Old School Rally does what it says on the tin, and it does it well. Mimicking the look and feel of a PS1 rally racing game, it combines retro presentation and design with some modern touches for a fun, nostalgic drive.
The visuals intentionally ape the original PlayStation's jaggedy, polygonal look very well, and coupled with some music that feel lifted from the late 90s, it's an effective reflection of 3D rally games in their infancy.
The structure is extremely old school too; you simply complete rallies across various car classes, unlocking new vehicles and prize money for succeeding.
None of the stages or cars are official, though they're certainly inspired by the real world motorsport, with clear stand-ins for classics like the Subaru Impreza, Audi Sport Quattro, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, and all the rest you'd expect to see.
As well as the main Rally mode (as close to a Career as you'll get), there are Time Trials with online leaderboards, and a Versus mode, where you can race against the CPU or a second player in split-screen.
Perhaps the biggest speed bump is the game's approach to handling. The default handling is extremely twitchy and sensitive, making it tough to judge braking, cornering, and performing slides.
We found much greater success by turning both the steering and braking sensitivity down. We'd highly recommend tinkering with these settings to find what feels best for you. Once we got used to our adjusted handling, we had a lot of fun playing rallies.
There's plenty to unlock beyond the 32 cars included; you unlock more stages for Time Trial by beating their default times, and the money you earn can also be spent on decorations for the Collection, a neat area displaying the vehicles in your garage.
Another modern touch we like is photo mode, which is very straightforward here, but combined with the presentation, it makes for a novel inclusion.
That's pretty much it; a simple, arcadey rally racer with fun stages, recognisable cars, and a great aesthetic. Hopefully the iffy default handling doesn't deter people, because there's plenty of fun to be had once you find the right balance.





Comments 26
I've had this game on my Steam Deck for some time now, and it is quite fun! It's no Sega Rally though, as it has more jank than I'd like.
Enjoyed the demo and love some "jank" . Cheers Stephen for covering the indies, that's where most of my time is spent on ps5 nowadays 👍
Played the demo, pretty good! Reminded me of some PS1 rally racers I liked back in the day.
I was hyped by arcticle in Retro Gamer, then downloaded the demo on PS5 as soon as it was available and it was big disappoinment, visuals are interesting, but the handling didn't suit me at all, so it was deleted right away. Arcade racers are all about the smooth handling for me.
@pushsquare a little idea for reviews.
Could you possibly put the price in at the bottom? Saves having to go online and search for it
Love when you'll review games like this. Because I never knew this even existed. Screenshot really brought me back.
Liking the look of this one for sure
Colin McRae Rally was a great game back in the day. I can see myself picking this up.
Am I the only one who finds games made like this nowadays a little odd? I get making a simpler looking game is easier/cheaper and I understand it can still be fun. It just feels a bit like making a black & white, silent movie now.
@BearsEatBeets You are greatly misjudging the power of nostalgia.
That aside, I would argue that the gaming equivalent of a black and white silent movie would be the Vectrex - and yeah, you would be hard pressed to find anyone willing to play that today.
The PS1 is more like making a 1980s or 1990s throwback. And there are plenty of shows out there that prove just how popular those are.
I was never a fan of this one and I love rally racers and racing games in general. I think Rush Rally 3 is the better game by far when it comes to this unofficial indie rally racer direction. I guess it's got that PS1 look if you're into that, seems to be it's main gimmick, but I would rather just play actual PS1 games.
@LifeGirl Yeah nostalgia was the only reason I could think of.
I mentioned the silent movie analogy as it's about technical limitations. Once they knew how to make films with sound there was no reason to make a silent movie as it wasn't an artistic choice. Rally games looked like that at the time purely due to technical limitations.
I suppose I just underestimate how appealing nostalgia is as a selling point. It clearly works or they wouldn't make them.
It doesn't really matter, just find it a weird creative choice.
Played the demo a while back.it was kinda meh.theres better Indie racers out there
@PsBoxSwitchOwner it's £15.99
To me it's a Sega Rally or others type game but those nostalgically, it's ok I tried the demo on Switch and it's fine, I expect more not just a nosalgia, but maybe I am not the target audience, which is also fine. To me WRC3 PS3/360 offered enough modes and progression for me to enjoy it. Others are ok but not really my thing, the management, stages or challenges of WRC8+ are ok but I preferred WRC2 PS3/360 more. I own the WRC 1 to Rally Evolved PS2 ones by Evolution and they are alright but not my thing, good for what they are but yeah not my thing.
Not sure about this one, probably not for me. Even dirt bike or ATV games have been more my thing in how they handle things really. But even some of those can be hit and miss.
Not all need to be Inertial Drift or Distance but to me even Woden while good to me felt more nostalgia or ok idea of isometric GT1 & GT2 (a fair angle to things sure) but even still, some parts are a bit awkward and the track designs also are very inspired too which is a bit annoying, wanting your game to be like it has real world tracks sure but not many original ones? Is a bit disappointing. Woden GP 2 is better as upgrade allow for more compared to skill issues a player can have in the 1st game. Or gauging distance in isometric games as well. Or finding the right cars to use.
Nostalgia isn't a bad thing but many racing/platformers do it and I am not impressed.
Reviewed this for PSU and I really enjoyed it. I didn't think the default handling was that bad because with some cars I could glide through corners with grace. I did run into some freezes that were troublesome, particularly when trying to start a Head-To-Head, but really Old School Rally is an exemplary example of a proper PS1 style rally game on PS5.
@Balaam_ It is fantastic and it's really lovely to see a proper PS1-inspired rally game.
@BearsEatBeets it's more about the quality over quantity. Cutting milliseconds from your previous score is this games appeal for me. Just because your latest movie spent 100 million on CGI doesn't make it better than some old classics. Hundreds of beavers probably not for you
@BearsEatBeets The fundamental appeal of games is, well, gameplay. Don't care what it looks like, as long as it plays good.
You're also comparing to forms of filmmaking that probably everyone alive today (who watches films) have only encountered as curios, or not at all. A lot of gamers today grew up with games looking like this.
@MrPeanutbutterz @Morzy I obviously didn't make my point clear because gameplay is irrelevant to my point. I totally understand you don't need flash graphics to be fun.
The point is you can make the game more visually appealing with very little effort and zero effect on gameplay. It is made with these visuals purely to evoke an era, for nostalgic feelings.
I'm not judging or saying it shouldn't be done. People clearly like it so that is all that matters.
@Rocky1972 £6.25 on Indonesia psn store 😉
@BearsEatBeets The appealing part is indeed the retro graphics. If you remove them for something else or more "appealing", then they lose the appeal.
for it to be an effective tribute the pixellated trees that look fragile need to have the density of a neutron star. Yes, im looking at you CMcR2
@LifeGirl if that's true why did the Vectrex Mini Kickstarter raise over 1 million dollars just the other day?
@Lorfarius A million dollars sounds very impressive. But the details behind those numbers are less so. According to Google that figure was reached by 5,587 backers.
Do I need to emphasise just how few people that is? There are football stadiums where you could not fill even half of a single stand with an amount that small.
I enjoyed the demo on Switch. The handling reminds me of the first Saturn Sega Rally. I’m gonna wait for a discount though.
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