this game is everything gran turismo 1 is, and a hundred times more. thought 200 cars in the first game was impressive? this one has 600. on ps1. 9 tracks in the first game, not counting reverse layouts? this one has 27. the menus? absolute pinnacle of graphic design. the music? in the menus you get absolutely top tier jazz fusion, and in the races you get some banging 90s alternative, including stone temple pilots, garbage, and soul coughing. what are the races themselves like? well, the ai isnt great, that's a given with any gt game, but the handling is superb. this game is the blueprint that every simcade game should model itself after. just driving the car is so much fun that you completely forget how mid the ai is, youre just going around seeing what kind of lap time you can hit in each of your cars. and the events, hoo boy, there's almost too much variety here. oval tracks, high speed street circuits, purpose built race tracks including the first real track in the franchise, laguna seca, and dirt tracks are the stage on which you'll drive muscle cars, 80s japanese sports cars, exotics, hard tuned imports, race cars, and more. the lone gripe i have with this game is the manufacturer special events, the cost/reward ratio is insulting and you spend half your time in the menus buying and tuning cars for those events. but, that's the only complaint i could conjure up in my 30something days i spent playing through this again. this is without a doubt the best racing game on ps1, it's my favorite racing game of all time, and maybe my favorite game period. this game shaped who i am as a person, this game is responsible for me becoming a motorsport fan, this game is responsible for me taking automotive classes in college, hell this game is the reason i passed my drivers license test in real life on the first attempt with a perfect score. this game probably isnt gonna affect you in the same way if you play it now, but i cannot overstate how much this game means to me. perfect score.

numerous translation errors, inaccurate and unrealistic depictions of automotive work (you swing your hammer to remove wheel hubs lmao), photos of very recognizable real world locations like the mclaren hq and a nascar cafe (complete with stock cars on display outside) presented as fictional in-game locations, for some reason a professional race team wont allow you to use automatic screwdrivers or impact wrenches on the majority of jobs, little variety in the things you do on the cars, the list of flaws goes on. and yet, ive played this game multiple times over the years. i think many of these flaws couldve been resolved in the sequel they had planned, but unfortunately that never came to be. this game is a pioneer in the genre, predating car mechanic sim by quite a few years, and with that in mind im willing to dismiss most of its issues. for what it is, its good enough, but it couldve been much better. worth at least checking out if youre into cars.

as a gt megafan i had fun with gt1, but there's really not much reason to go back to this one over gt2 unless youre like me and you just really want to complete every game in the series. gt2 has way more cars, way more tracks, way more events with more variety in the entry lists and far less track repetition (no reverse tracks!), WAY better soundtrack imo (both in the menus and in-race), etc. i have tremendous respect for this game and what it accomplished in 1997, it's a true technological wonder. but that pioneering status can only carry it so far in 2022. 5 stars, but unlike gt2 i dont see myself ever playing through this one again.