic offering a championship, in which you compete alone in search of the best time that goes to make up the ranking, and the Rallycross against opponents on the track, with the latter option that obviously it guarantees a more arcade and immediate experience. The graphics component is based on a proprietary engine, the "Rush Engine", further confirmation of Stephen Brown's incredible work: it is an extremely scalable engine, which offers (like a PC title) some modifiable graphics options for adapt to less performing devices, with the main goal of maintaining 60 frames per second. On an iPhone 6s Plus obviously we had no problem setting everything to the maximum, thus being able to appreciate an exceptional fluidity accompanied by a more than discrete polygonal complexity, which, although certainly not capable of making a miracle cry, it supports in a completely honest and appreciable way. experience. The sound is less incisive, which alongside the navigator's voice is accompanied by a reproduction of the roar of the engines that is not entirely convincing. There are also many gaps in the Spanish translation, but this is, after all, a marginal aspect. The sale price, set at € 4,59, is undoubtedly above average in a context in which "free" is often considered a standard and even 99 cents are "too much": but the total absence of in-app purchases, advertising or freemium elements and above all in view of the overall quality of the product, this is a figure that Rally lovers should spend without any hesitation.

Comment

Tested version iPhone 1.02 Price 3,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

9.0

Readers (3)

9.1

Your vote

Rush Rally 2 is an absolutely exceptional achievement when you take into account the fact that it was made by just one person; but beyond the considerations related to solo development, Stephen Brown's effort is able to establish itself as the best realistic title based on the automotive discipline in question available on mobile platforms. A convincing driving model and perfectly adapted to the capabilities of the devices, the many options available and a more than satisfactory graphics component capable of maintaining constant 60 frames per second on the most recent hardware are the most relevant components of a game destined to make the happiness of those who grew up on bread and Colin McRae.