Yeah, they’ve done it. The team at Bugbear Entertainment have successfully taken everything that’s good about Sega Rally – the feeling and experience, rather than a simple port of its PS3 cousin – and emulated it perfectly for the PSP. Those gorgeous and distinctly Sega locations, all replete with incidental background detail, the cornybut- catchy music, brand new surface deformation and the almost, but not fully, arcade feel of it all… yeah, it’s here. But more important than that is the sheer joy of tearing around a corner, power-sliding successfully through a difficult turn or massive hairpin at immense speed and then continuing victoriously. Man, what a thrill. And now you get to experience it while on the Tube, in the park or during toilet time with your pants down low. Sega Rally just works.

That’s because Bugbear, developer of the FlatOut series, isn’t audacious enough to change the formula too much, adhering to everything that makes the franchise stellar rather than trying to break any overtly new ground. The changes on the PSP echo those in the PS3 version, namely the surface deformation. No matter the terrain (mud, snow or gravel) the tracks really do change, and react accordingly, while playing. Much was made of the fact that, thanks to deformed surfaces leading to grooves in tracks, your second and third laps would be the most important – and it’s true here, too. The AI is very aggressive and there’s little sign of any rubber banding, so what it really comes to is your skill in power-sliding past the opposition and sticking to indentations left in the tracks by other racers. That’s the real key to success, and it works a charm.

Championship mode is naturally where the main bulk of the game takes place (with Time Attack and Multiplayer being your other options). Using a points scheme based on your winning result (come above third to qualify), Championship mode requires you to finish all races with a certain amount before you get to unlock new races and cars. Before each set of races you get a general breakdown of the terrain for each track and the chance to change the wheel type on your chosen vehicle. There are three types of wheel all together: Road (for tarmac and sand), Rally (for gravel and loose sand) and All-Terrain (for mud and snow).

You also get the opportunity to use both the analogue nub and D-pad and, while racing games generally work best with analogue steering, the nub requires a whole other discipline compared to the D-pad – one we’d rather didn’t exist. At all. On the PSP. Well, unless you’re a masochist who doesn’t like your left thumb. Trust us, the D-pad works wonders and feels surprisingly intuitive. And that’s because the cars – Premiere, Modified and Master types – all handle so well. They look great, too, especially when varying dirt begins gradually building up on their body. There’s also something distinctly wonderful when you tail someone and the surface causes them to cloak you in snow, dust, dirt or other. The incidental details are the kind people love Sega Rally for: a helicopter that swoops by as you race through tropical terrain, several beautiful waterfalls over a nearby expanse, crowds cheering and snapping shots… there’s a surprising amount of things happening around you sometimes.

The locations are typical Sega: Safari, Alpine, Tropical, Arctic and Canyon, with each one split into three different tracks. Our favourite is probably Alpine, which stands out because of how it mixes luscious green forest and mountain-top areas with tons of thick snow that players can cut through. One great option is the ability to race on later tracks whenever you want in the Quick Race section, enabling you to learn the tracks inside and out if that’s what you want before approaching them later in Championship mode. Speaking of which, you’re free to suspend the rally whenever you want – coming back later if you so require. It’s a bit of a meaty endeavour too, with many sections existing within the main bulk of Championship mode. And there’s always multiplayer if you get tired of racing against the AI, which you really shouldn’t given how natural it all feels to play.

There’s a reason original Sega Rally arcade machines are still raking in cash more than ten years after the game’s release. The physical behaviour of the cars, in particular, how they react to different surfaces and against one another, mixed with the fact Sega really nailed the rally experience while also keeping everything firmly rooted in a distinct arcade environment, is something that just continues to win players over. That was 1995, and it’s something Bugbear honours greatly in 2007. From the Pacenote narrator, the music and the rally-track design, right through to the arcade feel, the incidental details and the aesthetic design... it’s all here and it’s as wonderful as ever. Sure, it’s probably too simple for some and more ‘evo’ than Revo for others, but Sega Rally on the PSP is simply brilliant.

Craig Gilmore