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TG Rally Review - GBA

You don't really expect to see 3D on a handheld. Well, let me rephrase that - you don't expect to see 3D on the GBA. So when an Australian developer presents a realistic car racing game, it comes as a bit of shock. Especially when it's so much fun to play.

TG Rally (aka Top Gear Rally)is a simulation car racing game for the GBA. You control your vehicle with the D-pad, accelerate with A, brake/reverse with B, slide with both A and B, and change gears up and down with the L and R triggers (if you set your car to manual, that is). There are ten courses, each with three stages. Win a stage and you get five points, place second to receive four and third for three. Any lower and you'll have to race the stage again. Once you get a certain amount of points, you'll get another track, and eventually open up different skill levels, cars and colours.

The thing is, the D-pad isn't perfect for a racing game of this sort. Sure it's manageable, but tends to be a bit unresponsive, which often results in you skidding into walls and taking valuable seconds off your time. Other than that, it's fairly responsive with gear shifting and acceleration. When you begin the game, you'll have to start a new file (there are three save files on the cartridge). Then you can go look at your cars in the garage, fiddle with them, go for practice runs or time trials, play multiplayer (with a link cable) or race in the main mode: Championship. As previously mentioned, there are ten courses, each with a different environment to the last. You'll race through sand, snow, city and country, through varying weather conditions. Before each race you are told the type of terrain as well as the weather, so you can customise your car to suit.

I use the term customise loosely. This isn't a console game, so don't expect much to do in the garage. You can change the gear ratio, the tyres (eg. snow, wet road), the transmission, and tinker with steering and breaking. You can't add or remove parts, or paint your own designs on the side. And sadly, there aren't licensed cars either - just made-up ones with various attributes. To me, they even felt similar when playing with them. Once you enter the championship modes, the fun begins. You'll skid around corners and cut across the dirt to get in front of your competitors (of which there are seven, eight total racers). You also knock over countless signs and witches hats - a minor act that somehow is intensely and unexplainably fun to do. You'll get used to quickly heading to the garage between races to change tires, as you progress from day to night and across varying surfaces. Sure, it isn't that hard, and you don't need to think about much to play it, but it's enjoyable. The map is so miniscule on ... (continued next page)