Deserves more attention than most other well known racing titles
The game shares a lot of things with Evolution GT, from the rock'ish menu music, the rotating logo while the game loads, camera view options, race mode options, number of tracks available, driving physics, etc etc that if I was to skip all of them on this review, this one will probably gonna be composed of just a few sentences.
Like what I already mentioned, the game starts with a menu with a rock'ish soundtrack accompanied by pictures of Ferrari cars on the background. What I found weird however is that they chose to have pictures that doesn't fully occupy the background. Approximately 30% of the background is covered by black borders on the left and right portion of the screen. The menu gives you quite a hefty amount of options to choose from like: Training, Race, Versus (multiplayer), Challenge Cards (more on this one in a bit), Records, and Options.
Training enables you to race for time trial runs so that you'll be able to familiarize yourself with the tracks before you hop into the Championship mode. Speaking of which, the champ mode enables you to race on a total of 8 tracks with varying difficulty levels, and at the same time enabling you to use multiple Ferrari cars. Take note however that the cars that are available here (at least the ones that I was able to unlock) is not your typical Need for Speed luxury types. You'll get the likes of F355, F430, and F360. The game gives you the option to pick a color, car number, and transmission type before the start of each race. That at the same time give you a view of your car sitting on a garage while the camera rotates on it which is a good touch in my opinion.
Once in the race, you'll notice that the cars here handle pretty much like the ones in Evolution GT. The invisible force that keeps your car pointing forward is here as well which makes the experience a very forgiving one. The only difference that I noticed is that the cars here tend to skid a bit more when taking corners. That however still won't cause any problems with the handling of the car and feels a bit more like an additional effect in the game that you couldn't actually feel.
Some of the things that were missing in Evolution GT are available here. Like the rotating map which makes turning a bit easier. The follow cam is also a bit higher, so your car won't look like it's actually in the way of your view. The AI is better as well and they seem to know the best way to cut corners which makes this game a lot more challenging than the other title. There are instances however that you'll see a car zigzagging on the track for no particular reason.
Given the improvements, things like placing the map all the way at the bottom of the touchscreen made it a little bit hard to view. The size of the map is also a bit too small for my taste. Given that there's a lot of unused space on the bottom screen, they could have made the map a little bit bigger. And although a small screen with the top view of your car, along with other cars near you is available. I felt like it was unnecessary and not all that useful.
There's this card trump game that you can also play alone or with a buddy via multiplayer. It's a nice addition and is a good source of additional information for Ferrari cars enthusiasts out there. The cards give out cars specs like: year of release, speed, ccs, engine, bhp, and price. Cars from late 1940's to 2006 can be viewed here. There might be cards featuring newer Ferrari cars in the game but 2006 is the newest card that I have seen, at least with the ones that I unlocked.
The game is quite graphically impressive considering the limitations of the DS. The cars are detailed and doesn't look too boxy. Same can be said with the environment. But since this is a game where races are held inside a track and not outdoors, you'll have the feeling that you're seeing the same things over and over again eventhough you're supposed to be racing on different tracks. There are some good lighting effects where some parts of the track is darker due to trees covering the sun's rays which also has an effect on your car's looks. There are effects here that is not available in Evolution GT like tire smoke and sparks from car collisions. Skid marks are still nowhere to be found though. The cars also feature varying dashboards from analog to digital tachometers which is quite impressive and is often times not available with most (if not every single) other DS racing games.
The sound department is quite good. The engine and screeching sounds from tires is more convincing here than in Evolution GT. The surround effect is also more noticeable. It's quite disappointing however that there are no background music playing while you're on a race and can only be heard on the game's menu.
Controls is pretty basic. We only use buttons here for acceleration, brake, look back, and shift gears (if you prefer to use manual transmission).
It's safe to say that this game is better when compared to Evolution GT. But it still have a couple of things that also needs some fixing to make it an even better game. Add to that the game having Ferrari only branded cars which might be a turn-off for some gamers. That held me from giving it a higher score than a flat 7.
.:My reviews are only as good as everyone else's. Take every single one of them with a grain of salt:.