Sega Rally E3 2005 Hands-On

Sega Rally may have, in recent years, been all but supplanted by Colin McRae, but the series still holds a place in the hearts of rally racing enthusiasts the world over. While Sega Rally 2005 is being developed for PS2, a mobile version is quietly being prepared. Sega Rally mobile was on display at E3 2005, running on a Japanese handset. Unfortunately, even bolstered by superior Japanese handset technology, the game failed to impress. In the build we played, Sega Rally's visuals were clunky, and its physics and collision detection were simply nonexistent.

The track on display was in some woodland area, as evidenced by the handful of trees begirding the track's perimeter. The game's sole car model looked decent. Environmental textures, on the other hand, were hopelessly muddy and suffered from poor compression. Although it was difficult to tell, given the noisy E3 setting, we're fairly sure audio wasn't included.

Worse still, the game was impossible to control. The slightest touch of the navigational pad would send your vehicle careening into the rock barriers flanking the track. Unicycles handle with greater precision. As realistic physics are paramount in a rally game, we can only hope that these issues will be fixed should Sega Rally ever see a US mobile release.

As Sega Rally looked to be an early build of a Japanese mobile game, the poor quality we encountered may have no effect on an eventual stateside release. The game was likely not ready for prime time, and it shouldn't have been on display.