Firstly, if, like me, you don't spend all of your time and all of your scratch in arcades, then you might not be familiar with the awesome arcade version of this title. It's a massive sit-down affair with three screens displaying a true driver's POV running on four Naomi boards. The thing is as close to driving a car as you can get without, well... driving a car. That AM2 was able to port this thing over to DC and make it run on one board is amazing in itself.
Whatever pains AM2 went through for this title, naming their baby surely wasn't one of them: The 355 is the only car in the game, for both you and the competition. That's right, the only thing you can do to customize your ride is choose a paint job. This is sort of a blessing and a curse. I mean, you will learn how to control your car - mostly because you have only one car to tame - and you will kick ass. But at the end of the day variety goes a long way, especially if you have raced something like, say, Gran Turismo.
Likewise there is only one point of view: in car. I am not one of those gamers who thinks that any other point of view is for pussies. In fact, I prefer it in games in which it is difficult to gauge the momentum and roll of your car around corners. But I had no choice but get used to the POV in F355. It's rough, but this is the sim, not a sim.
Besides these things, the game really helps you get acclimated to its demanding conditions. The menus and option screens are very straightforward and easy to understand. Plus, all commands are confirmed with the ripping sound of a Ferrari exhaust. It's pretty unsettling stuff and best played loud.
In order to ease you into this kind of driving, there are two play modes that teach you how to drive before you enter the Championship mode. Arcade and Single Play each let you play any of the six initial tracks in one of three modes: Training, Driving, and Racing.
Training, which is a must for all but the most seasoned racers (this means you), offers sight and sound hints to help you through the track. The system is actually quite clever. You follow a red line through the course. The line guides you along the perfect race line. Stay on it and you will achieve great times. Stray and you will be spinning sand.
Driving modes omits the driving hints and lets you run the course alone. This is very helpful in the more complicated races. The absence of other cars lets you figure out optimal speeds for race sections without the distraction of other cars.
Lastly the "Race" mode, which adds competition. You know... you race.
You may ask what the difference is between Arcade and Single Play is, and with good reason. The only difference is that Arcade is timed, Single Play is not. I would strongly recommend a few untimed laps before you try to beat any clocks.
The Championship mode puts you in a career mode in which you work your way through the game against some seriously competitive drivers. And about those drivers...
This game is damn smart. The drivers neither stay a fixed distance behind you waiting for you to slip up in the least nor come out of nowhere to blow by at random intervals. They operate very much like real drivers and like you. Well, at least you after some practice time. Don't expect to get in the game and blow by everyone. They are much better than that and it won't happen.
Once you get used to the way you F355 feels, you can begin to tweak it. Unlike other racers, in which you earn the ability to adjust things, F355 fives you everything right off the bat. However, I would leave it alone until you really know what you are doing and know what effect it will have on your car. It's as simple as ride height and gets as complicated at picking a perfect rear wing angle or wheel camber. If you don't know what camber is, then do not screw with it. It will turn your finely tuned horse into a dog in no time.
In fact, even after driving it for a while, I still don't think you have to do much car setup. The car handles just like you would think a real F355 would: The controls are dreamlike. Natural, fast, responsive, predictable... if only I could put an "est" at the end of each of these words. The handling really is dead-on. You have a tremendous sense of momentum and weight in turns, a perfectly helpless sense of loss-of-control while spinning, and you feel really glued to the road when you are driving well. I simply cannot say enough how much I like the way this game plays.
Oh yeah, this is a graphics based game, not text only. And as a graphical game it is a masterpiece. Firstly the tracks. From plain Jane ovals to complex cityscapes, each track is beautiful. The game is fast, but don't miss the views, especially the skies: realistically lit, wonderfully colored, and acceptably dynamic. But I think the really visual strength of the game is in the textures of the tracks and the road itself. The sense of speed is amazing, much due to the road surface. Very realistic stuff. Some of the more detailed tracks will certainly induce a good amount of jaw-dropping. Plus, the game maintains a rock steady 60 fps. It is smoooooth. In the two-player mode some detail is lost, but the game stays silky, with negligible slowdown. Really negligible.
You will be wishing for that third person POV because of the graphics. The other F355s are carefully detailed and very nicely textured. It would have been nice to see the sexy rear end of your own coupe, even if you settled on the in-car POV.
What don't I like? Well... there's the whack-ass music. Cock rock all the way. Thankfully you can turn off the music while racing. Believe me, the sound of eight revving Ferraris is preferable to these wailing guitars. And there's still a part of me that yearns for some automotive variety. (But I guess they couldn't have used the same name for the game, eh?) I know that this is an ill-fitting complaint with the game, but it's true nonetheless.
Overall this game is, undeniably, a masterpiece, but admittedly a very specific kind of masterpiece. Suzuki set out to design the ultimate racing simulation and achieved that more completely than any game I have ever played. If your bag is Re-Volt or Speed Devils, give it a rent before you even think about buying. However, if you are looking for the best racing sim available on DC, or any platform for the matter, you have a friend in F355 Challenge.
-- M Wiley, IGN Gear