''Group S Challenge'', known in Japan as , is a 2003

racing video game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic raci ...

developed by DigitalStudio and published by

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for the

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. It features fully licensed cars, including from

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Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

, and Ruf.

Arcade mode

Group S Challenge features four styles in arcade mode: Single Player, Two Player Versus, One Make and Time Attack. Single Player allows the player to race against AI (

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

) drivers. In Two Player Versus, two players race on a split screen. One Make measures who possesses the best driving ability, with the player choosing one car model for all vehicles in the race, including the player's own. In Time Attack, the player focuses on trying to post the fastest lap-time.

Circuit mode

Group S Challenge also offers a

career mode A career is an individual's metaphorical "journey" through learning, work and other aspects of life. There are a number of ways to define career and the term is used in a variety of ways. Definitions The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' define ...

. Unlike many games featuring a career mode, Group S Challenge contains no

cutscenes A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...

and lacks a developing story. Instead, the game offers three different racing types: Championship, Line and Dual. In Championship, the player races to unlock different classes of cars and earns money for upgrades or a new car. Championship has four different "classes" or "tiers", for cars, with higher tiers offering faster cars. Group C is the lowest tier containing the slowest car. Groups B and A contain progressively faster rides. Group S is the top class and it contains supercars and hypercars. A car from a slower group is allowed in a higher class race, but faster cars cannot enter a lower class race. The player can earn money by driving in the

racing line In motorsport, the racing line or simply "the line" is the optimal path around a race course. In most cases, the line makes use of the entire width of the track to lengthen the radius of a turn: entering at the outside edge, touching the "apex"—a ...

on the track during Line mode. Dual mode allows the player to unlock special cars that cannot be bought. In order to acquire one of these cars, the player must race and win against it in three different cars that the player already owns.

Tracks

Three different race courses appear with six variations per course: Part A, Part B, Full Track, Part A Reverse, Part B Reverse, and Full Track Reverse. The three different race tracks are

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in Europe,

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in Australia and

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in Japan.

Reception

The game received "mixed" reviews according to the

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website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. In Japan, ''

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

'' gave it a score of 28 out of 40. Many reviewers gave it positive to mixed reviews a few months before its U.S. release date.

References

External links