Short Summary
«©NCSX» Formula One action reaches the capable confines of the PSP with a fast-paced, high whining racing game with bells and whistles. The scenery blows by quickly and in solid motion while the racetracks show the effects of screeching tires and wear. Players may jump into the game quickly by selecting "Quick Grand Prix" mode or engage in a whole season by creating a profile and entering the "World Championship." Compete against world renowned drivers such as the brothers Schumacher, Trulli, Coulthard, Monteiro, Alonso, and many more. For viewers who prefer watching rather than racing, there's a TV Mode Race which shows off screeching races featured on the 18 tracks in the game.

Verbose and Lengthy
The intro to the game starts off with F1 cars blazing on the track as the camera takes in the action from various angels before moving to a wind tunnel simulation and back to the race as drivers wheel in and out of the track.

Start game up and the following appears:
Load Profile
Create Profile
Delete
Play as Guest

Select "Create Profile" to start a racing career. For a quick game, choose "Guest" and the following options pop up:

Quick Grand Prix
Events
World Championship
Multiplayer
TV Mode Race
Profile
Options
- Change Icon > Helmet color change
- Change Flag > Choose from European countries or Japan's flag
- Brake Assist > On/Off
- Change Music > Select one of seven songs as the background tune
- Music Volume > Self explanatory
- Effects Volume > Self explanatory
- Credits > Designers
- Accept > Leave Options

Choose World Championship and 10 team cars are usable with a bit of information. Some examples follow:

Scuderia Ferrari
Chassis: F2004M
Engine: Ferrari 053
Tires: Bridgestone
Debut: Monaco 1950
Driver Titles: 14
Constructor Titles: 14

BMW Williams F1 Team
Chassis: FW27
Engine: BMW P84/5
Tires: Michelin
Debut: Argentina 1978
Driver Titles: 7
Constructor Titles: 9

Jordan Gerand Prix
Chassis: EJ15
Engine: Toyota TJ2005 V10
Tires: Bridgestone
Debut: USA 1991
Driver Titles: 0
Constructor Titles: 0

Red Bull Racing
Chassis: RB1
Engine: Cosworth Racing TJ2005
Tires: Michelin
Debut: Australia 2005
Driver Titles: 0
Constructor Titles: 0

Sauber Petronas
Chassis: C24
Engine: Petronas 05 A
Tires: Michelin
Debut: South Africa 1993
Driver Titles: 0
Constructor Titles: 0

Upon selecting a car, a professional driver may be selected with individual stats scrolling on the bottom of the screen. Drivers include Michael and Ralf Schumacher, Montoya, Coulthard, Trulli, Monteiro, Alonso, and more.

Default Controls
X - Accelerate
SQUARE - Reverse
O - Brake
TRIANGLE - Change perspective [In cockpit, Behind driver's helmet, Overhead view of entire vehicle]
L Trigger - Peep at who's behind

The vehicle may be controlled through the D-pad or the analog thumbpad.

Controls are responsive with slight nudges all that are necessary to take turns or healthier nudges to tackle hairpin turns along with a judicious amount of braking. Over-steering will lead to a spin out since there is no drifting mechanism in the game. Try to over-steer into a turn and more than likely, you'll end up headed the wrong way.

There is no option to map the controls to different buttons which is a slight annoyance. The default button scheme is uncomfortable since the thumb basically has to control both acceleration and braking by tapping between the X and CIRCLE buttons.

The TV Mode Race option depicts a screeching race on any one of the 18 tracks featured in the game where drivers are shown from various camera angles while the shrill drone of Formula engines fill the air. If you have a lot of time to kill, sit down and watch all of the races from start to finish and perhaps check how AI controlled racers handle some of the curves on the tracks. Each race apparently lasts for more than 5 minutes since that's how long we were able to stomach before exiting. Lens flare effects, blue skies, and other effects are shown when the camera pans horizontal to take in a long view of cars trucking down the track. The views may be changed from the default overhead view to in-cockpit or behind-driver. To exit out of a viewing, press the Start button to dump back to the main menu.

The Events game mode is an interesting one where one may choose to play Time Attack or Scenario Mode. In Time Attack, one chooses a car, a driver, a track and then attacks that track (with a rolling start) against a shadow racer in a battle for the top time. In Scenario Mode, there are 10 racing situations with names such as Perfect Pit-in, Emergency Stop, Gearbox Trouble, Speed Test, Heavy Rain, and Try Hard. Only the first scenario, Good Start, is available at the outset of the game but successful completion will unlock the next scenario and so on and so forth.

MUSIC
The default music track in the game is called TRUTH, which is a monotonous snare drum sound effect that bleats over and over again in the background. Change it quickly to any one of the other six songs that are available. The seven songs are as follows:

T-Square - TRUTH
Queens of the Stone Age - Better Living Through Chemistry
QuickSpace - You used my death as a pretext to go running
Secret Machines - Nowhere Again
Stereophonics - Doorman
The Suffrajets - Sold
Andy Gray - Funk-Er

The good news is that gamers may load up their music into a Duo memory card and replace the in-game selection with something more copacetic. The default volume of the sound effects is set fairly high which results in a grating engine sound drowning out any gracious melodies. Thankfully, there is an option is to lower the high whine sound effects so that the music can blare through clearly.

Tracks in the game include
Albert Park, Australia
Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia
Shanghai International Circuit, China
Suzuka International Racing Circuit, Japan
Autodromo Carlos Pace, Brazil
Circuit of Spa Francorchamps, Belgium
Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Italy
Instanbul Otodrom, Turkey
Hungaroring, Hungary
Hockenheimring, Germany
Silverstone Circuit, Britain
Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, France
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, United States
Giles Villeneuve Circuit, Canada
Nurburgring, Europe
Circuit de Monaco, Monaco
Circuit de Catalunya, Spain
Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, San Marino
Bahrain International Circuit, Bahrain

NCS Game Notes
* All of the menus and the names of the cars, tracks, and racers are in English for an import friendly experience.

* Sponsors and attendant logos listed along the tracks include Orange, Petronas, Fuji TV, Olympus, Bridgestone, Qantas, Mobil, Allianz, Vodafone, and more.

* To earn a "Great Start" ranking at the beginning of every race, watch the five red lights count down at the top of the screen. After the fifth pair of reds light up, count exactly 2 seconds in your head before hitting the accelerator. You'll shoot out of the gate with squealing tires and kudos from the game. Don't wait for the green to appear, just count two seconds since that is the amount of time that it takes. Vrooming just as the green appears will occasionally cause the car to stall.

View the back cover and screenshots.

This document is ©NCSX 2005. All rights reserved. No reproduction in whole or in part of this document may be made without express written consent of National Console Support, Inc.