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Almost two decades have passed since 1997, the year when Jacques Villeneuve managed to win the championship that had always eluded his unforgettable father Gilles, also having the satisfaction of making a certain Michael Schumacher look like a fool in the decisive race at Jerez de la Frontera. Both Formula 1 and the video game industry have made gigantic strides forward in the last two decades, yet it is worth taking a step back in time and focusing on a product that, despite selling a good number of copies, would have deserved, for its quality, even greater fortune.
F-1 World Grand Prix is without a doubt the best Formula 1 title for Nintendo 64 and one of the best driving games for the same console: it cannot and does not want to compete in realism with the legendary Grand Prix 2, which is closer in time, but with its immediacy, it is able to offer hours of fun even today. Upon first start-up, the typical game modes of the genre are immediately presented: single race weekend, championship, and time attack. Reaching the driver selection, there's a small isolated flaw: all the teams and stars of the '97 season are licensed, with the exception, however, of Jacques Villeneuve himself, renamed Driver Williams: a special editor still allows you to modify the name at will and indeed the developers took the opportunity to hide some cute extra content. Try, for instance, replacing 'Williams' with 'Vacation'. A moment before hitting the track, a fairly rich menu of options is presented to modify the setup of the car, from the amount of fuel to the steering angle, and the incidence of the wings. At the beginning of each session, a bird's-eye camera takes a quick lap around the circuit, highlighting the excellent work done on the technical front by Video System: the quality of the textures, polygonal models, and weather effects is truly exceptional for the time, undoubtedly outperforming similar titles released in the same period on PSOne. The reproduction of the cars is equally faithful, although such advanced graphics made the developers resort to some compromises, in order to avoid pushing the console beyond its limits: during race weekends, all cars, except your teammate's car, will have a simplified livery and a rougher-looking helmet compared to the standard; furthermore, the driver's hands in the interior view and the mechanics during pit stops are simple 2-D sprites. These are minor sins, however, which do not spoil a truly good overall picture. The sound sampling is also convincing, especially at high speeds: being picky, the engine's roar, whichever car is chosen, is unique, but on the other hand, separate recordings for each vehicle would have created major problems due to the cartridge's limited capacity. Anyway, the strong point of F-1 World Grand Prix lies in the driving model, extremely sensitive to the movements of the analog stick: the learning curve is not very gentle, and indeed novices might have some difficulties inserting the car into corners but, once learned how to dose the stick's movements, you will have the impression of having perfect control over the car. After getting familiar with the controls, the arcade nature of the title becomes clear: the more savvy players will manage, with a lot of practice, to perform spectacular drifts with piles of rubber left on the asphalt, or to dare entries into corners that in reality would equal attempted suicide. The lucky owners of a steering wheel compatible with the Nintendo console will be able to enjoy even sharper accelerations and turns than those obtainable with the gamepad: after all, as already mentioned, F-1 World Grand Prix is not and does not want to be realistic. In every race, fun is guaranteed by the excellent artificial intelligence of the opponents who, especially when setting the Champion difficulty level, will give you a run for your money and will not hesitate to bump you to defend their position, supported in this by a fairly lenient collision system, which will, however, pose some headaches for the more reckless. The cherry on top of an already great cake is the scenario mode. F-1 World Grand Prix, although covering the '97 season, was released in September of the following year: an unfortunate choice, but also in this case, the team had the merit of exploiting a potential disadvantage to its advantage: the player indeed has the opportunity to relive situations that actually happened in the previous year. For instance, you will be asked, in the shoes of reigning champion Damon Hill, to hold on and try to win the Hungarian Grand Prix with the gearbox stuck in third gear or (and it was inevitable) to defend yourself at Jerez, as Schumacher, from a charging Villeneuve with fresher tires. A mode that will undoubtedly please enthusiasts and those who love to rewrite, even if just virtually, history.
Summing it up, F-1 World Grand Prix, with its excellent graphics and healthy immediacy, is a title recommended for retrogaming enthusiasts and in general for those who want to trigger a nostalgia attack by evoking lost childhood with those cartridges.
Note: in 1999, F-1 World Grand Prix II was released, also for Nintendo 64, which turns out to be a simple re-edition based on the 1998 championship: except for the scenario mode, appropriately updated with events from the new season, the other aspects (graphics, game modes, driving model) have remained almost unchanged. Therefore, every consideration made in the previous lines about the predecessor also applies to the sequel.
F-1 World Grand Prix is without a doubt the best Formula 1 title for Nintendo 64 and one of the best driving games for the same console: it cannot and does not want to compete in realism with the legendary Grand Prix 2, which is closer in time, but with its immediacy, it is able to offer hours of fun even today. Upon first start-up, the typical game modes of the genre are immediately presented: single race weekend, championship, and time attack. Reaching the driver selection, there's a small isolated flaw: all the teams and stars of the '97 season are licensed, with the exception, however, of Jacques Villeneuve himself, renamed Driver Williams: a special editor still allows you to modify the name at will and indeed the developers took the opportunity to hide some cute extra content. Try, for instance, replacing 'Williams' with 'Vacation'. A moment before hitting the track, a fairly rich menu of options is presented to modify the setup of the car, from the amount of fuel to the steering angle, and the incidence of the wings. At the beginning of each session, a bird's-eye camera takes a quick lap around the circuit, highlighting the excellent work done on the technical front by Video System: the quality of the textures, polygonal models, and weather effects is truly exceptional for the time, undoubtedly outperforming similar titles released in the same period on PSOne. The reproduction of the cars is equally faithful, although such advanced graphics made the developers resort to some compromises, in order to avoid pushing the console beyond its limits: during race weekends, all cars, except your teammate's car, will have a simplified livery and a rougher-looking helmet compared to the standard; furthermore, the driver's hands in the interior view and the mechanics during pit stops are simple 2-D sprites. These are minor sins, however, which do not spoil a truly good overall picture. The sound sampling is also convincing, especially at high speeds: being picky, the engine's roar, whichever car is chosen, is unique, but on the other hand, separate recordings for each vehicle would have created major problems due to the cartridge's limited capacity. Anyway, the strong point of F-1 World Grand Prix lies in the driving model, extremely sensitive to the movements of the analog stick: the learning curve is not very gentle, and indeed novices might have some difficulties inserting the car into corners but, once learned how to dose the stick's movements, you will have the impression of having perfect control over the car. After getting familiar with the controls, the arcade nature of the title becomes clear: the more savvy players will manage, with a lot of practice, to perform spectacular drifts with piles of rubber left on the asphalt, or to dare entries into corners that in reality would equal attempted suicide. The lucky owners of a steering wheel compatible with the Nintendo console will be able to enjoy even sharper accelerations and turns than those obtainable with the gamepad: after all, as already mentioned, F-1 World Grand Prix is not and does not want to be realistic. In every race, fun is guaranteed by the excellent artificial intelligence of the opponents who, especially when setting the Champion difficulty level, will give you a run for your money and will not hesitate to bump you to defend their position, supported in this by a fairly lenient collision system, which will, however, pose some headaches for the more reckless. The cherry on top of an already great cake is the scenario mode. F-1 World Grand Prix, although covering the '97 season, was released in September of the following year: an unfortunate choice, but also in this case, the team had the merit of exploiting a potential disadvantage to its advantage: the player indeed has the opportunity to relive situations that actually happened in the previous year. For instance, you will be asked, in the shoes of reigning champion Damon Hill, to hold on and try to win the Hungarian Grand Prix with the gearbox stuck in third gear or (and it was inevitable) to defend yourself at Jerez, as Schumacher, from a charging Villeneuve with fresher tires. A mode that will undoubtedly please enthusiasts and those who love to rewrite, even if just virtually, history.
Summing it up, F-1 World Grand Prix, with its excellent graphics and healthy immediacy, is a title recommended for retrogaming enthusiasts and in general for those who want to trigger a nostalgia attack by evoking lost childhood with those cartridges.
Note: in 1999, F-1 World Grand Prix II was released, also for Nintendo 64, which turns out to be a simple re-edition based on the 1998 championship: except for the scenario mode, appropriately updated with events from the new season, the other aspects (graphics, game modes, driving model) have remained almost unchanged. Therefore, every consideration made in the previous lines about the predecessor also applies to the sequel.
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