Acular

Andrew: There’s a stark difference between a racing game and a driving game. Enthusia is the latter—a game focused on precision and technical skill, where “realistic” is a more marketable way of saying “unforgiving.”

But if you know what you’re getting into, Enthusia delivers. While not quite as exhaustive as Gran Turismo 4, Enthusia offers a large garage of winnable, tunable, and upgradeable cars, and the weekly format of ranked races keeps progress moving at a steady rate. Cars are won (via postrace raffle) frequently but take some time to “level up,” and switching cars makes you skip a week of racing, which can have an adverse effect on your rank.

The courses are designed to challenge your reaction time and are littered with hairpin, uphill, and S-turns. Starting out with the incredibly demanding driving revolution mode quickly sharpens your skills and makes sure that drivers are up for the challenge. Once you “get it,” the game is rewarding.

But true to its name, Enthusia is only for the true car enthusiasts. Anyone else will be giving Konami $40 just to tell them that they’re an awful driver.

Demian: Might as well get the obligatory Gran Turismo 4 comparisons out of the way: On the track, Enthusia feels about as accurate a sim as the big boss, and that’s saying a hell of a lot. It doesn’t look quite as nice or have nearly as many cars or tracks as GT4, but it’s still an excellent, excellent driving game.

But in this case there actually is a game that goes along with the driving; that’s what sets Enthusia apart. Its complex points and ranking system (briefly: winning with a lower-powered car earns more points, more points means access to higher race classes—but you have to keep winning to stay at the top) is the part you’ll likely either love or hate. It took some getting used to, but I dug it.

The concentration required to go six or so laps without hitting walls or A.I. cars is incredible but also really rewarding. I just wish the stupid CPU-controlled cars were a little better at not running into me.

1UP.COM—Che: You’d figure that with Gran Turismo 4 still burning daily rubber on my PS2, Enthusia—with its hardcore driving-simulation physics, oppressive no-frills locales, and huge selection of Japanese imports—would be the last game I’d want to play, much less champion. But finally, here’s a racing sim that lets me focus an entire racing career on just one car. Now you can spend 10 hours pimping out your Toyota “Hachi-Roku” Trueno to godly levels without having to worry about switching cars to meet that FF challenge or eating dirt on the rally tracks. In the game’s Enthusia Life mode, you don’t worry so much about selling cars, buying parts, and racing for dollars; rather, you win races for points that level up both driver and vehicle. Hence, the pacing of your game’s progress is more deliberate and satisfying. It’s addictive and...yes, brings out the enthusiast within.

Good: Great graphics and an impressive physics engine

Bad: Low tolerance for novice racers

Guitar-acular: The cheesy McCheese soundtrack

The verdicts (out of 10)

Andrew: 8.0

Demian: 8.5

Che: 8.5

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Konami

Players: 1-2

ESRB: Everyone

www.konami.com

Copyright © 2005 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Electronic Gaming Monthly.