Game Review: GeneRally
June 10th, 2006, By Duncan Gough
I’ve always wanted to write a racing game, ever since I played Super Sprint at the arcade and after with my friends. Super Sprint is a real co-op game. The arcade game had three steering wheels attached and the home version crammed everyone around the same keyboard.
Racing games, like Super Sprint, are relatively simple games. Lots of flash versions get this wrong and are either too slow, feature a scrolling racetrack or just miss the whole point of racing.
Happily, I’ve found a game that’s as good as Super Spring. Gene Rally is a top-down racing in the mould of Super Sprint, however it’s freeware and features an active community of fans. Being freeware means that the is very extensible, so the forums have plenty of other players creating tracks and cars for you to download and try. There are even mini Need For Speed style cars that you can download and race around with. It’s not just traditionally racing too, there are mini’s, monster trucks, karts, quadricycles and tractors for you to truck around in.
The best feature in Gene Rally, though, are the driver files. You can download small files that contain the stats and styles of any other driver and incorporate them into your game. It’s such a simple idea. Clearly, they’re not going to drive exactly like a real human being but they do provide the computer with a different way of creating oppoonents for you to race against. It’s that old massively single player, staggered multiplayer solution again. Wouldn’t it be great if you could do this in Doom, or Quake 4. Download an AI file from my website and fire up a deathmatch game on your own PC, against a bot that plays just like I have, that has the attributes, avatar customisation and, well, flaws that I have.