"Speeding... reckless driving, illegal racing, and countless other felonies. You've been a busy man. In this state, you're about to suffer some serious jailtime for your crimes. Lucky for you I have some use for a fast bastard. You're going to participate in Death Rally for me. With your help we are going to lure this murderous son-of-a-bitch out of his hiding hole: The Adversary."
— Tex Harris, in the prologue
Death Rally is a Driving Game developed by Finnish studio Remedy Entertainment and released for iOS on March 31, 2011, Android OS on May 2012 and PC via Steam on August 3, 2012.
The game is a reboot of the 1996 game of the same name. The gameplay remains the same: the races use the top-down view, other players' cars can still be gunned down and you win money depending on the place you've finished. There are plenty of differences, though: the Underground market merged with the regular market (so you can buy both upgrades for your car alongside mines and bumpers), there are way much more weapons to choose, several cars completely changed their appearance, there are two new cars (the Interceptor and the Mighty Foot/Bravestar), plenty new roads (while only two or three survived from the original), a behind-the-car chase cam, Achievements and "challenge" events, which enforce certain restrictions such as every racer using the same car or every crate giving one specific item.
The original iOS version also had Duke Nukem and the Mighty Eagle as guest drivers and the aforementioned Mighty Foot as a guest vehicle, as well as a multiplayer mode. The Android and PC versions removed the guests and multiplayer module and recolored the 'Foot and rechristened it as the Bravestar. In turn, the Android version allowed the player to purchase new weapons, cars, tracks and special power-ups with real money, while the PC version features updated graphics, more special races, extra paint jobs for most of the vehicles and additional game mechanics such as the ability to hold Nitro boosts in reserve, Coop Multiplayer and the "Shadow Man".
Get ready!
- A Winner Is You: The Android version replaces the final cutscene with a dialogue box proclaiming that the player has completed the game.
- Alliterative Name: Every returning AI character from the PC game is this: Bogus Bill, Matt Miler, Nasty Nick, Sam Speed and Suzy Stock.
- Book Ends: The player starts the game fleeing from Tex Harris. In a red Shrieker. The player finishes the game fleeing from Tex Harris. In a red Shrieker.
- Car Fu:
- The player's regular gun has a lethargic fire rate while the sub-weapon has very limited ammunition, so the player's other primary weapon is ramming the opposing cars into obstacles, mines and each other, preferably with spiked bumpers on.
- One of the special races in the PC version requires the player to destroy the other opponents using only a special set of spiked bumpers that do much more damage than the regular ones (all other weapons are disabled). For an extra kick, all vehicles are also given permanent Nitro for the race.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: On Medium difficulty and higher, even the player's three fastest cars, the Wraith, Deliverator and Interceptor, with maximum speed upgrades, are not as fast as the other opponents; they somehow have speed stats that are higher than the maximum top speed of the player's Wraith, Deliverator and Interceptor. This makes it a good case of both Rubber-Band A.I. and Schizophrenic Difficulty.
- Cool Car: The Deliverator has a design reminiscent of the Mach 5 from Speed Racer: The New Adventures. The Wraith also has a much sleeker redesign.
- Continuity Nod:
- The GDC 2011 trailer uses a remixed version of "Hard Metal", the original game's intro theme and the theme of the Adversary's track.
- The promotional artwork
◊ for the game is a nod to the 1996 version's box art◊ and loading screen◊. - In cutscenes, the player character still drives a Shrieker and the Adversary a Deliverator, albeit the latter is now the same as a normal Deliverator appearance-wise. In the final cutscene, the Adversary also crashes at the Start/Finish line just like he did in the original.
- Cosmetic Award: The Achievements.
- Early Game Hell: You'll be occasionally pitted with Shriekers in your early races, with you using a Vagabond as the only selectable vehicle.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: The cars outright explode, leaving a blackened, burnt wreck behind. These wrecks remain on the track as obstacles for the rest of the race.
- Fauxrrari: The Dervish is a Hummer H3 and the Shrieker is a Mustang.
- Game-Breaking Bug: In the Android version, pulling the Android upper menu at the wrong time will render your game as a big bunch of white boxes. Have fun trying to identify your car. Also, given certain conditions, you won't be able to use the Steer control (as in, not even start the race!), thus you need to restart the game and lose the Fame points.
- Gatling Good: The Gatling Gun, which is essentially an improved version of the player's regular gun.
- Guest Driver:
- Duke Nukem (iOS version only), John Gore, Barry Wheeler, Emerson, and the Mighty Eagle (Android version only). There's even a guest vehicle too: The Mighty Foot! In keeping with its Informed Ability of being virtually indestructible in Forever, the Foot has more armor upgrades then even the Deliverator and can easily shrug off the heaviest beatdowns in harder races.
- Duke is absent from the Android and PC versions, with his "Duke Match" event replaced by "Tex Match" and the Mighty Foot reskinned as the "Bravestar".
- Heal Thyself: In the form of wrench powerups that occasionally spawn on the track/area (in *Match games) and can be obtained from destroyed crates or destroyed opponents.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: The player starts the game off either getting wasted by Tex Harris and his group of Shrieker cops wielding missiles or with the game inexplicably taking control of the player's Shrieker after about a minute and bringing it to a stop, allowing Tex and his cops to swarm the player.
- Interface Screw:
- The "Mixed" challenge locks the player to a certain view of the map regardless of whether Chase Cam is enabled or not. To make things worse, the camera rotates during the race, and the game's directional controls change such that the player steers towards the edge of the screen where they want their vehicle to go, as opposed to steering based on where their vehicle is facing. There's a version called "Rotated" which is basically "Mixed" on a reverse track.
- When the player is about to die (less than 5% health left) the screen Turns Red and several computer-based glitches start to appear, interfering with the vision.
- Jerkass: Tex, the cop who busted the player and forced them to enter the race. He makes it clear from the start that he doesn't like the player very much. He even enters the harder races himself on occasion, where he is a big pain to out-race and an even bigger one to kill.
- Klingon Promotion: Implied at the ending.Cop: He's the next Adversary.
- Land Mine Goes "Click!": Available from the main shop. Running into just a handful of these is a very good way of getting offed.
- Laser Sight: A new addition. In the iOS and Android versions, it takes up the slot that would otherwise be occupied by the spiked bumpers, but makes it easier to aim some sub-weapons.
- Lighter and Softer: This installment of the game lacks the pedestrians, Loan Shark, steroid pusher, Mushroom Samba, and supernatural elements like the Grim Reaper, True Tom Rhymer and the possibly demonic nature of The Adversary. The player is a street racer hauled in on reckless driving charges, but since they managed to elude Tex long enough due to their insane driving skills, he decides to use them to get at the Adversary, who is another street racer.
- Macross Missile Massacre: The Striker fires a spread of seeking missiles, with one more missile added to each shot per upgrade level.
- Mirror World: "Reversed" challenges have the race going the wrong way around one of the regular tracks. "Rotated" challenges also fix the camera.
- Money Sink: The Fame points. Any winnings the player gets are automatically used to increase their Fame if their current vehicle is fully repaired and upgraded and their selected weapon is fully upgraded. Fame serves no purpose apart from increasing completion percentage and obtaining some Achievements.
- More Dakka: Upgrading weapons increases their ammunition capacity and, for single-press weapons such as the Shotgun and Sniper Rifle, decreases firing delay. The former goes up to eleven with the Gatling Gun.
- Nitro Boost: Nitro pickups occasionally spawn when crates lying on the track are destroyed and enemies bite the dust. They activate immediately when they are picked up in the iOS and Android versions, while in the PC version they can be held in reserve and activated with a keypress. The "All Nitro" challenge gives every car permanent nitro for that particular race.
- Nostalgia Level: Velodrama is Velodrome/Eidolon, Oasis is Oasis/Palm Tree, Rift has the layout of Hell Mountain/Rock Zone, Eureka is an ice-themed Snake Alley/Desert Run and the PC-exclusive track Savo is a mix of Hell Mountain/Rock Zone and Borneo/Bogota.
- Pacifist Run: Two of the challenges are "No Guns" and "Marathon". All weapons are removed in such challenges, but like the original game, the player and their opponents can still take damage from collisions or nearby exploding barrels.
- Phlebotinum Overload: Picking up ammo when the player's sub-weapon is already full will cause its next shot to be stronger or more accurate:
- The Flamer aims at and burns nearby opponents for about 5 seconds.
- The Shotgun has a wider arc and more powerful pellets for a shot. This is the basis for the Shotgun Blues special powerup.
- The Gatling rapid-fires a stream of bullets.
- The Sniper fires three bullets in an arc.
- The Mines... well, once the charge is finished, three mines are placed instead of one.
- The Missiles... well, three missiles are shot.
- The Strikers do extra damage.
- Powerup: Numerous crates are strewn around the tracks during races. They can be destroyed if they take enough damage from collisions or weapon fire and may occasionally contain a power-up. If the player still has additional tracks and/or vehicles to unlock, portions of these may be littered around the the track or looted from the wrecks of other opponents as well. Any racer may also spew a power-up upon destruction. Other pickups include cash bonuses, repair kits, Nitro boosts, and extra ammunition.
- Professional Killer: Occasionally, a race sponsor will offer a cash reward if the player takes out a specific racer. The player's total prize earnings are doubled regardless of the race's difficulty. Also, the player receives extra cash for each opponent they waste.
- Rewarding Vandalism: The crates spread among the tracks hold powerful items and track/car parts. Destroying your rivals' cars also reward you with one of these items as well.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The PC version adds the "Shadow Man", who will occasionally call the player before a race begins and offer the player a powered-up car or weapon the player does not already have, a supply of Nitro boosts, or to sabotage an opponent. If the player accepts, he takes a cut of the player's winnings. Notably, sabotage outright destroys the target. In addition, if the player declines the Shadow Man's offer to sabotage an opponent, the AI will take up his offer, meaning the player might actually be on the receiving end of this as well.
- Short-Range Shotgun: The first secondary weapon the player unlock, and it is very, very potent at close range.
- Shout-Out:
- In the iOS version, a poster for Duke Nukem Forever can be seen in the garage. In the Android and PC versions, it's the cover art of Alan Wake's American Nightmare.
- One skin for the Shrieker gives it the gold phoenix on black paintjob made famous by the Trans Am in Smokey and the Bandit - a nod, perhaps, to the Shrieker's original appearance.
- A new skin for the Sentinel turns it into The A-Team van.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Eureka, unlocked by collecting parts as one would do to unlock a new car. It is longer than some of the other tracks and the player slides around a bit due to the ice.
- Top-Down View: It is possible to use a chase cam versus the fixed-map view that is carried over from the original game.
- Trailers: The GDC 2011 trailer, which concludes with a Blipvert of gameplay footage, as well as images of not only Duke Nukem, but the Mighty Eagle too.
- Vehicular Combat: The player can win a race by simply taking out all the other cars. Doing this gives a nod to the original game with the "Grim Reaper" achievement. This is also the entire point of the Duke/Tex/Death Match events, where the player squares off in a firefight to the death against Duke/Tex and his Vagabond mooks.
- Weaponized Car: The game adds a wide variety of sub-weapons to choose from, including mines and spiked bumpers. The spiked bumpers can be equipped in tandem with most other sub-weapons. The PC version allows the player to equip mines, spiked bumpers, the laser sight and a sub-weapon in addition to the regular gun. All at the same time.
Race over!
