* Rally Star

Rally Star.jar
For Nokia S60 symbians
Size: 450kb
Mobiles models:
Nokia 3230, 3250, 3600, 3620,3650,3660,5500, 6260, 6600,6620, 6630,6670, 6680, 6681, 6682, 7610, 7650, N70
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Description

Rip up the roads with RALLY STARS–the flat-out future of racing from EA. Tackle 18 thrilling courses in 3 stunning locations, blazing a trail across exotic beaches and lush forest. Nail every corner using simple pick-up-and-play controls engineered for rally amateurs and seasoned racers alike

Then check out your best moves from every angle via dynamic, TV-style replays. Whether you’re battling for the lead or racing against time, get ready to hold on tight for frantic, arcade-style action.

EA have decided to add to their driving stable (Need for Speed) with this latest offering called Rally Stars. I'm not really sure what's really Rally about it, as there's not that much drifting and skidding around, although you do race in streets, near the beach and in the forest so technically I guess Rally would be the correct title.The game is a pick up and play game, and it's immediately evident during a first outing. The controls are standard driving game controls with the car autoaccelerating, left and right on either the stick or pad, and brake with down or 8. The other button used is 1 which lets you change views from out to in car.What strikes you first is the lush and colourful 3D graphics which I must say, are top notch. The backgrounds are decent and while there are no lighting effects as we've seen in other games, there's certainly enough vector polygon shading to make it stand out from the crowd. Sound is a bit of a let down, funky tune on loading but apart from the tyre screeching some weird sound effects for any collisions.Which brings me nicely onto the collisions. We played a demo version of this and noted then that the game was a little tricky to control down to the speed of the car (great) and the speed of reaction you need for the turn (not so great).

The animation means you get the impression that you are whizzing along at high speeds, but the responsiveness of the cars means you have to make the turn at the last possible minute. Any earlier and it will be too early so you'll bump into the sides.Which I did, repeatedly in almost every race I drove. Admittedly, after racing a few laps, you do get used to some of the softer or longer turns, but there are still some pretty sharp ones there. An arrow builds up to when you should turn, but this is pretty quick so you need to be concentrating to make the turn.Or not....as the car doesn't take damage.

Yep, EA have made things simple by having the races play a bit like a pinball machine hence the review tagline. As there is no damage on the car you can bump around into every corner and miss every turn as long as you keep your lead. This is easy to do on the early levels as the opposition is rubbish. But with courses and new cars being unlocked as you progress it does get tougher. To combat this, the game plays a bit like older driving games in that there's a catch up mode for the person ahead of you.

This works well if they aren't too far ahead, but miss a couple of corners and they vanish off out of sight and are so far ahead even a perfect race won't let you catch them. So the trick is to stay ahead for the whole race by knocking the opposition around, or at least keep the car in front of you in your sights.