Death Rally

You take on the role of a nameless criminal, stopped by a very Texan sheriff. Rather than put you on a chain-gang, he has you participate in the titular, yet surprisingly PG-13-rated(where are the pedestrians to take out for points? The strong violence is gone, when that was part of the appeal, the first one came out around the same period as Mortal Kombat 1, Grand Theft Auto 1, these were pioneers of blood in VG's... why do a new version if you aren't including that aspect?), Death Rally, raising serious questions about his jurisdiction. He is certain that this will draw out The Adversary, and... that's it. Hey, it's a top-down racing game where you can win by destroying your opponents(where you have to make the choice of trailing behind and trying to do so(in time to win!), or to charge ahead and take the lead... with up to 7 armed foes behind you all trying to blast you to pieces! Or, something inbetween the two), what do you expect of the plot? This was originally developed as an app, and it shows(for that, it's well-done; however, they should have added more before putting it out for other machines), the ported version doesn't feel like a full PC release, it's too simplistic. I think a comparison between it and its merely 15-year-old original(although that's like 3 centuries in this medium) that it's a remake of will illustrate this well. Sadly, they almost all favor the old one. Getting the stuff out of the way where this does come out on top, the online multiplayer... works, I think, if you can barely tell if the ones you're up against are human or AI(which is good in this). The graphics, obviously, are superior, if they really don't stand out(outside of nice touches to one or two of the half-dozen or so total levels, like the train that passes by overhead every so often, and a few landscapes "telling a story", you pass the wreck of a plane in one, etc.). And finally, this does offer a bigger arsenal, with rockets, a sniper, a shotgun, etc. in addition to your now infinite projectile machinegun - although you lose all control of that one if you choose any of the aforementioned to go with it... it'll still fire, just not necessarily when you want it to; it'll do fine, mostly, on targeting others, but it may also blow up explosive barrels right in front of you, and not take apart the pickup boxes(then again, those seem to be bulletproof... so do other wheels, it's a real hassle to tear through them, not intense(because yours could be smashed fast as well! And it mattered, because of $) and dangerous as it was) to get their vital content, be it ammo(in both, you'd have to watch out or you'd run out that, though in the old one, it could be put to great use; and are you seeing the problem here? How do you open crates when you can't fire? They used to just be lying around, it was a matter of getting to them, steering into them - or going without if it might cost you the lead), health, money or nitro(for the boost, which you can now only activate, it's not about holding down the button when you need to use it, possibly conserving it, using it to aid in making tough corners... no, in this, it'll be used up entirely and handling is dumbed down, to boot). Now, where you used to be able to color your car by using a slider to select from anywhere on the spectrum, now you can only choose from a handful of prepainted versions of it(seriously? Customizing is a much bigger part today than it was then). You were forced to make the difficult choice of saving up money for a better vehicle(making earning more difficult) or spending them now to upgrade your current one and postponing getting the better one, now money is either spent repairing/upgrading your current one(or rather, the one you just drove, regardless of if it was a one-off, if you've just unlocked a better one, etc.) or lost(heck, to get a better ride or new weapons... you collect their parts on the track! There's no strategy or skill to it, you just grind... and the 6 different ones feel more unnecessary, since you don't choose which one you'll get next, or if you settle for the inexpensive or go for the best one, in this, it's linear progression through them). The music was more memorable, in this, it's too sanitized, worried of going anywhere that might offend. Sure, this can be fairly addictive, but it's repetitive(well, every time I was about to quit, I had just unlocked something new... and then after five hours total of this, I had everything, and there was no reason to keep going, no interest in it) and has nothing on its predecessor(which I suggest you get, instead... it's freeware), lacking its kick of its because you're no longer really in charge, most of your decisions have been taken away; there's no saving or loading, dying in a race is no big deal, nothing is really on the line, no loan shark(who you can borrow money from, and if you can't pay when he comes to collect, he might take one of your upgrades as payment!), no missions to accept to try and to potentially lose(with big financial consequences). When choosing your next rally, there are a handful of prepackaged ones to select between, with difficulty(beginner, easy, medium or difficult), track, and sometimes special rules that put it off getting stale for a bit(only one lap and/or rival, for example). You can also drop mines directly behind you, and put spikes on front. I recommend this to those who want something like this, and who are put off by the look and sound of the 1996 one(and I wouldn't spend more than 5 bucks or so). 6/10