Speed Challenge: Jacques Villeneuve’s Racing Vision

Take part in the first Virtual Championship on the racetrack of the future!

• EU release: 18th October 2002
• NA release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: UbiSoft
• Publisher: UbiSoft
• NGC Magazine Score: N/A
• Mods Used: None

Speed Challenge is a game based on how Jacques Villeneuve thought F1 racing would evolve into by the far future of 2027. Cars would no longer be manned directly by their drivers, but rather be drones that were piloted remotely. This would enable drivers to take far more risks in their racing, resulting in far more exciting races.

Unfortunately, this concept does not extend to the gameplay, as it just feels like a bad Formula 1 game, with unresponsive cars and controls which are so bad that I can’t tell if they’re digital or analogue. It’s not even fast, either. The tracks take place within cities, with the sci-fi angle adding holographic advertisements, such as the nauseating (in a motion sickness way) ones along the sides of the track. At a stretch, I’d say that the “future of F1” leads to…slightly bendier tracks?

Ignoring the gameplay, there is plenty to do in the game. There aren’t many tracks, but there’s lots of challenges that group them together and apply rules like no ABS and the like. There’s also a ton of customisation for the cars, yet oddly you can’t choose your car’s design or colour. When the core racing is so dull, all of this doesn’t really matter too much, though.

Poor

Jacques Villeneuve must be a strange person. On behalf of the French software giant Ubi Soft, the Formula 1 driver took a look into the crystal ball and told a group of programmers what the future of racing looks like. The Canadian had a vision, so to speak. Given the result, one has to say unfortunately. that Villeneuve shouldn’t try to be a racing prophet…

Björn Seum, Big.N (Translated)

Remake or remaster?

Nothing for this

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Speed Challenge: Jacques Villeneuve’s Racing Vision.

Europe

Japan

North America

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2001: Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

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2007: Mar, Jun, Aug

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