Presumably, actors draw on particularly sad or poignant memories to help them express that emotion in scenes. I’ve never spoken to the actor, so I don’t know if this is true, but if I were asked to evoke the emotions of a man and think about the life that could have been lived, I only have to think of one thing: the Sega Saturn.
While it’s not quite that simple, the Saturn was a real turning point for Sega and the console business as we know it today. This was the beginning of the end for SEGA as a platform holder, as the high price and development difficulties compared to Sony’s PlayStation were simply insurmountable. Yet here we are, 30 years later, and one of my favorite games of the year is the Saturn Racing game, Parking Lot Rally Track. This is not on my 2024 bingo card.
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I’m not going to lie; it was the visuals that drew me to Parking Lot Speedway. I saw a little video on Twitter and that was it. I love it and plan to play it. I’ve now fully played it on my Steam Deck, and I love it. In my opinion, this is one of the best examples of the retro era we’ve been experiencing for a while.
I’m sure someone will tell me that I’m wrong and that polygons or other rendering methods are not possible on the SEGA Saturn because it has to draw them as 2D triangles or something, but I don’t care. PGRC looks like a Saturn game, and it’s awesome. It’s also really fun to play.
Completely stripped of the trappings of modern racing games, what you’re looking at is a series of eight tracks that vary slightly between three car classes: Light, Heavy, and Super. Each course has three passing times, with the fastest getting a gold medal, then a silver medal, and finally a bronze medal. Earn a medal and you’ll unlock the next track, and once you’ve earned medals for all courses in the car category, you’ll unlock the next category. That’s entirely the point of the time trial, but that’s what rally racing is all about – and you’ll have a hard time letting the car pass on some tight roads that you’ll scream at.
Although the name of the game should serve as a warning, don’t enter the parking rally track hoping for vast locations. Courses are set in places like Chicago and New Orleans, but you only get to see the iconic views before entering the multi-story parking garage. It’s also worth noting that the soundtrack is harder than I expected, so be sure to turn up the volume to get some impeccable 90s vibes.
PGRC has some clever course design, and I really like the visuals (there are options to make the game look like it’s running on Saturn hardware or a more modern machine, with differences in draw distance, resolution, and frame rate ), but it was drifting which meant I didn’t play another game for a whole week at night. Press the drift button after a turn and you’re ready to go, just like in the best arcade racing games, it feels accurate. The level of control while drifting is very high, coupled with a neat boost mechanism that allows you to get off the slide at high speeds, or allows you to stay in the drift to maintain high speeds.
Parking Rally is a simple game. It’s the kind of game you’d read a 60-word review in Computer & Video Games magazine, and that’s enough. I’ve written a few more here, but most of them are unnecessary. If you’re feeling the pull of classic ’90s arcade racing games but can’t figure it out, PGRC is the game for you. It’s cheap and enjoyable, just like the previous games.
