I’m a relatively recent Formula 1 fan, so I missed the era of “every company making their own F1 game.” In the past couple of years I’ve dug into the good (Bizarre Creations’ PS1 games) and the OK (Human Grand Prix and F-1 World Grand Prix on N64), but it wasn’t until an episode of the Time Extend podcast that I had even heard of Grand Prix Challenge.
Racing games were one of the most over saturated genres on PS2, and with a cover like this, GPC honestly looked like bargain bin fodder.
With only tiny text on the top of the box indicating an F1 license, this honestly seemed borderline sketchy. But don’t judge a game by its cover I guess? The presentation within is much higher quality.
The animated menus are the first surprise, and while they aren’t exactly Ridge Racer V, they’re still very nice.
I started by doing a quick race. This option brutally starts you in 22nd place, but it was a nice, low stakes introduction to the game.
I set everything to the easiest settings, as I do in any F1 game prior the modern era. What I noticed immediately was how smoothly the game ran and how intuitive the controls felt. Everything just worked- something you cannot take for granted with an F1 game of this era.
After (quickly) getting a feel for the game, I hopped over to Grand Prix mode and actually did some qualifying laps so I didn’t have to start in 22nd place again.
This time I fared much better, with an even stronger grasp of the handling. If I had an infinite amount of free time, I’d definitely run a season of this. I haven’t played enough F1 games on PS2 to definitively say this is the best, but it’s definitely set the bar.
All screenshots captured by me on original hardware.
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