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ONLY SOME OF US in New Zealand may have been lucky enough to have seen or played the game F355 Challenge (FC) in its arcade incarnation. For the others who have not however, do not fret, the Dreamcast is coming to the rescue. Sega have seen fit to convert this fabulous arcade racing masterpiece to their home console, and from previewing the Japanese version of the game the developers have made a perfect translation to the home market. In fact the game looks so impressive that there may be a few nay-sayers out there who will finally realise the Dreamcast is not as under-powered as originally thought.

There are plenty of gamers around who will be completely satisfied with a direct port of FC as it is a wonderful game already, but the developers appear to have taken things a step further and added new modes and extras to the home version. The first thing that'll catch your eye though is the graphics. It's no wonder arcade machine developers have to come up with new and original ideas for their games, as it is obvious from this game that home consoles have not only caught up with their coin operated compatriots, but are starting to look even better. The cars and tracks look very realistic, and when seen moving the smooth frame rate is a treat to behold.

Another thing that appears to have been translated flawlessly from the arcade machine is the control physics, and in this area if you thought Gran Turismo was realistic wait until you get a load of the F355 Ferrari in action. While there are no production cars available to race, the actual car in FC is modelled accurately on the real thing, and handles as if you were really racing around an asphalt track. It probably wasn't that difficult for the developers to pull this off seeing as the game is limited in the amount of cars on offer (it's called F355 Ferrari for a reason you know!), but it still feels impressive all the same.

There are even some trainer modes available to assist the gamer in their racing experience, such as stability correction, traction control and an auto-braking feature. These are designed with the novice in mind, and I found very little to be gained from them except to learn the best racing lines for each track (they make the game easier to play, but prevent you from being really competitive in a race). Unfortunately it looks as though Sega may have dumped the professional difficulty level from FC completely, as the Dreamcast controller does not have the ability to emulate the controls of the stick shift and steering control of the arcade machine. This doesn't stop the game from being great fun though, although the difficulty level is still set rather high, and so will not appeal to those who are not particularly skilled in racing games.

One thing of final note is the apparent ability to hook up two Dreamcasts with a serial cable (yet to be released here) and go head to head with a friend, a feature that is found in the main options menu. I could learn very little about this feature as the manual of our preview version is in Japanese, but it appears that it'll be as effective as the old PlayStation link cable, which is good news to those who dislike split screen multi-player racing titles. Anyone who owns a PlayStation and have played Psygnosis' Formula One will appreciate just how much fun a mode of this type is.