V-Rally Edition 99 - N64 Playthrough #11【Longplays Land】
16V-Rally was developed for the PlayStation console by an Infogrames team based in Lyon, France. This team, composed of 20 full-time people, would later be known as Eden Studios. Because the PlayStation development kits did not cover the requirements needed for the game, the developers decided to create their own programming tools, including the game engine. The game's environments and cars are fully rendered in 3D, while the Gouraud shading method was used to give 3D objects a smoother surface. All the cars that are featured in the game were officially licensed, including their stickers.
Former rally world champion Ari Vatanen gave the developers insight on how the cars should handle collisions and drifts. Vatanen noted that, although each car practically features the same control concepts, there are significant differences between two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive vehicles. The game supports the NeGcon controller by Namco, allowing players to steer their car around curves in an analog manner.
Originally, the game was intended to feature a level editor where players could create their own tracks by modifying variables such as road surface, road curves, and weather conditions. It would take the PlayStation between 30 and 60 seconds to render these tracks, which could be saved in a memory card. This option would allow players to update their game with additional tracks. Eventually, an editor would be included in the 1999 sequel V-Rally 2.
Although the game's tracks are fictitious, they were inspired by real locations of rally events, such as the Rally Costa Brava in Spain. With the use of the PlayStation Link Cable, a 4 player multiplayer mode was initially planned. Similarly, developers considered the possibility of adding a rear-view mirror to the HUD, but it was ultimately discarded due to the memory constraints of the PlayStation hardware. The game's hard rock score was recorded at the Moby Dick club in Madrid. The overall development of the game took almost two years to complete. The V in the game's title stands for "Virtual".
After its release on the PlayStation console, V-Rally was ported to multiple platforms. An updated version based on the 1998 World Rally Championship, developed by Eden Studios and entitled V-Rally: Edition '99, was released for the Nintendo 64 console in Europe on December 1998, and in North America in September 1999. Presented at the 1998 European Computer Trade Show and later at the 1999 Nintendo Space World show, the Nintendo 64 version features several improvements over the original, including a revised physics engine for better vehicle feel and control. Unlike the PlayStation version, the Nintendo 64 version fits in a 96-megabit cartridge, but does not feature any music during gameplay. The game generally received more positive reviews in Europe than in North America. Criticism was targeted at its late draw-in graphics and floaty car physics, but some critics highlighted the fact that the game includes more than 50 tracks. Because the North American version was released nearly one year later than the European version, IGN felt that Nintendo 64 standards improved significantly with racing games such as World Driver Championship or Beetle Adventure Racing, and that the game would certainly have been judged differently one year earlier.