Parking Garage Rally Circuit review

Modern racing games are a Faustian deal. Sure, they habitually provide detailed car models and sophisticated physics systems. But between the in-game adverts for paid DLC, always online requirements, and a fondness for cringy NPC dialog, it’s easy to become sentimental for yesteryear’s racers. Classic titles like Virtua Racing, SEGA Rally Championship, and Sega GT delivered full-throttle satisfaction without all the shortcomings.

Fortunately, solo developers like Walaber (aka Tim FitzRandolph, the creator of Jelly Car and Where’s My Water?) offers an agreeable alternative to corporate bloat. Playing Parking Garage Rally Circuit feels a lot like unearthing a lost Saturn game that was scrapped by a publisher at the eleventh hour.

Drifting Toward Distinction

Undoubtedly, it looks like a Saturn game, too. Opt for the game’s “Original Hardware” preset and you’ll careen around the corners of eight deliciously low-poly tracks, with the game doing its best to mimic the experience of playing on a curved, 4:3 CRT. Alternatively, the “PC Port” option provides a 16:9 aspect ratio, far-flung draw distance, and uncapped framerate. Either way, the game’s courses and cars exhibit minimal texture mapping, and there’s plenty of dithered smoke and shadows, so prepare for the potential of 90’s nostalgia.

Much like the games of old, Parking Garage Rally Circuit is instantly accessible thanks to straightforward and responsive controls. However, four races in, the title will demand mastery as you toil to earn a third-place finish to unlock subsequent tracks. Unsurprisingly, success hinges on more than just steering your vehicle through a success of blue gates. Instead, you’ll need to slide around the copious quantity of corners on each track.

Like Mario Kart 8 and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, there’s two levels of post-drift boost. You’ll get a slight push and a yellow spark for a short skid. But hold it longer and the glint will turn green, providing just a bit more propulsion. Expectedly, it’s tempting to try to milk a jade-colored jolt out of every turn. But greed gets punished by Walaber, making it all too easy to crash on the narrow roadways, demolishing a promising run. Tim, thanks for that ‘restart race’ option in the menu.

Eight Courses, Eight Cars, Three Modes, Three Classes

Largely, level design is adept. There’s plenty of signposting on the labyrinthine venues, nods to each location, and the occasional gimmick. As such, you’ll zoom around multi-storied, mall lots, outside Mt. Rushmore, and experience everything from plunging boulders to rolling blackouts. Rally Circuit is at its best when you’re evading scripted events, such as squeezing between a caravan of luggage carrier trucks at the airport. I wish there were more moving obstacles and fewer aisles of parked cars. There are also some comical hazards too. For some reason, when my car landed sideways after falling from a ramp, I was reminded of classic Hong Kong action films.

While it’s faithful to 90’s formula, Parking Garage Rally Circuit should have multiple AI difficulty settings. Instead, the developer wants you to repeatedly play and shave micro-seconds from your completion time, using optional ghost cars to track your pace. However, I have a feeling that some players might reach a frustrating impasse when facing the game’s final three stages. On the other hand, skilled players can attempt to flaunt their drifting skills in the game’s online multiplayer mode.  After creating or entering a lobby, you’ll face off against a group of real-time ghost cars.

Leaping Lady Liberty

In addition to the standard Race Mode, Endurance has you performing laps on each course until you run out of time. A bit of additional longevity might be found in Rally Circuit’s cheat code component, a fitting throwback to the era where games like this once flourished. In a perfect world, we’d see more racers like this.

Parking Garage Rally Circuit was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.