is an officially licensed

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

game developed by Bell Corporation and produced by

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

for the

Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it was the successor to the succ ...

. The game contains only three of the many Formula One circuits –

Hockenheim Hockenheim () is a town in northwest Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about 20 km south of Mannheim and 10 km west of Walldorf. It is located in the Upper Rhine valley on the tourist theme routes "Baden Asparagus Route" () and Bertha Benz M ...

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...

, and Suzuka – while having another three based on the fictional Neo City, containing three different configurations. While containing a full license (granted by FOCA, not the FIA) of the 1995 Formula One racing season with 13 teams and 26 drivers, the game only allows the player to play as five drivers: Michael Schumacher ( Benetton), Damon Hill ( Williams), Jean Alesi (

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

Ukyo Katayama is a Japanese former racing driver and team manager, most notable for competing for six years in Formula One. He participated in 97 Grands Prix, debuting on 1 March 1992. He scored a total of five championship points, all of them for the Tyrrel ...

( Tyrrell), and Mika Häkkinen (

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formul ...

). The other teams and drivers are in the game and the cars are correctly modeled but are unselectable.

Gameplay

The game is very similar to other titles produced by Sega. Its form is that of an arcade-style simulator that carries a variety of courses that range from easy to hard with a small selection of cars to choose from. This format has been followed by Sega games in the past, with such titles as ''

Virtua Racing ''Virtua Racing'', or ''V.R.'' for short, is a Formula One racing video game developed by Sega AM2 and released for arcades in 1992. ''Virtua Racing'' was initially a proof-of-concept application for exercising a new 3D graphics platform under ...

'' (1992), ''

Daytona USA is an arcade racing video game developed by Sega AM2 in 1993 and released by Sega in 1994. Players race stock cars on one of three courses. The first game released on the Sega Model 2 three-dimensional arcade system board, a prototype debuted ...

'' (1994), and ''

Sega Touring Car Championship ''Sega Touring Car Championship'' (セガツーリングカーチャンピオンシップ) is an arcade racing game released by Sega's AM Annex for the Model 2 mainboard in 1996. It was later ported to the Sega Saturn and Microsoft Windows. ...

'' (1996). Unlike other racing titles released by Sega, ''F1 Challenge'' does not rely on powersliding and drifting, and instead attempts to be very simulator-oriented. The game supports the Sega Arcade Racer steering wheel peripheral in addition to the standard Saturn controller.

Reception

Rad Automatic of '' Sega Saturn Magazine'' gave the game an 80%, calling it "ideal for race connoisseurs with a perfection complex", but inferior to '' Sega Rally Championship'' and ''Daytona USA'' as far as the average gamer is concerned. ''

GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...

''s The Axe Grinder agreed that it was "More a hardcore racing game than a 'pop' arcade title", and that despite the above-average graphics the game feels bland and unexciting. He also criticized the weak A.I., generic rock soundtrack, and lack of sound effects. A reviewer for ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'' praised the selection of real-life teams and tracks, but like Rad Automatic he felt it compared unfavorably to ''Sega Rally Championship'' and ''Daytona USA''. He scored it three out of five stars. ''

'' reviewed the Saturn version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "in the end, this is a truly exceptional racing game."

References

External links

F1 Challenge at Sega Saturn UK
– review, screens and information (archived) 1995 video games Formula One video games Sega Saturn games Sega Saturn-only games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Richard Jacques Virgin Interactive games {{f1-racing-videogame-stub