Boss Rally (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.5 stars OK
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 5.0 (2.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Stephen Poole
• Reviewed on: 06/17/1999
• Updated on: 05/01/2000
• Released on: 04/30/1999
• Originally published on GameSpot: Boss Rally (PC) Review

Despite the title, this arcade racer from SouthPeak Interactive doesn't feature the very cool Boss Mustang in its lineup of cars. In fact, you won't find any authentic vehicles at all, and the six courses on which you race are fictitious, too. But it isn't a lack of realism that steers Boss Rally into the mediocrity zone; that's taken care of by shallow gameplay, touchy controls, nonexistent AI routines for computer drivers, and the absence of support for Internet play.

The frustration begins when you decide to run a few Quick Races to get used to the courses and cars - only to discover you're limited to a rather miserly two cars and two courses until you earn enough points after two races in championship mode. With only six courses in all (twelve if you count the reverse versions of each), Boss Rally developer Boss Game Studios and SouthPeak probably felt the only way to keep things interesting for a while was to parcel the courses out. My opinion? If you've got so little to offer in the way of courses, you might as well cough 'em up at the start instead of making them so elusive that some players will get bored or frustrated before they finally gain access to them.

OK, so you just go out and place high enough in those two events and gain access to more tracks and cars, right? Well, it's not quite that simple, thanks to some extremely touchy controls. Now I know that there's a lot of powersliding and fishtailing going on in real-life rallies. But I've played a whole lot of racing sims over the past couple of years (including 1997's underrated Rally Championship), and I've never had this much trouble making a car go where I wanted it to. For games like Sports Car GT, Grand Prix Legends, and Viper Racing, my Microsoft Force Feedback Wheel is an invaluable asset that adds greatly to the overall ambience of the experience; using that same wheel in Boss Rally, I found it a major struggle just to keep steady on a straightaway.

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