It’s this or Mario Kart 7

A reader desperate for a serious racing game on the 3DS gives rally game WRC a surprisingly positive review.

WRC on 3DS is equal parts infuriating, exhilarating, frustrating, and compelling. It can be highly addictive, but is flawed to such a degree that it can be difficult to recommend. With virtually no English language critical appraisal to be found in the professional gaming media, I present my reader review of this capricious rally game.

For the last couple of months I have had a driving game itch badly in need of scratching. 3DS is my go-to system these days, due to the flexibility of its portable nature. Despite the console’s recognition of having a vast library of outstanding games across many genres, it is severely lacking when it comes to racers; with Mario Kart 7 the only stand-out example on the system so far.

Whilst sifting through a list of the handful of racers available for the 3DS, I decided to take a risk and purchase the game, despite reservations arising having played the demo. WRC is available from the eShop to purchase here in Ireland, but to buy a physical copy I had to import it from Germany.

The game has three modes: Season, Quick Race, Super Special Stage. The championship-style Season mode sees you attempt to beat virtual racers’ times on tracks from across the world.

Nearly all the locations contain four races: two tracks where you race in both directions. This works well for the most part, and the change in settings is welcome and the tracks vary greatly from one place to the next. The minute-to-minute gameplay throughout WRC is mostly excellent.

The handling is twitchy but you soon acclimatise to it. The frame rate is low with 3D enabled, but smooth and stable with it off. Whilst the graphics can be basic at times, the game still looks good overall.

However much fun it is to play, WRC has many truly terrible design flaws. It has a bizarre points system where you are rewarded for reaching checkpoints quickly, ‘catching air’, and power-sliding around bends. Points can be spent unlocking new racers, but there are only three types of cars and you start the game with one of them. Points can also be used to unlock tracks in Quick Race, but as these unlock through normal season progress anyway this feature is largely useless.

The difficulty spikes halfway through the single-player campaign in Portugal and in Poland. These night-based races take place on loose soil and progressing can initially seem nearly impossible.

Thankfully, you can rewind time back five seconds if a mistake is made, but this isn’t particularly satisfying. The physics model used can also appear bewildering at times, with your car coming to a stop or spinning out of control following a collision with a small advertising sign. Perhaps the most frustrating part of my own experience is that after I finished the last stage of the Season mode, my copy of the game would crash and return to the 3DS’s main menu. This happened over and over again, though thankfully the game saved my time before failing. As yet no patch has been made available to remedy this glitch.

WRC has a very amateurish feel to its presentation and campaign design. It is clear that the game’s budget was very low. But despite its problems the game remains a lot of fun to play for the most part. Hurtling at a blistering speed through the Italian countryside, power-sliding around 90 degree turns in Germany, and driving like a madman over the bumpy and undulating Australian tracks is an adrenaline rush that I have not experienced on the 3DS before.

Most of the stages are excellent and a joy to race through, as you strive to beat your best times. So as a genuine rally experience, WRC on 3DS is a success. It’s fast, fun, and full of great tracks. It is just a pity that it wasn’t polished properly before it was released.

Score: 7/10

By reader Jamie Rohu

The reader’s feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

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