Top down racing with shooting bits, a direct heir to Rally X. Genuinely pleasant with snappy lines and funky look, simple thrills nicely served.
Your verdict
Category
Racing1 player3+
Description
Rally cars compete across varied circuits in top-down view in this Alpha Denshi Neo Geo CD racing game. Published by Alpha Denshi, released in Japan in September 1994. Top-down rally racing with multiple circuits, accessible arcade physics, simultaneous two-player mode. Neo Geo CD edition.
Rally Chase review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
3/5
Music
★★★★★
"Memorable"
1/5
Story
★★★★★
"Anecdotal"
The view is taken vertically, high above the track, which turns the cars into small coloured shapes and makes the layouts as legible as plans. The terrains change in material as much as in colour, ochre dirt, bluish snow, grey asphalt, and the marks left by the tyres remain visible for a few moments behind each vehicle.
An Alpha Denshi racing game where rally cars compete on varied tracks in top-down view, one of the machine's early titles, the Japanese version on the Neo Geo CD. Its desirability rests on its age in the library and the affordable access the disc gave to a genre, racing, little represented on the platform. Collectors seek it for that genre scarcity and its status as a pioneering racer for the system.
Is Rally Chase still worth playing in 2026?
Rally Chase is an Alpha Denshi top-down rally racing game, in which cars compete on varied circuits in a snappy arcade spirit. The readability of the overhead view, the sense of speed and the diversity of tracks bring direct fun, in line with the arcade racing of the era. The content stays limited and the presentation early-Neo-Geo-styled. For fans of retro top-down rally racing and immediate arcade driving, it is a pleasant diversion, nice in short sessions or in pairs.
