''WRC: FIA World Rally Championship Arcade'' (also known as ''FIA WRC Arcade'') is a 2002

racing In sports, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific g ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by Unique Development Studios and published by

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

. It is based upon the

2002 World Rally Championship season The 2002 World Rally Championship was the 30th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 14 rallies. Marcus Grönholm won his second drivers' world championship in a Peugeot 206 WRC, ahead of Petter Solberg and Carlos ...

Gameplay

''WRC: FIA World Rally Championship Arcade'' features 7 World Rally Championship manufacturer cars along with 14 track locations from 14 different countries that were included in the

2002 World Rally Championship The 2002 World Rally Championship was the 30th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 14 rallies. Marcus Grönholm won his second drivers' world championship in a Peugeot 206 WRC, ahead of Petter Solberg and Carlos ...

. The tracks are held on various surfaces such as asphalt, dirt, gravel, ice, mud and snow, and range in difficulty from easy to difficult. Races can take place in sunny or wet-weather conditions. Cars vary in how fast they accelerate, how fast they are, and their steering ability. A

co-driver A co-driver is the navigator of a rally car in the sport of rallying, who sits in the front passenger seat. The co-driver's job is to navigate, commonly by reading off a set of pacenotes to the driver (what lies ahead, where to turn, the severity ...

guides the player by informing them of which type of corner they are approaching. The game has five game modes; Time Trial where the aim of the player is to get the fastest time around any available tracks, Vs Mode which is competing against another player, Super Special Mode where the player competes against 16 other vehicles, Grid Race where the player can race against other competitors and unlock bonus tracks.

Reception

The reviewer for '' Jeuxvideo.com'' felt the gameplay was sub-par due to it being "reduced to its simplest expression for a driving which turns out frankly not very interesting" and noted its artificial intelligence was not fully developed to adapt to the player's on-track trajectory. The website felt the variations of circuits allowed the usage of braking to be optional, which it believed was surprising for a rallying game. Consoles+ compared ''WRC: FIA World Rally Championship Arcade'''s graphics to that of ''

Sega Rally 2 ''Sega Rally 2'' is an Amusement arcade, arcade racing game developed by Sega for the Sega Model 3, Model 3 arcade hardware. It is the sequel to 1994's ''Sega Rally Championship''. The game was first released in arcades in February 1998, and was ...

'' on the

Dreamcast The is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was released in Japan on November 27, 1998, in North America on September 9, 1999 and in Europe on October 14, 1999. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, prec ...

and gave the game an 82 percent rating, saying, "Sony offers us a purely arcade rally game". Play2Mania was highly critical of the game's music, sound effects and the voice of the co-driver as being of a poor quality but felt the gameplay was not complex and entertaining. A reviewer for ''PSone Magazine'' wrote that ''WRC: FIA World Rally Championship Arcade'' would appeal to large portion of rallying enthusiasts who disliked simulation games.

References