There was a time when off road racing was a genre that dominated the videogame scene. Colin McRae DiRT 2 had achieved a popularity never before seen by the genre and many competitors sprung up to attempt to take its crown. But in the years since even Codemasters have been unable to replicate that success, and the gap between their leading franchise and its rivals has shrunk far more than anyone could have predicted. One such rival is Milestone’s WRC series, now in its fourth iteration and looking every bit the contender it should be.
VGChartz's Adam Cartwright: "The racing genre has always felt like a perfect fit on handhelds, thanks to offering bite-sized sessions and being able to hide technical flaws behind blistering speeds and enclosed environments. It provides a large amount of variety too, from immersive sims to light-hearted kart racers (and my personal favourite, drift-heavy arcade racers!), meaning there’s usually something for everyone to enjoy.
Anticipation was high that the Vita would follow in the PSP’s footsteps as a handheld offering an unrivalled selection of racers, from muddy WRC titles to the clean racing lines of Gran Turismo. Beyond the initial months things didn’t quite pan out like this, but there’s still a nice spread of games available to cater to anyone’s tastes – and thanks to the addition of backwards-compatibility with PSP and PS1, the Vita ends up with possibly the largest selection of any console in the last 10 years, even if it's not all running natively on the hardware."
The only good news to report is Tokyo New World Record: Operation Abyss will be released, but the game has been delayed from its planned January 23 launch. No news about Skullgirls Encore and Cyberfront published the original PS3 version in Japan.
VVV: "It may lack innovation thanks to its mostly incremental improvements, but the restructured career, polished presentation, refined handling, vastly improved audio design and time of day changes all accumulate to make WRC 4 Milestone's most accomplished rally simulation yet.
Maybe it's time for a new Rallisport Challenge?