It may be unadventurous and rocky in its foundation, but an excellent handling model gives it wheels.
The premise is simple enough, you get a one Ferrari to start with and you progress through a total of 21 racing weekends to earn more courses, credits and of course Ferraris. You also have Time Trials, Arcade, Trophy events (each consisting of 3 lengthy races in a set Ferrari) and well, to be honest, not a whole lot else.
There is an online component too but I shall not touch upon this as I have not tested it, I have heard it's a glitch infused mess though. Unfortunately there is no local split screen multiplayer so it's really a solo ride then.
Thankfully the single player content is great, if flawed, the handling model quickly establishes itself as superb and completely different across each and every Ferrari, which sounds great, but there's only 22 different vehicles to collect, which you will earn long before completion of each event or your Platinum trophy should you choose to go for it. The racing line however is all over the place, I often find it tells you to brake too early before tight corners and sometimes tells you to brake on a gentle corner, where there is no use in the brakes.
The AI also is problematic, generally it responds well, rivals will try to overtake without collision, block your attempts to overtake and rarely veer of course. That said the AI often rams into you on tight corners and when you do overtake, tries to push you back of course no matter how costly it is for them as well.
Of course great handling can't be the sole reason to class this game as "good" the course selection is generally fantastic, particularly the Italian courses and the two available DLC courses, if you are willing to fork out £5 per course... half the cost of the game new on Amazon at current, almost double used.
Also to the games credit is some pretty graphics, for 2008, the vehicles look stunning, especially in 1080p HD although the look a bit plastic even in a gloss paint. The roads and weather effects are also good, the of course detail however ranges from okay to hideous, with some Nintendo 64 - like models of trucks and tents placed on each and every track, trees also appear near jet black in comparison to the grass and tarmac, which is a little dated to say the least.
Other strengths include a solid livery system, its damn complicated however, and collectables in the form of in-game top trump cards, well a rip-off of top trumps, there not official. Of course you can use these cards to play the card game.
Unfortunately this game is plagued by numerous niggles, excessive loading screens, a few iffy physics and some awful balancing. It's also worth noting each race is roughly 17 minutes long unless you tweak the options to get it down to 7. Trophy events are always around 12 a piece.
Ferrari Challenge also come with a nice shiny Platinum trophy, the list is easy, lengthy (about 20-30 hours) and fairly well balance, it's a Platinum that any racing fan could earn however the odd trophy event can be frustrating and Arcade on Legend is the easiest, the AI is still pretty weak but starting in 16th each race adds its own problems. You will be expected to complete everything available to you with you needing to handle each car well, easier said than done with some of the older vehicles.
It is worth noting that Ferrari the Race Experience is essentially the same game as this, with an easier trophy set, the DLC added, more cars and at a £12 price tag on PSN, unless you despise 3 gig downloads or find Ferrari Challenge for considerably less I would recommend the Experience instead. However there is good news in that Ferrari Challenge only asks for 50MB of your hard drive for a few patches.
You can also play custom soundtracks over this game, which is a rare feature. The menu music is pretty funky however. Engines sound good but lack that "oomph" and you get the odd crowd cheer, also the collision sound effect is very unconvincing, sounds like tin foil, but really the audio is somewhat basic at best.
Ferrari Challenge is without doubt a fantastic racer marred by numerous showings of a lacking budget and little content, numerous better racers now exist on PS3 but Ferrari Challenge is perhaps the cheapest option and a damn fine game in a sometimes rocky genre, it may frustrate, it will surprise and it will certainly be an addictive but slow paced affair.
Presentation - 6.0
Graphics - 6.5
Gameplay - 8.0
Audio - 5.0
Value - 8.5
Overall - 7.7 - Good
Trophy - 4.0 - Easy but repetitious, about 25 hours or so long