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Ubi Soft's Pro Rally for the Gamecube has a decent feature list that offers all the usual options. It sports multiple play modes, single and multiplayer action, tons of secrets, excellent graphics, some vehicle customization options, and good controls. It also features more than 40 challenging tracks that take you through a variety of international locations including France, England, and Spain. Each track has a variety of terrain with mud, sand and concrete surfaces, and the cars' performance and handling depends a great deal on what passes under your wheels. Pro Rally includes more than 40 courses and these are varied in design and quite challenging with several types of turns, chicanes, and jumps to traverse. You face two types of courses in Pro Rally. There are long tracks that can be completed in a single run and closed tracks where you need to complete laps. Pro Rally features licensed cars as with vehicles from Subaru, Peugeot, Toyota, and Audi included. Each of these looks and performs authentically, giving the game a great sense of realism. While not all of the vehicles are open initially, there are more than 20 cars in total. Before you begin to race, you can choose your driver's nationality and name them, which then becomes your saved character throughout the game. Once you have named your racer, you select which mode you want to play in and then can tweak your vehicle's performance for each race. Pro Rally includes an extensive array of options that allows you to adjust your car's transmission, tires, and engine before each race. You need to pay close attention to the description of what kinds of surfaces you'll be faced with so you can achieve the best performance on each track. After these preliminary setup options are complete, you begin your quest to win the championship trophy. During the race, you receive assistance from your co-driver, who calls out the turns, their direction, and sharpness just before you reach them. This gives you time to slow down ahead of sharp turns, and the co-driver alerts you to any jumps or obstacles lurking around the next corner. Additionally, icons appear onscreen to give you a visual clue of what's next. Mastering cornering can be tricky at first, and it takes some time to find the best method of attack. Rally racing is all about anticipation, and the player with foresight and proper timing should have little problem getting through the courses unscathed. Most of the game is straightforward and allows you to concentrate on the action at hand. Pro Rally's simple interface and menus are easy to navigate and understand, and players should find the on-screen indicators easy to read. Players can use either the standard d-pad or the analog stick to steer, while the shift buttons control the acceleration and braking. The cars' movements to either input, though the added flexibility offered by the analog stick makes this the preferable method. It doesn't matter which control option you choose, because the cars are silky and responsive to the touch. This intuitive control system is excellent, making your biggest challenge mastering the courses, not the controls. Several different modes of play give Pro Rally a high replay value. These are Time Trial, Multiplayer, Arcade, and Professional. Only Time Trial and Professional modes are available initially while the other two unlocked when you complete in professional mode. Professional requires you to go through a school that test you until you master driving techniques such as turning, avoiding damage, and controlled skids. Each of these tests has to be completed within the preset time limit. Your tests start off simple, requiring you to master basic turns in parking lots but become more challenging as you move on to race on actual courses. Successfully completing tests is harder than it looks, since there's little room for error. The requirements can be quite stringent and hitting a single cone on the training course results in failure. This means you to take each turn perfectly each time. This can be frustrating, but a little concentration goes a long way. Once the Test rounds are complete, you can play in the Professional Tournament.
Pro Rally's visuals are crisp and sharp and the game takes full advantage of the Gamecube's abilities with a smooth frame-rate and some impressive racing environments. The courses are highly detailed with impressive trackside objects such as trees and bridges creating a realistic appearance. The mountainous areas look great and these areas include inclines, jumps, bridges, flatlands, and different weather conditions that give you plenty of aesthetic variety. You can choose from several viewpoints that include angles such as behind the car to inside the cockpit. Each of these is quite effective. The course environments look good and the game moves along at a smooth frame-rate throughout. Special effects such as light-sourcing, sunlight lens-flares and weather conditions add to Pro Rally's overall realism. A decent techno-pop soundtrack compliments the action well and the co-driver's directions are clear and easy to hear. The excellent production values are slick, and add to the game's realism to make Pro Rally one of the better-looking Gamecube racers to date. Pro Rally should satisfy fans of the genre,
especially those gamers that only own a Gamecube console, since the Nintendo
system has a dearth of solid racers. While it isn't the most comprehensive
driving game ever made, the customization and vehicle adjustment options add
depth. Going through the tests can get tedious, but there are only a few of
these to complete, and once you move on to the Professional mode, Pro Rally
really opens up with new modes and challenges. The graphics look sharp and the
controls are tight and responsive. It has plenty of single and multiplayer modes
and it offers a decent selection of cars. While the overall quality is high, the
game is not up to the level of other titles in its genre. It good but can't
match the sheer brilliance of Rallisport Challenge on the Xbox, the
still-legendary Sega Rally series or, the rally sequences in Sony's Gran Turismo
3. However, Pro Rally is still a solid title that works on its own level and
most racing fans should still find plenty to enjoy in the title. Rallisport Challenge
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Professional
Tournament has a different feel than the other modes because you don't race
opponents directly, but instead face off against ghost vehicles for the best
time, sort of a like a time trial. Each Professional Tournament consists of a
series of rallies with multiple stages. There are three different Tournaments:
Private, Kit Car and WRC. Each of these has a distinct path with unique tracks.
After each race, you win a number of points depending on your position. You can
use these to purchase upgrades or fix your vehicle. Fixing your vehicle requires
you to enter the Assistance Park area. Here, you can repair this after each race
depending on your finishing position. This is interesting because you are given
a time-budget of 60 minutes, and each type of repair is assigned a number of
minutes to complete. This means you have to budget your repairs accordingly and
strategically between each race. This approach is quite clever and helps to give
Pro Rally a more interesting feel than other games. Once you have unlocked it,
you can also choose to race in the Arcade Mode. This is much like the other
modes except your car doesn't take damage. Successfully winning in this mode can
also unlock secrets. Each race is once again time limited and you must finish in
first place to progress to the next area. Finally, Pro Rally includes two
multiplayer modes where you can race solo or against a friend using the
split-screen mode.