THE GOOD: Realistic. Good physics. Good controls... you can feel yourself driving. Driving aids.
THE BAD: horrible music. Very very hard. One car. One view (inside).
SUMMARY: This is the Biggest simulation ever for a car racing game on the DC since the psx bleemcast GT2.
The are limited to one view, inside the car (none of that behind stuff sadly...) and you only get to drive the F355 because that's the name of the game.
The analog triggers are used for acceleration and braking and are well proportioned depending on how haard you press them. The shifting is good and so are the driving aids.
There are manys options. Arcade, simulation/career, and versus(online/via cable).
You can practice, then test run, and then race for real. The AI is very unforgiving. Once you crash the game is over. And if you don't crash, placing into the top three is a shore on it's own. Placing into first is only achievable if you up the lap count to something more than 3 or 4. Unless you can modify the tire/engine/aerodynamic settings to favor that particular track it is very hard to win 1st place with only 3 or 4 laps.
I recommend this game for expert drivers that like games like GT3. Those looking for an arcade feel, go somewhere else. There's nothing easy about a Ferrari F355 Challenge. I guess they called it that for a reason.
I also heard a PS2 version was going to come out soon. But since I don't own a PS2 (my sister does though) I don't know the differences. But I"m sure there will be extras in that version.
SUMMARY: The game itself is excelent and a must try for any racing fan and definetly for most simulation fans.
The gameplay itself is quite simple you get a F355 and a nice set of custom abilities to use on the car itself ranging from paint to suspension tweaking. The idea is stock racing on it so you wont find upgrades to the actual engine in the game.
You get a nice variety of world known tracks like suzuka and laguna seca. All modeled to their true enviroments with full detail. Also you get various schedules for racing be it morning afternoon or evening. Really the focus is on how the game handles.
The car pulls and drives like a car of that calibur should. The only side effect is that Yu Suzuki didn't want to show beaten versions of the F355 so he opted to slow you down beyond belief when you hit walls or other cars. That in itself is possibly the worst drawback. Cars can hit you when they pass and move along but you take the damage almost everytime and lose speed off of the collision.
The sounds are excelent as you hear the engine screaming off the start and through corners at redline the whole time. The downside is the horrible monster ballads 80's rock soundtrack they threw in. I have no idea why they included it in the game but I know that its incredibly bad.
Turn off the music and crank up your own music if you plan to play for a while.
Other than that the handling is beautiful when you're out in the open. It behaves true to the car and the levels are excelent to race in. Also 2 player mode is always worth a run if you have some friends who think they can handle the F355 beast.
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