To anyone who got a new Xbox 360 for Christmas, welcome aboard. Please be assured that the lump of coal that served as your first 'new' offering from the Xbox Live Arcade is not typical. Arriving just two days after Christmas, Namco Bandi's New Rally-X is surely the work of the grinch.
The 'sequel' to the 1981 arcade title must have chosen its title only after the more appropriate, Rally-X 2: How To Turn 400 Microsoft Points into 200 Achievement Points Really Fast, proved too long for listing on the site. The basic premise of the top-to-bottom and side-to-side scrolling game is simple; capture all the flags in the round while avoiding the enemy cars chasing you and rocks that occasionally block your path. The number of cars nipping at your heels increases each round, with the game eventually adding enemies on both top and bottom of the maze at the start of each round. Unfortunately, things are far too easy until level twelve, when things start to get mildly dicey. Your only weapon in the game is smoke that you can lay down behind you to make the enemy cars spin in one spot for a bit.
Boasting several new features, the game had an opportunity to meld some semblance of modern gaming technology with an old arcade title. This sadly did not happen. The game purports to have adjusted enemy cars, while it does not specifically mention improved A.I., and that is what gamers should expect from such a claim. While the enemy cars do typically chase you relentlessly around the maze, they also occasionally do not. That is not to say that they slow down or loop around innocuously, they just stop. One moment you will have two or three cars hot on your tail, and then a quick glance to the mini-map (on the bottom-right of the screen, showing both flag and enemy locations in the maze) will show the cars not moving. Perhaps more damning, and entertaining, is when the cars find you, turn, and drive in the opposite direction as though you are Pac-Man and have just eaten a large dot. The developers have had twenty-five years of videogames to learn from since the original to get the A.I. right, and still managed to fail.
The other 'improvements' the developers have added over the game are nearly as laughable. There are now two special flags found in each round. One is still marked 'Special', and doubles the points of all remaining flags in the round as it did in the original. The second is a new addition, called the 'Lucky Flag', offering bonus points based on the amount of fuel remaining when you collect it. While a flashing indicator on the mini-map indicates the 'Special' flag, the game does not do the same for the 'Lucky' flag; adding luck, rather than skill, to the equation.
The game also claims to offer 'new graphics and background music', both of which are atrocious. Neither the graphics or music are any better than what could have been done when the game was first released, and anyone not having played the original would have no reason to believe these were not original game items. Straight out of the '80s, occasionally when driving in one direction for a few seconds, half an enemy car will start to appear in the direction you are going, causing you to turn back quickly because of nothing more than an annoying graphics glitch. With the exception of the retro-cool title screen and 'Achievement Unlocked' pop-ups, gamers might as well be playing this on their Atari. Even the screen gamers receive at 'Game Over' looks straight out of the original, congratulating them for getting the "high score for the day! Go for the world record!!" World record? How about some indication that this is a 360 title, and making some mention of going for the high score across Live users or even just your friends?
