Sega Rally Championship
| Sega Rally Championship | |
|---|---|
Arcade flyer | |
| Developer | Sega AM3 |
| Publisher | Sega |
| Director | Kenji Sasaki |
| Producer | Tetsuya Mizuguchi |
| Programmer | Sohei Yamamoto |
| Artist | Kenji Sasaki |
| Composers | Takenobu Mitsuyoshi Naofumi Hataya (Sega Saturn) |
| Series | Sega Rally |
| Platforms | Arcade Sega Saturn Windows N-Gage Game Boy Advance PlayStation 2 |
| Release | February 1995 |
| Genre | Racing |
| Modes | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Arcade system | Sega Model 2 |
Sega Rally Championship is a 1995 racing game developed and published by Sega. Originally released for arcades using the Sega Model 2 board, ports were published for the Sega Saturn in 1995 and Microsoft Windows in 1997. It is a rally racing game that simulates driving on different surfaces with varying friction, with the car's handling changing accordingly. As the first racing game to incorporate this feature, Sega Rally Championship is considered to be a milestone in the evolution of the racing game genre. It is however considered an arcade game with a degree of realism rather than a fully realistic simulator of rallying. The game features both cooperative and competitive multiplayer. An enhanced version was released for the Saturn in 1998, supporting analog controls with the Saturn 3D Pad and online play via the Sega Net Link.
Sega Rally Championship received critical acclaim, with praise for its gameplay and controls, and it is considered one of the greatest video games of all time. The Saturn version was lauded for its accuracy to the arcade version; later ports were less well-received. The game spawned the Sega Rally series, and was followed by several ports and sequels on subsequent platforms.