It’s said that actors draw on particularly sad or painful memories to help them portray that emotion in a scene. I’ve never spoken to an actor, so I don’t know if this is true, but if I had to evoke the emotions of a man remembering the life that could have been, I only had to imagine one thing: a Sega Saturn.
While it wasn’t quite that simple, the Saturn was a true turning point for Sega and the console business as we know it today. It was the beginning of the end for Sega as a platform holder, as the high price and development difficulties compared to Sony’s PlayStation simply couldn’t be overcome. Yet, 30 years later, one of my favorite games is a Saturn racing game, Car Parking Rally Track. I don’t have this on my 2024 bingo card.
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I’m not going to lie; it was the visuals that drew me in. I saw a little video on Twitter and that was it. I liked it enough to play it. Now that I’ve played it on my Steam Deck, I love it. In my opinion, it’s one of the best examples of the retro era we’ve been in for a while.
I’m sure someone will tell me I’m wrong and that rendering polygons or something is impossible 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 a lot of fun to play.
Freed completely from the trappings of modern racing games, there’s a series of eight tracks here that vary slightly between three car classes: Light, Heavy, and Super Heavy. Each track has three passing times, with the fastest getting a gold medal, then silver, and finally bronze. Win a medal and you’ll unlock the next track, and once you’ve earned medals on all tracks in one car class, you’ll unlock the next class. It’s strictly time trial focused, but that’s what rally racing is all about – plus, you’ll be trying to get cars to overtake you on some tight roads while you’re hurtling through them.
While the game’s title should serve as a warning, don’t go into “Parking Lot Rally” expecting vast locales. The tracks are set in places like Chicago and New Orleans, but you only get glimpses of iconic scenery before you enter a multi-story parking garage. It’s also worth noting that the soundtrack is stronger than I expected, so be sure to turn up the volume to get a feel for the impeccable ’90s vibes.
PGRC has some clever track design, and I really like its visuals (there are options to make the game look like it’s running on Saturn hardware or more modern machines, with differences in draw distance, resolution, and frame rate), but Drift kept me from playing other games for an entire week. Hit the drift button after a turn and you’re off, and like the best arcade racers, it feels just right. The level of control in Drift is high, and there’s a clever acceleration mechanic that lets you slide out of a slide at high speeds, and also allows you to drift continuously to maintain high speeds.
Parking Garage Rally Circuit is a simple game. You’ll read a 60-word review of it in Computer & Video Games magazine, and that’s more than enough. I’ve written some here, but most of it is unnecessary. If you feel the pull of classic 90s arcade racing games, but can’t get enough of them, then PGRC is the game for you. It’s cheap and cheerful in the best way possible, just like games of the past.
