V-Rally 2

Need for Speed: V-Rally 2 is a racing video game developed by Eden Studios and released in 1999, the second mainline entry in the V-Rally series. Similar to its predecessor, here, the player drive rally cars through a series of stages, with the game placing emphasis on replicating the behavior physics of real cars. The game includes various game modes, and can be played as single player, or up to four simultaneous players.

Released: 31 October 1999
Platforms: Dreamcast Nintendo 64 PlayStation Windows
Genres: Racing Simulation
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Series: Need for Speed V-Rally Test Drive
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: First person Third person
Themes: Non-fiction
Country: France
Age ratings: ESRB E PEGI 7
Languages: English, Japanese
Entry: #2 in Need for Speed

About

V-Rally 2 (titled Need for Speed V-Rally 2 in North America for the PlayStation version and Test Drive V-Rally in North America for the Dreamcast version) is a 1999 racing video game developed by Eden Studios and published by Infogrames for the PlayStation, Dreamcast and Microsoft Windows. It is the sequel to V-Rally (1997). The game received favorable reviews, and was followed by V-Rally 3 in 2002.

›Story

In V-Rally 2, you play as a rising rally driver, always accompanied by your navigator. Your journey takes you through 84 global tracks and 16 different cars. You begin by racing against the clock in Arcade Mode, then advance to the V-Rally Trophy, which includes the Euro, World, and Expert trophies. Finally, you enter Championship Mode, where eight competitors race against time and only the top six earn points. At the end of the final round, the driver with the highest score becomes the European, World, or Expert Champion.

Keywords

rally
cancelled nintendo 64 games

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game features rally cars that competed in the 1999 World Rally Championship season. There are 26 cars in Championship Edition and 27 in Expert Edition. There are over 80 original tracks which represent all of the rallies of the 1999 season, excluding Greece and Safari. The game modes include a time trial mode, an arcade mode which follows the traditional style of arcade games, V-Rally Trophy where the player competes against 3 AI opponents to see who can get the least time in all of the rallies.

The championship mode follows the actual example of rallying with different stages in the rallies featured in the game. V-Rally Trophy and Championship Mode feature 3 distinct championships: European, World and Expert.

Development

Interviewed by Official Dreamcast Magazine producer Oliver Raffard said that the development team were inspired by "GP1 for the sensation [of driving], the realism and the choice of tunings; Out Run for the fun and arcade spirit; and Rally Masters for the handling". The game was originally planned for release as a Nintendo 64 title, but was cancelled during the early development phases of the game and was never officially announced.

For the Dreamcast version, Infogrames consulted former World Rally Champion Ari Vatanen, who provided feedback and expertise based on his motorsport experience. According to Infogrames representative Franck Giraudin, the collaboration with Vatanen had begun in 1996.

Reception

The Dreamcast version received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, where the PlayStation version was ported for release under the name V-Rally Champion Edition 2 and published by Spike on January 27, 2000, Famitsu gave it a score of 27 out of 40.

Max Everingham of NextGen said of the latter console version in its January 2000 issue, "It looks good, it plays fine, and it has a lot of tracks. Only a few annoying quirks keep it from really flying." Ten issues later, however, Jim Preston called the former console version "A colorful, fun, and realistic driving sim."