Developed by Kalisz-based Polish developer Pixel Perfect Dude, #DRIVE Rally is an appealing arcade racer with rally stylings done in a cel-shaded manner. It’s also a loose follow-up to #DRIVE, which was originally released on mobile devices in 2019 before power-sliding onto the Switch. Now, everyone has the chance to drive recklessly around tight corners, as this is a multi-format release.
Set across six distinct locations, you’re tasked with finishing multiple races for area teams. To get a feeling for the respective maps and also to unlock collectables inside the car, you can drive around all of them in free-roam mode as well as time trialling on the global leaderboards. Presently though, the leaderboards appear to be rife with cheaters, so I choose to give this feature a swerve.
There are three distinct car classes with CL, RS & XR to tackle. The most nimble, CL, is roughly equivalent to 1982 onwards Group N showroom models in the real world, with the other two being more exotic fare. RS is more like FIA Group A and XR is like the since-banned Group B supercar class that included the Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 & Audi Quattro among others.
Being an indie game, all the cars here are unlicensed, but similar to those in Super Woden GP, it’s pretty obvious what they’re inspired by in relation to their real-world counterparts. For example, the Japanese DejaVu Repairs team is populated by variations on Subaru Imprezas and Toyota Celicas. To stop themselves falling foul of potentially litigious copyright holders, the vehicles are also depicted in a semi-chibi style, not quite Motor Toon GP levels but more like Pixar’s Cars. Just without the toothy grins and rolling eyes.
Each area has twenty-four defined tracks with both forward and reverse options if you’re being a leaderboard completist, though the respective championships on each take in a mixture of the tracks in their respective areas across thirty races; nine in CL, nine in RS and twelve in XR. Refreshingly, in a departure from many other racing games, you don’t have to get first place or a podium position to prevail.
I found this particularly welcome during the desert-based championship and among various American-flavoured vehicles, as let’s just say there’s a reason Chevy Blazers and muscle cars aren’t often seen in rally championships. You spend most of your time battling the car handling.
You’re helped on your way by a co-driver who yells pace notes. These are generally very helpful, but on occasion, they don’t do the best job of relaying the nature of a forthcoming hazard. Particularly when it comes to where the course narrows to a pinch point or you’re meant to go a certain way, but a corner is far too wide open.
If you’ve checked out the game trailers, you’ll be familiar with some of the co-drivers, particularly one who, in the words of my pal Tom from The Dreamcast Junkyard, is basically Arnold Schwarzenegger. All growls and chewing the scenery. I haven’t completed his whole championship yet but I confess I’ll be a little bit disappointed if there isn’t a direct Arnie film quote.
I had a couple of hard crashes on PS5, one before a patch dropped, and one after. Thankfully no progress was lost as the frequent autosaves had my back. Pre-patch I had an issue with falling through the scenery due to ill-defined tiles, but thankfully it was an isolated incident. The other crash was just the game getting itself into a muddle after completing one race series.
#DRIVE Rally does drag out the reveals of the unlockables a little more than I’d like, but I suspect it’s pulling a Resident Evil-style door-opening buffering trick, getting the next course ready.
Car handling is, for the most part, a lot of fun. Barring those American clunkers anyway. Playing on medium difficulty, you’ll find yourself placing first on most races due to the generous target times. I just wish that the ghost drivers were visible on championship mode rather than just in quick race, as it’d be nice to have a visual representation of where you’re at outside of the time splits at checkpoints.
Occasionally, you’ll get caught out by an ill-placed bit of scenery like a fence that extends into a straight, or a solid wall on an apex that will flip you altogether if you clip it, but thankfully these are infrequent.
Pre-patch there were just three car views: in-car, chase and high-chase. The latter proved pretty useless as it disconnects from the action a bit too much. In-car would be the go-to, but the lack of peripheral vision or a rear-view mirror mean standard chase is the best option. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by other racing games, but the ability to look around your vehicle with the right thumbstick was sorely missed.
Post-patch added a few welcome extra views, including an extra in-car plus bonnet cam. Both very welcome, but still omit a rear-view mirror. Yes, I get that it’s quite the technical thing to program and when it goes wrong, it can go very wrong, like the single digit framerates I encountered on Bus World earlier this year.
In conclusion, #DRIVE Rally is a fun driving game with a relaxed driving model and a nice line in co-driver pace notes. Across its six championships, you’ll be well catered for, although I did have to turn down the volume as one music track sounded too similar to my elderly cat throwing up a hefty hairball. Crank up some Alice In Chains and you’ll have a thrashing good time.
Pixel Perfect Dude’s #DRIVE Rally is out now on all formats. Published by PM Studios.