Colin McRae Rally 2004 Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

A decent rally game for your phone. The game is pretty difficult but a lot of fun to play!

**UPDATE** - I've been playing this game a bit longer now and have to say that it's even better than I thought!! The only way to get to the later stages is to use the car setup option and soup up your car so that you're skidding and sliding around corners at maximum velocity! Also, you don't have to follow the course exactly, there are some shortcuts that shave seconds off your time! One drawback is that each time you finish the game and unlock a new car, the courses you had previously unlocked, become locked again. Oh well, nothing's perfect, but this is a very good game for your phone

Onto the actual review:

Colin McRae 2004 is a well put together game. The only thing is that it is quite hard in some stages.

The graphics are ok, a top down view of the car and the track. The background is quite nice and the car is well animated in terms of skidding around. The menu's and graphics there (pics of the cars) are very well done. But in-game, nothing will have you gasping in amazement.

There is no sound at all, just vibration. I would have liked some sound as it usually enhances a game, even though I play my games at work on silent.

The controls are very straightforwards, the car automatically accelerates, so you just have to worry about going left, right or braking. Very simple.

The playability is pretty good. The game is actually quite fun to play and the way the car skids around a lot is what makes the game worthwhile. There are several stages and you have to come first in each stage to unlock the next one. Herein lies the problem. If you had to come second or even third, it would have been better, as I cannot, for the life of me, come anywhere near first in the 3rd UK stage. It's just too hard. If you can do it, then I take my hat off to you. You can spend points on your car to improve handling, acceleration and top speed as well. The game autosaves as well which is a nice touch and you can resume it easily. The in-game and menu options are pretty straightforwards too.

The lastability of the game is pretty good. As it's so fun to play you may want to just drive the earlier courses again! And there are the extra cars and courses to unlock but I'll be impressed if you do it, as it's quite tough! So if you want to spend some serious time on a fun game (you may unlock everything if you play each course enough), then this could be for you.