Old School Rally launches this holiday for PS5, PS4, Switch, and PC

Published on 10 Jul 2025

There’s a certain feeling I can’t shake. It’s lodged somewhere deep in my muscle memory, a ghost twitch in my thumbs. It’s the feeling of wrestling a blocky, low-polygon Subaru Impreza through a hairpin turn on a muddy Welsh track, rain lashing down in what looked more like white streaks than actual water. It's the memory of *Colin McRae Rally 2.0* on the original PlayStation.

You didn’t just steer in that game. You fought it. Every pebble, every shift in gravel, every poorly-timed tap of the handbrake was a physics lesson taught at 100 mph. There were no rewind buttons. No gentle driving lines painted on the road. There was just you, your co-driver’s increasingly panicked notes, and the looming threat of a tree that looked suspiciously like a cardboard cutout.

And I miss it. I really do.

Which is why my ears perked up, my posture straightened, and the coffee I was nursing went cold when I first saw the trailer for *Old School Rally*. It felt… right. Like a forgotten band from my youth announcing a reunion tour. Not for the money, but because they missed the noise.

The Art of Being Deliberately Ugly (And Why It’s Beautiful)

Let’s be honest for a second. Modern racing games are stunning. Photorealistic marvels where you can count the water droplets on a perfectly rendered Porsche. And I appreciate that, I truly do. But sometimes, in the pursuit of realism, something gets lost. A soul, maybe? A certain arcade-y charm?

*Old School Rally* isn't trying to be photorealistic. Thank god. It’s proudly, defiantly retro. We’re talking sharp-edged polygons that would have made a PS1 or Sega Saturn sweat. The textures are simple, the environments sparse. It’s a visual style that says, “We spent 99% of our budget on the tyre physics, and the other 1% on making the trees look vaguely like trees.”

And you know what? It’s perfect. It strips away all the noise. It focuses your attention on the only things that matter in a rally game: the car, the road, and the terrifying chasm just to your left. This isn't just nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. It's a design choice. A statement. It’s the developers, a small indie outfit called Hecklepepper Studios, telling us that gameplay is king, queen, and the entire royal court.

This isn't just about playing a game; it's about embarking on a journey to master a skill. It's a type of experience that feels a lot like the pure challenge you find in some of the best adventure games, where the world itself is the puzzle to be solved.

An Old School Rally Launch for a Brand New Generation of Players

But here’s the most exciting part. This isn’t some obscure, hard-to-find PC-only release destined to be played by a handful of us grizzled veterans. The big news is that Old School Rally launches this holiday for PS5, PS4, Switch, and PC. That’s huge.

It means this philosophy, this return to raw driving purity, is accessible to everyone. The PS5 players with their fancy DualSense haptics will (hopefully) feel every bit of gravel under their tires. The Switch players can get their rally fix on the bus, probably careening off a virtual cliff while their real-world transport hits a pothole. It’s a democratization of difficulty. And it's a bold move, putting a game that looks like it’s from 1998 on shelves next to billion-dollar blockbusters.

I genuinely believe there’s an appetite for this. We’ve seen it with other genres. Gamers are craving experiences that respect their intelligence and reward their dedication. We’re tired of endless tutorials and hand-holding. Just give us the keys and a ridiculously challenging track. We’ll figure it out.

The multi-platform launch also shows a level of confidence from the developers that you just have to admire. They’re not hedging their bets. They’re going all in, ensuring that whether you're a dedicated console gamer or a PC purist, you can get in on the action. It's a far cry from the days when you'd be locked out of a title, or worse, dealing with something like a massive Sony PlayStation Network outage that grinds your gaming to a halt. The focus here seems to be on getting the game into as many hands as possible.

It Won't Be Easy, and That's the Whole Point

I should probably manage expectations. This game is going to frustrate people. I can already see the rage-quits, the controllers thrown in frustration (please don’t actually do that), the lamenting posts on Reddit.

The learning curve will likely be a sheer cliff face. Mastering the weight transfer required for a perfect Scandinavian flick will take hours, not minutes. Your first few dozen races will probably end with your car wrapped around a Finnish pine tree.

And that’s okay. That’s the magic.

The joy in games like this isn't in winning. Not at first. It's in the small victories. Nailing a single corner you’ve been struggling with for an hour. Shaving two seconds off your personal best on a treacherous mountain pass. Finally understanding how to handle the car on ice without spinning out for the tenth time. It's a slow, deliberate, and incredibly rewarding process. If you want instant gratification, there are thousands of other games out there. You can go play some simple, fun stuff on a site like CrazyGames anytime you want.

This is different. This is for the people who see a challenge and lean into it, not away from it. It’s for the ones who remember the brutal but fair difficulty of the classics and yearn for that feeling again.

I keep coming back to this point because it's crucial: the difficulty *is* the feature. It’s not a bug. It’s the entire reason for the game’s existence.

FAQ: Your Questions Answered (Probably)

So, is this game just for hardcore racing sim fans?

Not necessarily! I mean, it helps if you like a challenge, but you don't need a thousand-dollar racing wheel setup. The developers have said they're focused on making it feel great on a standard controller. It's more about a mindset. If you enjoy tough-but-fair platformers or soulslike games, you might find the loop of 'fail, learn, succeed' here really satisfying.

Why would I play this when Game X looks so much more realistic?

It's a different kind of meal. A photorealistic racer is like a ten-course tasting menu at a Michelin-star restaurant—exquisite, detailed, and technically perfect. *Old School Rally* is like the best burger you've ever had from a food truck. It’s not trying to be fancy. It's just focused on being incredibly good at one specific thing: making the driving feel amazing.

Will it have online multiplayer?

Yes, but with a classic twist. The main multiplayer mode will be asynchronous—meaning you'll be racing against the ghost times of your friends and other players on the leaderboards. It’s all about chasing down that perfect run to knock your buddy off the top spot. There will be some form of head-to-head, but the heart of it is the leaderboard chase.

With the Old School Rally launch happening on so many platforms, which one is best?

Honestly, the best one is the one you have. The developers are aiming for performance parity, especially a stable framerate, across all consoles. The PS5/high-end PC versions might have slightly crisper visuals and faster loading, but the core gameplay experience is designed to be identical everywhere. I'm personally excited to try it on the Switch for that portable punishment.

When this thing drops, I know exactly what I'm doing. I'll be pouring a drink, turning the lights down, and cranking up the sound of a sputtering engine and spitting gravel. I'll be ready to be humbled. Ready to be frustrated. And ready to feel that incredible, irreplaceable thrill of taming a digital beast. I can’t wait.