The Silverspoon Reviews is a new concept of reviewing by our long time member Silverspoon. How did an old classic stand the test of time and how would you review it by today’s standards? The first review in the series is the best selling PS1 game of all time Gran Turismo!

Game info:

Gran Turismo – PS1
Publisher: Sony CEA
Developer: Polyphony
Genre: Racing

Original review – PSM (July 1998)
Graphics – 5 out of 5 stars
Sound – 4 out of 5 stars
Control – 5 out of 5 stars
Innovation – 5 out of 5 stars
Presentation – 5 out of 5 stars

PSM Final Score – 5 out of 5 stars “Gran Turismo is simply the greatest racing game ever”

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The Silverspoon review (August 2010) Playing time – approx. 40 mins
Graphics – 3 out of 5 stars
Sound – 3 out of 5 stars
Control – 4 out of 5 stars
Innovation – 5 out of 5 stars
Presentation – 4 out of 5 stars

Silverspoon Final Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Collectors Appeal - With almost 11 million copies sold, it is the most common PS1 game, making it worth around $5 today. The replay value is worth every penny. There is one known variant that has the help line text on the disc in black instead of blue, and it is known for being extremely hard to come by.

Graphics - For its time, the graphics were amazing. Even today I’m impressed by the detail given to the cars and tracks in Gran Turismo. Based on today’s racing titles, there wouldn’t be anyone drooling over this games graphics now.

Sound - All of the background music is still very enjoyable. There are many tracks that play randomly while racing, but the best is the menu music for each auto dealer. Each is unique, but I have always been a fan of the Honda/Acura music. As far as sound effects, each car sounds about the same. To test this again, I did Time Trials with 3 distinct sounding cars. I used a ‘97 Supra, a ‘98 Impreza, and a ‘95 Corvette (all years are an estimate.) Three cars that have a distinct exhaust tone in real life that I could call out if I was blind. From stock exhaust systems, up through each racing exhaust option available, each car sounded identical. For me personally, this was the biggest disappointment while going back to play again.

Control - The control is stellar. Even by today’s standards. The realistic features play a large part in the control of the cars. In simulation mode, you have to deal with real-life characteristics such as wheel hop, over steer, and under steer. Although there is no damage to vehicles other than tire wear in endurance races, the realism makes the control, and the racing very enjoyable.

Innovation - Lets face it, without this game, there wouldn’t be racing games like the other GT titles, as well as Forza and Need 4 Speed Shift. Games like Rush, Cruisin’ USA, and older Need 4 Speed titles made me sick with their phony street racing, huge crashes, and turbo and nitro options to blow down the straightaway at warp speed. This title is what the real car fans waited a long long time for, and because of its amazing realism, its still fun to play today.

Presentation - The menus are set up a little strange, but are still pretty easy to navigate. Having Arcade mode, and Simulation mode on the same disc, made it easy to switch between the two, instead of having to swap discs. After building up a ton of hype in the months before its release, the game definitely didn’t disappoint. It went on to be PS1’s top selling title, and put the racing simulator genre on the map for good.

Summary - This title was important to me from its release date, because where I’m from, your car, and the car scene was everything up until about two years ago. This game, to this day, is unbelievably difficult due to the realism, which in the end is still its best feature. Luckily I still have a save file from the 90’s, where I have over 2 billion credits, and a ton of cars, so I didn’t have to start from scratch. It is incredibly deep for its time featuring 187 cars, 11 tracks, and 17 different championship races. I would estimate, in order to 100% complete this game, counting loading times, it would probably take over 3 days to complete all of arcade mode, and all of the races simulation mode offers if played non-stop.