With Downforce, Titus and Smart Dog enter the more than crowded world of F1 racing games for consoles. Anyhow, Downforce isn't exactly focused on the F1 world. Maybe because of the lack of the official F1 license, Titus had to create an imaginary league, "the Downforce Racing League", composed by a group of drivers tired of the rules and the monotony of the official racing championship. In the Downforce League, there are no rules regarding car designs and technology - there is complete freedom for each team.

Sincerely, this was a good premise. Don't get me wrong, I love the F1 championship, but I think that in the latest years this sport is turning into a mere matter of money. Nowadays champions look a bit too much like robots in the hands of a billionaire industry. The legendary times of Nuvolari, but also the times of Prost and Senna seem far away from the way races are conducted in these days.

So, when I read the introduction to the game, I said to myself "hey, that's good". But even if Downforce has its good qualities, innovation or depth is exactly what it lacks.

Downforce is a simple, yet very solid racing game. The first good thing is that it delivers a sense of speed that few F1 simulations can offer. Downforce is actually a beast when it comes to speed, a beast that doesn't fear a comparison with a game like WipeOut Fusion.

The game offers 7 different game modes, and two of them are designed to play against a friend. The single-player modes are all pretty straightforward. In Trophy Mode, you pick a car, a track and start racing. If you finish at least 3rd in the first races you'll unlock the next ones and so on until you unlock the Trophy Expert Mode, where you need to qualify always first in order to win. In Championship Mode you have to race through all the tracks of the game and you are awarded a certain amount of points according to the result you get in each race. Free Race can be used to play just one race in the track you prefer, while in Time Attack you have to reach the various checkpoints scattered along the track within a defined amount of time. The two multiplayer modes are a classic Free Race or the more adrenaline pumping Time Tag. In this mode the player is awarded one point whenever he manages to stay ahead of the other player for ten seconds and whenever his opponent crashes. After 3 laps, the one with more points is the winner.

These modes are more than enough to assure a great arcade experience, and extremely easy controls are another reason to enjoy this game with ease. In the default configuration, the left analog stick is used to steer, while Square and X are respectively the accelerate and brake button. If you want you can set manual or automatic gear before each race and if you choose to go with manual gear, R1 and R2 are used to gear up and gear down. That's all you need to know to enjoy all the game modes in Downforce, and that's both good and bad.

It's good because with so many intricate simulation games out there, a pick-n-play title able to convey such a great sense of speed could be a very relaxing choice for the hot summer weekends; it's bad because the depth of the game is compromised.

What Downforce lacks is a classic Career mode or the possibility to customize the cars. Nothing original maybe, but something that could have added a bit of variety to the game. While in the game manual the introduction says things like "...with no rules regarding car design, teams have worked in different directions creating a variety of enhanced super cars..." there is no variety in the performances of the cars available in the game, and what's more important, there is no way to modify their set-up or actually "enhance" them. In fact, while each of these cars is supposed to has a particular "extra", these add-ons are worth nothing when it comes to car handling or power. Adjustable spoilers, Air Braking Flaps, CPU Power Spoiler, Liquid Nitro Cooling are all cool things that the cars have in the descriptions, but they don't affect the performance on the track. Other ones like Clean Emissions or the comic "Italian Design" of the - of course - Italian car are clearly not intended to modify the car performance.

The 8 main tracks, which overall come in 21 different routes, are probably the thing that add a bit of depth to the game. They are not very long, but on the other hand, they all are well designed. Playing in the Championship Mode, even the most disillusioned racer can be surprised by the varied difficulties offered by the tracks. Sometimes, you just have to race as fast as you can; other times, a good use of brakes and a perfect handling are necessary to come out first in a race; sometimes, it's very useful to hit the car in front of yours with the clear intention to destroy it.

The A.I. of the opposing cars is another good thing of the game. The opponents are always extremely aggressive and occasionally unpredictable. More than once, one of the drivers tried to hit my spoiler to send me against a guardrail at 200 Mph. In Downforce, you always have to keep an eye on the cars on your back if you want to win, and that's exciting.