awoolcott's Full Review: Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli : Playstation 3 f...
As a rule of thumb, racing games revolving around a specific brand or vehicle can be safely avoided; usually they're inexpensive to attract frugal gamers, but carry poor gameplay and/or gimped feature sets. This is what makes Ferrari Challenge so confounding; it's built around the Ferrari brand, and is developed by Eutechnyx, a company behind many of these low-budget titles...yet this is actually a high-quality PlayStation 3 racing game. Why? Because unlike the cash-ins like Ford Mustang Racing, Alfa Romeo Racing, and other games of this ilk, Ferrari Challenge feels like it was crafted with legitimate care and love. Treat it as a tour through Ferrari's history, and you'll find yourself amazed at how the cars have evolved. Treat it as a racing game, and be amazed at the mostly excellent control and smooth balance between hardcore driving simulation and laid-back arcade handling. Either way, Ferrari Challenge is a surprisingly great racer that has dozens of hours worth of content, even if it's done in an unusual manner. This is why stereotypes exist – because sometimes a game breaks the mold set for it.
It's very easy to consider Ferrari Challenge to be an interactive tour of the brand. The car selection is not massive, with roughly twenty vehicles – some of which are different versions of the same model – but the cars included are some of the most famous – be it the 355, 575, F40, the new FXX, or the ancient 250 Testarossa. Sadly, no Enzo Ferrari, though it's been made available as Downloadable Content...in Europe. The “core” vehicle is the F430, the only one available when you start a new game. To unlock more cars, one must tackle the titular Ferrari Challenge, a world-spanning tour against other F430 drivers. The Ferrari Challenge is the so-called “career” mode, as the goal is to tackle all three regional events (Italy, North America, Europe) to unlock cars and tracks for other use. Like the real Ferrari Challenge, each event features a day of qualifying, and two races. It's nothing fancy, but quite enjoyable due to the excellent handling of the F430 itself. It's obvious that as the central car to the game, Eutechnyx really put effort into making the car hum. As mentioned, you can unlock new cars and courses in this mode, though you do have to purchase the cars with winnings.
When cars are unlocked and purchased, they can be used in the Trophy game-type. Trophy events consist of three races that can be tackled in succession or saved between courses. Like the Ferrari Challenge, the field is full of the same car you're driving, making it a battle of your skills. Winning each Trophy unlocks another car for purchase, and if you haven't yet unlocked a track in the F430 Challenge, it will become available here if that track was raced during the series. Completing all twenty-one Trophy events takes forever, which is how somehow a game based around one car manufacturer can have so much meat. There's also a quick and dirty arcade mode where you must tackle four events without quitting, a time trial with scores specific to a car, and Online racing through PlayStation Network. Alas, due to the relative obscurity of the game coupled with poor sales, the community is approximately zero. For people into PSN Trophies, the included set isn't overly difficult, just time-consuming, and since there's no multiplayer Trophies, you can safely ignore the community of zero.
Ferrari Challenge gets props for actually including race tracks that we rarely see in racing games (at least the US audience). Due to the heavily European influences, especially Italy, they make up the bulk of courses. A few will be familiar; Mugello, Monza, Silverstone, and Infineon for instance. Yet there's quite a few courses that usually we don't see; Paul Ricard in France, Misano in San Marino, Virgina Raceway, Spa, and Redwood Park, better known as Gilles Villeneuve up in Canada. At least we don't have to race Donington or Suzuka for the billionth time. The course selection is memorable, mostly for the technical aspects; almost all of them can be considered extremely challenging in one fashion or another, be it the awkward turns of Silverstone, the tricky corners of Ricard, the bumpy roads of Virgina, and the sheer endurance of Spa. It's quite astonishing how they picked courses that all feel so different from the others, it really makes the game, making up for the duller courses, specifically the road course versions of Homestead and California Speedway.
It's billed as something of a driving simulation, but Ferrari Challenge does at times straddle the line. There's no parts upgrading or anything, but one can adjust various aspects of each vehicle if you're so inclined. Cars can take damage during races, but it's purely cosmetic and doesn't affect performance. Taking corners isn't as easy as hitting the e-brake and getting sideways, but you can coast through some corners with proper braking techniques and the right vehicle. The game is effectively an accessible racing sim; enough accuracy for gearheads to enjoy fiddling with setups, but not so complex that it runs off the people who usually stick to Need for Speed or Burnout. Each car handles quite differently; beasts like the FXX and 333 take corners smoothly and feel like they're on rails once you master them, but older vehicles like the F250/F250 Testarossa require delicate maneuvering through turns, making them frustrating to use. It doesn't help that they're so very slow compared to the newer Ferrari models. The whole thing gets even crazier if it rains; when the track is wet handling becomes even more perilous. The game does include a very detailed tutorial – two laps at Ferrari's test course Fiorano – which can give you tips on cornering, braking, and how to properly come out of turns. It's not necessary, but it does teach.
Surprisingly, Ferrari Challenge is just that – pretty challenging. The default AI choice is “dynamic” which adjusts itself based on your demonstrated skills, keeping things tough at all times. The driver intelligence is a weird combination of defensive driving and kamikaze idiocy, making it difficult to get through the field if you start at the back of the pack (as you always do in the first race of a Trophy event, and in every Arcade race). On one hand, rival drivers actually defend their positions; they get in your way, move around to stay out of your draft, and don't completely slow down to take corners like some games do. On the other hand, they can be quite annoying; it's great they defend their position, but oftentimes they seem more interested in taking themselves out of the race by allowing you to slam into them. Usually, racers will defend their spot until they know they cannot keep it; the rivals here will block you to the point of complete annoyance. Almost every race I lost was lost because of wasting time trying to pass the guy who ultimately finished 10th, while the first place driver gets that open air to blow everyone away. In short, Ferrari Challenge's AI is so smart, it's stupid.
Though much of the attention was put on the PS3 version, Ferrari Challenge was also released on PlayStation 2 and Wii. This is probably why the game doesn't quite reach its visual potential. The cars look great, detailed to be as accurate as possible. It's a shame that the courses you race on are mostly lifeless. They look good, yeah, but everything is static; no moving environments feels like you're racing inside a painting. At least the frame rate remains very smooth and the sense of speed is really good, which is really all one can ask for in a racing game. The huge patch released for the game last year included custom soundtracks...and wow, you're really going to need them. Since many races go for a while, you'll get really tired of hearing the same five songs over and over. Seriously, the soundtrack isn't bad but just so thin on content; it's like a PS1 game soundtrack. So yeah, get a custom playlist ready before tackling the F430 Challenge. To counter that, there's some good sound effects, whether it's the humming of engines or sounds of cars skidding around curves. If you're into that.
Final Thought
Ferrari Challenge is a surprisingly deep yet accessible racing simulation that actually goes against the usual grain of single-brand games. If you have a complete dislike of Ferrari, I can see the game not being very interesting, but everyone else can find a really good game under the hood, even with its issues. With Gran Turismo 5 maybe coming at the end of this year, but more likely next year, this might be a good alternative, especially since it's pretty cheap to purchase. In reality though, the game that should be on the radar is the follow-up, Supercar Challenge, due this summer in Europe. Without PS2 and Wii to hold it back in the visual department, the game promises to build upon what's been established here, and move away from just being about Ferrari. With any luck, we'll get a US release – picking up this solid sleeper would be a good way to start that process.
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