Following Sega's announcement last year that it was to become a multi-platform publisher, F355 Challenge was just one of a slew of great Dreamcast games to be slated for PS2 release. Now it's arrived and it's pretty impressive, but have Sega managed to improve on the formula, or is this just an opportunity to make easy money from a quick port of a game that never really grabbed the public in either arcade or Dreamcast guise?

This game may be from Yu Suzuki, the man who gave the arcade possibly it's best racer ever in the form of Daytona USA, but F355 Challenge is a different beast all together. Debuting in arcade form, F355 Challenge was exactly that, a real challenge. Forget Daytona-style arcade thrills as you hang the back end of your car out round hairpin corners with relative ease. Try that sort of driving in F355 and you'll end up facing the wrong way in the gravel trap with the opposition disappearing into the distance so quickly that you probably won't see them again for the rest of the race.

This is because Yu Suzuki set out to make F355 Challenge as painfully realistic as possible. The top-of-the-range arcade cabinets came with 3 screens, a six speed manual gearbox with clutch and even a performance data print-out if you fancied forking out some extra cash at the end of your race. It wasn't an arcade machine so much as a Ferrari simulator. Sega even used the services of official Ferrari test drivers during the development of the game. You had to put in some serious time, and a serious amount of cash, before beginning to get to grips with F355 Challenge. Braking points had to be learnt, as did the best racing line around each of the original 6 tracks in order to put in anything even approaching a decent lap. In honesty, it was anathema to the whole arcade ethos: you really couldn't just pick up and play.

Thankfully help is on hand for the novice driver. Driver aids such as traction and stability control, ABS and automatic braking are available to help you along while you learn your way around, as well as a tutorial mode for each circuit highlighting breaking points and showing the best racing line. But the real fun and satisfaction starts when you turn the aids off. Brake too hard and you'll lock your wheels and slide straight off the circuit, put the power on too heavily when exiting a corner and you'll be fighting to keep your car going straight. It takes real skill and a lot of patience to get it right, but it's worth it.

At the end of the day, though, F355 Challenge paid the price for it's complexity and was never a great arcade success. However, that doesn't mean it isn't a good game - far from it. I might as well come clean on my feelings about this game - I love it. In fact I bought a Dreamcast just to play F355 Challenge. It may only have one car (you guessed it, the Ferrari 355), it may only have 11 tracks and it may be extremely frustrating at times, but when you get it right (and if you persevere eventually you will) it's the most exciting and rewarding racer out there. There's nothing else that gives the same sense of satisfaction as when you brake better than a rival deep into a corner, catch the apex perfectly and feed the power in using all the kerb as you take off down the straight. It really does make you feel like Michael Schumacher.

So how does the PS2 version measure up to the arcade original, and top-notch Dreamcast conversion? On first inspection everything looks present and correct. The graphics are excellent, with high levels of detail on both the cars and tracks and everything moves quickly and smoothly, particularly in 60hz mode. However I couldn't help thinking at times that the Dreamcast version had a slightly sharper look than PS2.

The sound also has been replicated pretty much exactly from the Dreamcast iteration, but this, unfortunately, is not a good thing. The music in F355 Challenge was, and remains, awful. The soundtrack consists of a collection of cheesy Eighties power rock tunes, heavy on guitar riffs and low on subtlety. Do yourself a favour and turn the in-game music off and just sit back and listen to the rather lovely sound of your Ferrari's V8. Because the engine sounds are pretty good and do a much better job of conveying the true sound of a high-performance engine than most racing games manage.

Opposition driver AI is still impressive and remains faithful to previous versions. You really do get the impression that the other cars are racing each other and there is certainly less of an 'on-rails' feel to the opposition's behaviour than GT3 for example. Opponents make driving errors and are always ready and waiting to pounce on yours when you make them. In terms of making you feel like you are actually taking part in a race, F355 Challenge is streets ahead of the competition. The fact that all competitors have the same car means that you cannot rely on greater power or better handling to win races. You actually have to drive with more skill than the opposition to win.

There are also a few additions exclusive to the PS2 version. For starters, all 11 tracks (including classics like Monza, Suzuka, Laguna Seca and even Ferrari's own test track at Fiorano) are available to be raced from the start, whereas the Dreamcast version required 6 of them to be unlocked by winning races. There is also a photo and video gallery where your driving skills are rewarded with some Ferrari-related media to drool over. More substantial in terms of gameplay is the Great Driver Challenge. This mode is a kind of mini-Project Gotham Racing where points are awarded for displays of impressive driving (overtaking, slipstreaming and power sliding) and lost for so-called 'ungentlemanly' conduct (hitting other cars, leaving the track, etc). It's a nice addition and does add to the game, but it doesn't really drastically improve the experience. After all, the game doesn't exactly let you get away with sloppy driving in the other modes! Other additions include full race replays, which were never previously available, plus the ability to view your car from a chase cam view during races in addition to the in-car only view of the arcade and Dreamcast versions. All welcome additions, but none really enhancing the gameplay significantly.

So it looks and sounds pretty much the same with a few extra bells and whistles on, but how does it play? Well to be honest, the overall experience is familiar, but somehow a little bit disappointing. The feel of the car remains faithful to both previous versions and the difficulty level is as challenging as ever, but something doesn't feel quite right: the controls. The difference is that the Dreamcast pad was perfectly designed for this sort of game. The twin triggers and analogue stick were ideal for driving games, particularly one requiring such subtlety of control. On PS2, accelerating and braking are taken care of by buttons rather than the analogue controls and it just doesn't feel right. I don't care if Sony says the buttons on a PS2 joypad are sensitive to 200-odd different levels of pressure. When it comes to setting your revs on the startline and attempting to pull away swiftly without getting bogged down in wheelspin, the PS2 controller just can't handle the subtle control required. With the Dreamcast version the accelerator and brake could be progressively applied while with the PS2 you tend to be either be hard on the brake or accelerator, or not at all. While this was never an issue with games like GT3, it makes a world of difference to F355 Challenge.

Don't get me wrong, the game remains fun and is probably the best out-and-out racer available on PS2, but it's a shame that it isn't quite as good as it could have been. I just can't see why Sega couldn't have assigned the right analogue stick for accelerating and braking duties (like Moto GP on Xbox). It would have helped no end and made the game far more playable, particularly once you dispense with the driver aids. Still, F355 Challenge remains a solid effort and is well worth a place in the gaming collection of any PS2 owner who is prepared to put in the time and effort required to get the most out of the game. Some will be put off by the steep learning curve and lack of immediate gratification, but those with the patience required will find F355 Challenge a tough, but rewarding experience. After all, it's the nearest most of us will ever get to driving a Ferrari for real, short of a Lottery win.

Reviewed by AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).