Pro Rally Racing
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| Pro Rally Racing

Most of us at Pocket Gamer haven't done any rally driving. But we have driven a jeep in the desert and, after nearly soiling the driver's seat from plunging over the top of one particularly high sand dune, if it's any indication of what rallying is like, we'd rather stick to trusty tarmac. After all, tarmac was invented for a reason – to stop us having to drive around in the dirt and mud. Where's the logic in choosing to wheelspin through piles of muck?

Still, rallying has spawned plenty of decent video games, so we won't knock the sport. Indeed, most recently there's been I-Play's World Rally Championship, certainly a tough contender to take on. That hasn't stopped Pro Rally Racing from trying. But does it manage it?

Well, let us put it this way: Is mud bright pink?

Pro Rally has two main game modes, Championship and Instant Race. The former is where you'll want to invest most of your time, seeing as you can only play the races you've unlocked there in Instant Race.

The rally championship in this game is made up of five different events, spread across numerous worldwide tracks in countries such as England, Wales, Norway, Mexico and New Zealand. The events offer a little variety in what would otherwise be a series of worryingly similar races, although the various Cup offerings, Duel and Race, are quite alike in feel. This leaves the Jump contest, where you bounce your car as far as possible to fill a 'jump gauge', as the only truly unique experience available. Granted, that's still more than many racers.

Before each drive, you choose your car from a total of six. Well, eventually – only two are available from the start. The rest are unlocked, like each new country and event, by winning career points. These are awarded for placing highly in a competition. It's a simple structure, but not as well executed as it could be. For instance, despite the illusion of being able to choose the experience you tackle next on a world map, you're generally restricted to having to complete one to win the requisite number of points in order to move on.

Move on to the most important aspect of any rally game – the driving and controls – and things don't improve much, either. Pressing '2' accelerates your car (which automatically moves up through the gears and gains speed providing you don't crash), '4' and '6' steer left and right, while '1' and '3' pull off sharper handbrake turns.

This is instantly fiddly. Double-tapping the left and right buttons to navigate sharper corners would have been simpler, for instance. And further complexity is added with '8', which puts on the brakes – something that's crucial when your car is really rolling.

Fair enough, we enjoy a challenge, but here things feel unreasonably tough given that you really must judge your speed throughout. Hit a bump too fast just before a corner and there's no recovering from it. Especially in the tightly timed checkpoint races.

However much effort you're prepared to put in, the driving just isn't at all easy to get to grips with. Cars go from sluggish to super-fast, corners need to be very carefully judged to get round them properly and when you tap another car you always end up coming off unrealistically badly. Worst of all, on stages with a lot of background scenery, we encountered slowdown that made it near impossible to stay on course.

Which is a shame because there are some nice features to the racing. Driving smoothly rewards you with turbo boosts, and there's the added challenge of not smashing up your car to the point of explosion during a race. Upcoming turns are clearly marked up onscreen and, when you have the sound on, a co-driver gives instruction and encouragement. And there are noticeable differences in the cars – once we traded in our Subaru Impreza for the easier handling Peugeot 207 Super 2000, cornering became a little less hit or miss.

Visually, too, the game looks good with plenty of variety between the countries. There are even deer running across the track in England and snowy courses in Norway. As we say, there are some nice touches.

But they're not nearly enough to recommend Pro Rally Racing on. The linear structure, rock-hard races and wayward controls have done nothing to endear us to ploughing through mountains of mud for fun. With rally games like this, we're unlikely to ever leave the driving satisfaction of tarmac.

Pro Rally Racing

A decent looking and sounding mobile game, but the most crucial element – the driving – proves tough going, imprecise and fiddly to control
Score
Kath Brice
Kath Brice
Kath gave up a job working with animals five years ago to join the world of video game journalism, which now sees her running our DS section. With so many male work colleagues, many have asked if she notices any difference.