I loved the original Grand Turismo on the PSOne. Back in those days were when memory cards were a new fangled technology and my parents weren’t keen on spending money on things they didn’t understand. What that caused was game sessions that were days long and a PSone that would never got turned off. Once I did get a memory stick my siblings saved no time in breaking it, thus back to the never ending battle of the unsaveable game. I did love the game. Since I was not really a car person have, access to the vastness of a culture I really didn’t understand was exciting and new. The challenge of winning a race series or completing a license challenge was rewarding, and to this day I go back to it from time to time. It was one of those games that introduced me to a genre of gaming that I had really never considered.
I skipped the PS2 generation of GT games. There was something very different with those games. I’m not really sure, but they never captured the magic that I had in my earlier youth on the PSOne. With the release of GT PSP I choose to give it a chance. I really enjoy my PSP and if anything can mirror the PSOne game I’m sure GT PSP could.
GT PSP is one of the smoothest running games I have seen on the PSP. Its performance makes the game look and feel ideal for the PSP. With 35 tracks and over 800 cars, one might think that this game is loaded with content, but what thrives in cars and tracks suffers in gameplay modes. GT PSP single player is no more then a quick race system that allows you to pick a car, a track, and a race type. This is great if you want a pick up a go type of feel, but when it comes to depth and progression you’re left thinking, “but I wanted to race in a series or a cup challenge. Where’s the rest of my racing game?” The lack of a single player mode really feels like there’s something missing. Another annoying part of the game is that the game as an internal calendar system that counts as days as you complete challenges or single races. On any given day only four manufactures are available to purchase cars from. This means that if you want a specific car and that manufacture is not selling that day, you have to wait for their turn in the rotation. This really takes you out of the experience, to the point where I just bought one car and hoarded all my money.
There is also a lack of tuning to the cars. The quick tune option allows you to change some basics, but there is no upgrading the intake, or purchasing new tires or engines. This is something that I used to enjoy a lot of the PSOne version and it flat out doesn’t even exist in this game.
The challenge modes are what I enjoyed the most. This is the classic, here is your car and meet this requirement. They range from stopping within a certain area from a given distance, executing efficient racing lines, to overtaking other vehicles. One thing I found a little frustrating was that if you went off the track the challenge would instantly fail, but once you succeeded it was rather gratifying. The challenges are rated by giving a gold, silver, or bronze trophy once completed within the parameters. I found that going back to get the silver or gold were more frustrating then enjoyable, but if you like a challenge it’s all yours.
The lack of infrastructure online play is rather disappointing. I, like many others, don’t have anyone to play with ad-hoc, so an infrastructure mode would have been great. I probably would have played it more if I could have played online, but once you’re done with the challenges the single races get rather boring fast.
GT PSP is a fantastic looking game and it runs very well, but if you were a serious GT fan I have to believe that you will be left wanting more. There are some upsides though. Some of the cars will be transferable to GT5 when it is released. GT PSP feels like it was the beginnings of a great GT game, which just fell short.
B
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Polyphony Digital
Genre(s): Racing, Driving
Players: 4
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Release Date: October 1, 2009
You say GT fans will be disappointed, but then bemoan nearly everything about the game that's a staple of the GT series. The challenges are a critical part of the series and I actually found golds were a lot easier to obtain on the PSP title than any of the console titles (failure for leaving the track is also a GT oldie). In fact, the whole game is more accessible from top to bottom, which you'd expect being a portable title. Licences are replaced with attaining levels per track, the AI is challenging at the A and S levels, yet the ability to increase lap numbers to enchance the payouts means lesser skilled drivers playing at the D level are also able to rapidly pad their wallet. The lack of infrastructure mode is quickly sorted via a download from the JP PSN store.
Sure, the daily manufacturer thing is awkward, but with bundles of cash from races and the challenges it is pretty much all that stops you buying every car in your first few hours of gameplay. Besides, you can always select a race and back out to advance the calendar and quickly cycle the dealers.
I'm a huge GT fan and I love the fact GT PSP isn't just a direct port, it offers an entirely new way to play prefering bite sized racing to GT's traditionally grueling and punishing 'career' mode. Though I do have to agree, the lack of upgrades and tuning of cars beyond brake/suspension balance is borderline criminal for a GT title.
I would tend to disagree that the infrastructure mode is “quickly sorted”. The western audience expects a standard on online play that have not been meet with this game. We shouldn't have to download a separate download on the JP PSN to play the way we expect to.