F17 Challenge
F17 Challenge developed by Holodream and published by Team 17 in 1993.
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Player's Review
"F17 CHALLENGE - Take Pole Position at the front of the grid in this exciting arcade style race-game! Race your way through sixteen championship circuits around the world and aim to be the F17 Champion. Fast moving graphics together with excellent gameplay make F17 Challenge the game to be reckoned with! 360 degree car rotation. Select from four different cars. Full field of opposing drivers. 17 individual courses with hills & tunnels. Weather conditions & many other effects Fully animated pit-crew. Excellent sound & music. Huge array of game options. Save game & lap records to disk. Excellent presentation."
An F1 (Formula1) game that didn't get the F1 licence which is why it is named F17 (Team17 Challenge!) Much like games such as Lotus Turbo Challenge, Jaguar Xj220 and Nigel Mansell's Grand Prix, you race across many circuits completing at the highest position you can. The competition will score the high points if you don't and if you want to be world champion, you need to secure the high points. It's a racing game, there's not much else to say.
There are two modes of play. Arcade or World championship. The differences are that in arcade you need to finish in the top six in order to proceed to the next race. Laps are limited to three and difficulty is progressive. In Normal mode, you can finish in any position but have to race a minimum of five laps. You can choose from four cars each with slightly different characteristics. I chose the one with more grip vs speed. Other options are more speed, balanced and slower with high grip tires that work in the wet. The game is overall well presented with nice gfx and music and plastered with Team 17 game branding. The controls well and there is a pit stop if you need to repair car damage. There are no tyre options. But ....
This isn't Continental Circus. Being from Team 17 there is an expected level of quality based on there previously releases and it falls somewhat short in this game. It was a small box budget release but to be fair, it wasn't developed by Team 17 themselves, they just published it but there name is there however for all to see. The game is ridiculously easy. I played on Pro mode and expected it to take a lap or two to move up to first place but no. If you can survive getting past the starting grid without smashing up the car, you will be well away leaving all opponents in the dust. I had to check magazine reviews just to check this is normal and not some abnormality with the my game. The minimum is five laps so it soon feels like a chore. There is never a need to choose eight, ten or fifteen. Arcade is short but it seems to be missing an element. I didn't encounter weather and suspect I wouldn't see the world champ ending so I didn't finish recording that mode.
Opponent cars weave from left to right which can be really annoying to pass them without taking damage. They move so slowly as well and by lap three they have almost stopped as you nearly hit them whist lapping them. Overall, the game misses the mark. With such bad opponent drivers there is no element of fun to be had. If you can get first place seven or eight times, you will likely be in a safe position to just DNF remaining races and still be world champion. The track all feel very much the same and there is little variation in the backgrounds across seventeen tracks. I think only Monaco and Germany stand out. As for weather, there seems to be only rain and it can really slow a race down as you cant go high speed around corners, except maybe in the slower car. No snow was encountered. There is quite a lot of disk loading (which I've trimmed) and the game doesnt seem to take any advantage of extra memory in the 1200 to cache assets. Not the worst game ever, but even at £12.99, I think you will be left disappointed.
00:00:00 Titles / Intro
00:02:30 South Africa
00:11:40 Mexico
00:19:37 Brazil
00:27:57 Spain
00:36:51 San Marino
00:45:21 Monaco
00:53:34 Canada
01:01:44 France
01:09:16 Britain
01:17:18 Germany
01:27:37 Ireland
01:36:03 Belgium
01:46:28 Italy
01:54:47 Portugal
02:03:24 Japan
02:13:02 Australia
02:21:18 Ending
02:24:17 Arcade mode leading to game over
An F1 (Formula1) game that didn't get the F1 licence which is why it is named F17 (Team17 Challenge!) Much like games such as Lotus Turbo Challenge, Jaguar Xj220 and Nigel Mansell's Grand Prix, you race across many circuits completing at the highest position you can. The competition will score the high points if you don't and if you want to be world champion, you need to secure the high points. It's a racing game, there's not much else to say.
There are two modes of play. Arcade or World championship. The differences are that in arcade you need to finish in the top six in order to proceed to the next race. Laps are limited to three and difficulty is progressive. In Normal mode, you can finish in any position but have to race a minimum of five laps. You can choose from four cars each with slightly different characteristics. I chose the one with more grip vs speed. Other options are more speed, balanced and slower with high grip tires that work in the wet. The game is overall well presented with nice gfx and music and plastered with Team 17 game branding. The controls well and there is a pit stop if you need to repair car damage. There are no tyre options. But ....
This isn't Continental Circus. Being from Team 17 there is an expected level of quality based on there previously releases and it falls somewhat short in this game. It was a small box budget release but to be fair, it wasn't developed by Team 17 themselves, they just published it but there name is there however for all to see. The game is ridiculously easy. I played on Pro mode and expected it to take a lap or two to move up to first place but no. If you can survive getting past the starting grid without smashing up the car, you will be well away leaving all opponents in the dust. I had to check magazine reviews just to check this is normal and not some abnormality with the my game. The minimum is five laps so it soon feels like a chore. There is never a need to choose eight, ten or fifteen. Arcade is short but it seems to be missing an element. I didn't encounter weather and suspect I wouldn't see the world champ ending so I didn't finish recording that mode.
Opponent cars weave from left to right which can be really annoying to pass them without taking damage. They move so slowly as well and by lap three they have almost stopped as you nearly hit them whist lapping them. Overall, the game misses the mark. With such bad opponent drivers there is no element of fun to be had. If you can get first place seven or eight times, you will likely be in a safe position to just DNF remaining races and still be world champion. The track all feel very much the same and there is little variation in the backgrounds across seventeen tracks. I think only Monaco and Germany stand out. As for weather, there seems to be only rain and it can really slow a race down as you cant go high speed around corners, except maybe in the slower car. No snow was encountered. There is quite a lot of disk loading (which I've trimmed) and the game doesnt seem to take any advantage of extra memory in the 1200 to cache assets. Not the worst game ever, but even at £12.99, I think you will be left disappointed.
00:00:00 Titles / Intro
00:02:30 South Africa
00:11:40 Mexico
00:19:37 Brazil
00:27:57 Spain
00:36:51 San Marino
00:45:21 Monaco
00:53:34 Canada
01:01:44 France
01:09:16 Britain
01:17:18 Germany
01:27:37 Ireland
01:36:03 Belgium
01:46:28 Italy
01:54:47 Portugal
02:03:24 Japan
02:13:02 Australia
02:21:18 Ending
02:24:17 Arcade mode leading to game over
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