How do you follow up on a very niche, yet highly acclaimed and polished auto runner? In the case of one Dariusz Pietrala, also known as Pixel Perfect Dude, you go completely out of the way to reinvent your racing franchise. #Drive was clearly made with mobile limitations in mind, but that game still managed to deliver an engrossing and addictive experience, even for an auto runner. #Drive Rally, its sequel, goes out of the way to turn it into a proper rally simulator, but in the process, it has lost everything that made it so unique, feeling just like yet another rallying game out of half a dozen out in the market.

And, of course, he’s Asian.

The problem isn’t anything related to #Drive Rally‘s quality. It’s not a bad racing game. In essence, it gets the job done in all aspects. It looks decent enough, features decent controls, and is well-optimized enough to be able to run on a portable like the ROG Ally. The problem is that there are way too many arcadey rally games out there at the moment, a lot of indies clearly inspired by classics such as Sega Rally. For instance, I did review both Parking Garage Rally Circuit and Rally Arcade Classics less than six months ago. Furthermore, I can’t ignore a game like Art of Rally, which features a similar (but much prettier) low-poly aesthetic.

What #Drive Rally has over its competitors is a slightly more robust career mode, even if it’s, still, somewhat formulaic. You can choose between a handful of different teams, each one led by a different navigator. Each team acts like a small career of sorts, and you can play multiple careers at any given time, without having to actually compromise or make a tough decision. What differs one team from the other, aside from the stereotypical voice acting stemming from their respective navigator, is the kinds of unlockables you’ll obtain throughout each course. Each career path contains a specific assortment of cars and car parts to unlock.

The good thing about playing this game on a ROG Ally is how easy it is to mute the game so you don’t need to worry about the voice acting.

Unlocking cars is neat, but considering how the game is laid out, you don’t exactly feel the difference between each vehicle throughout your career. You’ll mostly notice any meaningful improvement on the additional modes included in the package. There’s quite a bit to entertain you for a while, even if, as previously mentioned, the overall gameplay loop is very basic. Physics are simplistic, and the overall level of difficulty is just standard. I legitimately miss the auto runner gameplay loop seen in the original #Drive; I honestly think that using that gameplay loop with a rallying coat of paint would have made this game stand out from the rest.

The art style is good, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that other indie rally racers have done prettier things years before this one.

Again, it’s not that #Drive Rally is a bad game; it’s just yet another arcadey rally game. What disappointed me the most was the fact that the original #Drive felt unique enough back then. Removing the auto runner aspects from the game, and just making it feel like yet another indie racer inspired by Sega Rally just made it look like everybody else. It doesn’t have a unique visual style, nor does it include any innovative gameplay loop or feature to stand out from the rest. You can still have quite a bit of fun with it, especially if you own a portable gaming PC, but #Drive Rally is just yet another racing game. I don’t think I’ll remember a lot from it after a week or so.

#Drive Rally is available now on PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB and Asus ROG Ally.

A copy of #Drive Rally was provided by the publisher.