Not unleashed, but challenged

Review

Played on: PlayStation
Released: 1997

Commonly mistaken for Electronic Arts' 2000 release, the Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed, Porsche Challenge is an in-house Sony developed racer for the first PlayStation. Developed by their Team Soho studio in the UK, it released in 1997 and featured the newly released Porsche Boxster car.

My first experience with this title was on a Prince's Trust, charity, demo disc. Released early the same year as the actual game. I recall the demo being a bit difficult, but the visuals left a solid experience. I also remember the drivers throwing insults at each other while racing!

A couple of years back I picked up a Japanese copy, which has lovely artwork for the cover, and decided to give it a proper playthrough. It's one of those titles I missed but has stuck in the back of my head. Despite the large amount of racers available on the PS1, Porsche Challenge sets itself a little higher on the quality bar but has since been forgotten.

Let's jump into a brand new Porsche Boxster and hit the gas!

On paper, having one single car model to choose from doesn't exactly sound like the smartest move, even back in the 90s when racers had few cars and racetracks. However, to compensate it allows you to chose from six drivers, each with their own speciality: like braking, acceleration, speed. etc. As thus, each car sort of has it's own handling.

There are three distinct race types, representing difficulty. "Normal" has you racing 3 laps on the smallest racetrack layout at a location. "Long" will change the layout by closing off the shorter route, forcing the longer layout on each location.

The last option is "Interactive", the most unique one. It changes between the shorter and longer routes during a single race, while you're driving. It will keep the player alert as you'll need to swerve in to a shortcut if you see it opening just as you pass. A neat feature for lap variety!

Handling is arcade styled for sure, but not as twitchy as you'd expect from an old arcade racer. There's some weight to the Boxster and it doesn't catch air easily, shifting it's weight nicely when you take corners. While it's hardly a sim racer, there's a slight nod towards something, at least partially, realistic.

As with most racers of the arcade era there's a heavy catch-up A.I. Meaning no matter how well you race, your main rival opponent will be hanging on your rear bumper throughout the race. On higher difficulties the checkpoint timers become brutal too, leaving almost zero room for crashing or slowing down.

Neatly, there's a splitscreen mode to compete or humiliate your friends in. In addition, there's test drive and time trail modes too.

Visually, it's a sharp looking racer for the system, residing in the second wave of racers on the PS1, utilising the hardware more cleverly than the launch line-up. Think Rage Racer, Destruction Derby 2 and Colin McRae, but prior to the Gran Turismo era; no shiny surfaces here! Textures are quite detailed with a fair bit of variety on the four locations. My main grief is the ugly draw distance, it's very intrusive and highly noticeable.

Although extremely limited by one car model available, adding a few classic Porsche's in addition wouldn't have gone amiss, it at leasty represents the 1996 Boxster with solid detail. I appreciate that each driver inside the car is animated, actually turning their steering wheel and waving their hands.

Environments, four in total with Stuttgart, Japan, USA and Alpine, have a pleasant, pastel colouring. They sport quite a bit of scenery variety and detail with gas stations, moving trams and a harbour as backdrops to name some. There's environmental sounds like a church tower on the Alpine racetrack and police sirens on the US racetrack too, the latter made me think I'd be followed by the cops!

While the four racetrack environments offered is sparse, the variety between each location is well done with distinct colour schemes and scenery styles for each one. The changing racetrack layout in short, long and interactive mode makes it at least feel like each environment has two or three racetracks, even though there's strictly only one.

Camera angles are a bit strange, there's a distinctly low field of view, leaning towards giving you dizziness at times. The bumper cam is a bit too low, while the outside camera angels seem to be pointing too much towards the ground for my taste, limiting the view ahead. The actual visual feedback and speed are solid for an old racer  and I preferred the outside camera located the furthest away to get an overview of racers driving next to me.

Music balances between groovy and odd, with a distinct 70's cop show vibe, strangely enough. The banter between drivers before and during the race is amusing and adds some personality to the game world. Bumping into competitors will have them shouting stuff at each other!

Porsche Challenge lands in the sweet spot of 1997, where the first wave of PS1 launch titles were done and the second wave of titles, built on hardware experience, took shape. It resides in the upper half of racers on the system with solid production quality and visuals.

While it's prior to the massive changes Gran Turismo brought to the table, rendering the low number of racetracks and cars on offer in older racers obsolete, it's nevertheless a unique throwback to how even arcade racers had licensed cars and spoke about be realistic, even though they weren't.

Forgotten in time and mistaken for being Need for Speed Unleashed, which is perhaps a more definitive Porsche experience, it's worth checking out for a few hours of arcade fun. The interactive mode races being the most memorable, as well as a solid handling model and the driver banter is entertaining. Visually it resides somewhere near Rage Racer from the same year, although it doesn't reach Namco's arcade king in terms of lifespan and variation, even though both only have four racetracks!