The racing game genre has suffered from stagnation in recent years. Many once-prominent titles, including Need for Speed and Forza Motorsport, are falling out of the spotlight due to a lack of polish, an absence of compelling features, and countless development missteps that have driven players away. While these titles have faltered, indie developers and smaller third-party studios have been experimenting and creating their own new racing games. Old School Rally from Astrolabe Games and Frozen Lake Games is one such example, as it brings nostalgic rally racing gameplay to the modern day, where rally games are currently lacking.
Like many emerging indie titles, Old School Rally got its start in Steam Early Access, and it has evolved quite a lot since it first launched on July 18, 2024. At its core, Old School Rally harkens back to the classic rally games from the ’90s and early 2000s, such as SEGA Rally and Colin McRae Rally, and Gran Turismo 2 from the original PlayStation. The inspiration is apparent from the game’s overall aesthetic, which replicates the sharp, polygonal, and dithering-based designs of games of the PS1 era. There are no technical drawbacks to be seen here, unlike some of the legendary titles that were released all those years ago.
Old School Rally Goes Back to Basics
From the moment that the opening cinematic ends, Old School Rally is ready to pick up and go. Right away, players can dive into the game’s main mode, Rally, to start racing across 24 rally stages across 10 countries. Simply beat the required time on each stage of the rally event to win the trophy and earn money. Essentially, you’ll be playing through a lot of time trials just like in the actual sport of rally. Within these stages, players have access to four different rally classes, which are inspired by real group designations from the World Rally Championship.
Old School Rally’s 32 unique rally cars are divided up into Rally A, Rally S, and Classics, but there’s also an Open class for some less-than-practical rally machines. Although the cars are not licensed, their likenesses and functionality definitely get the job done. The car selection is really great, with cars inspired by rallying models of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, Subaru Impreza, Toyota Celica, Audi Quattro, and so much more. An unlicensed version of the Suzuki Escudo Pikes Peak Special is also here, so you can relive some Gran Turismo 2 memories if you so desire. There’s even a meme-worthy bright yellow Lancer Evolution (IYKYK) to drive.
Progression in Old School Rally is fairly simple—win events in Rally mode to earn money, collect trophies, and unlock more rally cars. There’s also an arcade mode, which is set up similarly to Gran Turismo’s own Time Trial and Arcade Modes. In short, you complete a set of beginner stages with your unlocked cars and unlock more stages with natural progression. In addition, there are several in-game collectibles for your personal room, which hold mini car models and other unlockable accessories that you can customize.
The full release of Old School Rally includes a Versus mode for rally duels against a CPU or a second player via split-screen. Unfortunately, the Rally mode doesn’t integrate these duels against the CPU in events, but having the ability to face off with a friend locally is still a great feature. However, one deal breaker that may apply to some racing game fans is the lack of online multiplayer, such as lobbies and matchmaking. The only online functionality in Old School Rally involves leaderboards, which I didn’t have access to before launch.
A Beautiful Aesthetic and Fun Gameplay Feel
It’s abundantly apparent, but Old School Rally is a great-looking game that recaptures the essence of old-school racing games from the PlayStation and Dreamcast. There’s a variety of options at your disposal, including anti-aliasing, a CRT filter, a dithering effect toggle, and texture wrapping. You can make Old School Rally look like an early 2000s PC game or a late 90s PlayStation game—the choice is yours. Personally, I don’t prefer one style of the game over another, since both look really great. You can also toggle some of the effects in the game’s Photo Mode, in case you want a specific look for your photo.
In terms of actual gameplay, Old School Rally is a satisfying blend of arcade rally racing with some subdued simulation effects and multiple camera views, including a cockpit view. Although the game is easy to pick up and play, there’s definitely a learning curve once you get to more technically demanding courses. For example, the China stages can be quite difficult with very tight hairpins and narrow roadways. Trying to race the Escudo lookalike on that course was especially trying.
Each rally car has a damage model that affects the car’s overall performance, including cornering and top speed. There’s also dynamic weather with day, night, rain, snow, and fog conditions. Rain and snow, unfortunately, don’t have much of a perceivable effect on tire traction and overall gameplay, however.
The engine sounds are decent for an indie title that has been building up to its full release for the past year, but not entirely remarkable. At the very least, the engine sounds are realistic, unlike some of the vacuum sounds heard in Forza games in recent years. The sound balancing in Old School Rally is really good between engine sounds and the music itself, which is full of original music that was tailor-made for an arcade-like experience.
Old School Rally is a Complete Rally Package
With very low minimum requirements on PC and all previously released updates, Old School Rally is designed to run at 60 FPS on all platforms, and it’s incredibly smooth and polished. You can’t go wrong with Old School Rally, no matter the platform. For this review, I played the Nintendo Switch version on my Nintendo Switch 2, and I couldn’t get enough of the game in portable mode. The game’s art style is very vivid and pleasing in both portable and docked modes. Old School Rally also saves your progress after every stage during an event, so it’s quite easy to get back into if you decide to play a different game and come back.
In totality, Frozen Lake Games crafted a great racing game that could be the foundation for even more to come in the future. Old School Rally is a nostalgic trip to a simpler and more arcade-oriented era of racing games that developers could take some cues from today. Not only does Old School Rally pay tribute to the sport of rally racing and classic rally games, but it’s well worth the price at $19.99 with all its content and unlockable cars.
There’s plenty of content that kept me coming back for hours to test out some of my favorite rally cars from my childhood, even if they’re not as polished or as detailed as their licensed counterparts. Most of all, Old School Rally is a labor of love by developers who care about racing games. I’m glad there’s finally a standalone rally game that’s worth praising heading into 2026.
Old School Rally launches on December 4 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam.
Disclaimer: Astrolabe Games and Frozen Lake Games provided a Nintendo Switch copy of Old School Rally for review purposes.
