GAME CLEAR No. 251 -- Gran Turismo (1997)

Gran Turismo (1997, PlayStation)

Developer: Polys Entertainment (Polyphony Digital)
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Clear Version: PS1
Clear Platform: PS1
Clear Date: 9/3/25

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Why should I care?
“The Real Driving Simulator” is that indeed — just a staggering accomplishment on the original PlayStation.

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Quench my thirst with gasoline

A few years ago, I played Gran Turismo 7 at launch in an effort to finally give the heralded series a try. I wrote briefly about it on this very blog. It was a game I enjoyed but was not blown away by. As I’ve turned my attention back to the original PlayStation this year, I had the idea to go back and give the original a shot. It’s the very best-selling game on the platform, after all! Whatever didn’t totally click for me with GT7 did almost immediately with the original Gran Turismo. It is a masterpiece from top to bottom and a pleasure to play at all times.

The series subtitle of Gran Turismo is “The Real Driving Simulator”, which is more than apt. The game was developed to be a hardcore simulator and to contrast itself with the Ridge Racer and Mario Kart games of the world. It offers dozens of real-life licensed cars and does its best to model each vehicle’s unique driving behavior to the extent that the original PlayStation is capable of computing that. Comparing said modeling to that of Gran Turismo 7 is obviously completely unfair, but taking into account the technology available at the time, it feels like an absolute triumph.

Of course, we’re just talking about taking stock vehicles to the track: Gran Turismo is all about tuning your automobile to the absolute limit. You’ll have to start small (think Madza Demio) and work your way up, but after winning a few races, you can start to build the machine of your dreams. It is certainly no surprise that as a new owner of a real-life 1991 Chevrolet Corvette, I had a great time purchasing a fourth-generation Corvette in the game and throwing every upgrade imaginable into it right up until it won the GT World Cup. One of the great fun things about Gran Turismo is that you can do it your way. I kept a pretty slim garage and just focused on my very favorite cars to win the game’s various cups. Someone else would likely take a very different path than me. Great!

You won’t get to just hit the tracks right away, though. Bemoaned by some players are the pre-requisite license tests, which I find delightful. These small challenges ease you into simulation racing at a reasonable pace. You’ll learn how to take long turns just as well as hairpins and manage your throttle and shifting to shave those precious (sub-)seconds off your times. Some of these tests are a real fucking bastard, but that’s the point! If you can’t learn to take a sharp turn in a controlled environment without sliding way the fuck off the track, you won’t stand a chance against live AI opponents.

It’s not often that I really go heavy on praise for menu design, but I must do so in the case of Gran Turismo. It has excellent UI/UX and beautiful, simplistic menus. You’re also treated to absolute bangers from the game’s selection of original tunes throughout. Just get a load of these dealership themes. So good! It’s a nice piece of the experience that Polyphony Digital got right, since so much of the game involves browsing vehicles and the parts to tune them with.

The environments of Gran Turismo are beautiful too. It features roughly half a dozen original circuits. Unlike later entries, it does not feature any real world race tracks, but the courses are varied and fun to race on nevertheless. The nature of their design encourages the use of cars with different tunings, cornering abilities, et cetera. They can suffer a bit from pop-in as the PS1 does what it can to render the race, but this is seldom a problem. I did have a few moments of “what the fuck am I looking at” on the urban stage since it takes place at night, but it was never so bad that I slammed into a wall or anything. Playing on an emulator at higher resolution would probably eliminate this problem entirely.

If you’re a bit intimidated by the depth on offer, the original Gran Turismo also includes an Arcade Mode. As its name would suggest, the alternative mode features physics more closely resembling those of arcade racers like the aforementioned Ridge Racer or Cruis’n, with exaggerated drifting, speed, and jumps. Gone also is the ability to tune your car (and with it the need to purchase one in the first place). Just pick a course and pick a vehicle and you’re off. The game will automatically match you with cars in your vehicle’s class. It tracks your victories on each course and with each class (A, B, and C) of vehicle, which is nice because it encourages play with everything from a Honda Civic to a Dodge Viper. As much as I like the Simulation Mode, Arcade Mode is a great option for a quick race with any car you’d like to use. I’m glad the series ultimately moved away from this (it reads as a bit of a concession or insecurity anyway), but it’s fun nevertheless.

If you have any appetite for racing video games or enjoy automobiles more generally (I don’t think there’s a ton of that among the Nixon Computer audience, but perhaps I’m wrong), you just can’t go wrong with Gran Turismo. It’s a brilliant piece of work that has stood the test of time admirably. Spending time with it also encouraged me to return to Gran Turismo 7, which I’m finding more engaging now as well. Going back to the origins of this series may well have converted me to a genuine Gran Turismo fan.

Playing GT1 also makes me lament how often I see questions like “do I have to play [previous entries] to understand [new hotness]?” I hate that shit! Old games have so much to offer for those with eyes to see. I’m not saying I don’t understand wanting to jump on the latest thing everyone’s talking about (obviously I did so with Gran Turismo 7), but the question implies a sort of sense that the asker only wants to check out older games if they’ll be totally lost otherwise. To me, there’s so much joy in going back to the origins. Even for something like Gran Turismo — a serious simulator that is arguably strictly better at the simulation aspect with each successive title — there is a lot to uncover and enjoy in its earliest, most primitive entry. Ask not if you “have to” play earlier entries in a series; assume you should and enjoy the fun along the way.