F1 World Grand Prix
Score: 70% ESRB: Unknown Publisher: Sega Developer: Video System Media: GC/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Racing
Graphics & Sound: I'm not impressed. The cars looked great, but everything else sucked. The race track was nice, but the background was just horrible. Even the street signed lacked in detail. I think I'm stretching it a bit to say that the cars had good detail. I think the graphics could have (and should have) been 10 fold better. There were hardly any light reflections or glare to speak of. There were no detailed sections to the cars at all. The race track was nice; it had great detail with rubber burns and all. The environment and backgrounds were extremely lacking in everything. I really cannot think of anything good to say about the graphics.
Gameplay: There are a few racing modes in this game. There is a Single race mode. In Championship mode, you compete in 16 different sequential races. The Time Attack mode is basically a practice mode. Finally, in Match Race mode, two players can race against each other (via horizontal or vertical split screen). Let's see, F1 World Grand Prix, sounds like a Grand Prix game to me. Uh yep, it is. You get in an Indy car and race. The best thing about the game is the customizability. You can very the amount of fuel you carry, the type of tires you use, the angles of the front and rear wings, the gear ratio, the suspension, the brake sensitivity, brake balance, steering, and the transmission type (auto or manual). Other than that, you just race.
Difficulty: You can make the game impossible or you can make it very simple. It all depends on your settings. You can choose a novice or expert skill level; easy, normal, hard, or super hard CPU level; and toggle CPU-assisted acceleration and braking on and off. You can also set the number of laps and the weather type. You can race with the flags, pit, and car damage on or off. All of these options affect the difficulty of the game. I found the gameplay and mechanics to be pretty simple, it's just the realism options that make it difficult. It's not a hard game to play, just a hard game to win (using high difficulty settings).
Game Mechanics: I thought the mechanics were great. The game ran smooth, and I thought it was very responsive. I thought it was very easy to stay on the track and it was surprisingly realistic. I though that it ran a little too slowly; you can drive at 100 MPH and still read (or at least try to) the street signs. You can play one or two players. It also works with the VMU, jump pack, and the racing controller. Although the game ran smooth and the controls were great and the game is full of neat options, the graphics brought it way down.
-Storm, GameVortex Communications AKA Jeremy Kelso
Armada Jeremy McGrath 2000