Gran Turismo PSP Review 

A mistake was made. Gran Turismo 4 Mobile was announced at E3 2004, not 2005.

Over 800 cars on a UMD in 2009 was incredibly impressive! Sad that we never got a full career mode in this but still enjoyed it overall! Some great memories here for sure!

For any youngsters watching - this game looked A MILLION TIMES better on a real PSP.

I never thought I was gonna find an up-to-date review of this game, amazing job man, covered every main topic about it

I have the plugin that monitors cpu usage. GT for psp is at the absolute limit of what the psp is capable of, hitting 90-100% cpu usage at the start of the race where alot of assets are placed on most tracks and you also have your rivals infront of you. It also runs the psp at 333mhz out of the box. That is something sony didnt allow for titles in the early day because they wanted to artificially boost the battery life which was a major concern. Also something that is noteable from a technical perspective is that it has temporal Anti Aliasing which as far as i know only 2 other games on psp have (Tekken Dark Resurrection and Tekken 6). This is achived by giving ever second frame a small offset because psp hardware is incapable normal AA.

This was the only GT game I put my time into. My main goal was to collect all the JGTC racecars, which was pretty successful!

Pretty good GT game to me. Especially custom MP3 BGM feature (unlocked after you complete driving challenges A-B). In fact, this game driving physics uses the same one from the GT 5 Prologue, making it even more fun.

I remember trying to collect every variant of every JDM car to have the best variant of each, I spent way too much time on that game but absolutely no regrets.

Makes a pretty good time killer with a PSP emulator on your phone. Enter the all cars cheat and just do races while waiting for your IRL to get inspected.

Gran Turismo PSP even 15 years later still impressive since it only used up 1687MB of PSP HDD plus it has 830 cars.

Personally i prefer it not having an actual carrier mode and being more of a casual game, it's much easier to just hop in for a race or two and buy a few cars I like rather than having to sit down for hours to play through championships

I never thought someone would make a review about this game, great video thanks for leaving the links for the music

Despite lacking in a lot of aspects, GT PSP is just one of those games I always go back to. And with the incredible rise of modding for newer (GT5, 6) and older games (GT2, 3, 4), it makes me wonder how much stuff can be done

GT PSP was basically GT Sport without online play. I have fond memories of grinding to get all gold in the BMW M5 on the Nordschleife in the challenges.

Started playing it on an emulator a few days ago, perfect timing for this review

Just bought it and cant wait to play this🙂

PD has to be one of the most understaffed studios ever

I still go back to this game. Absolutely love the driving challenges. I'll be carrying on until I have all golds. Didn’t even know there was a Drift mode but I'll be checking it out!

Gran Turismo PSP is still an underrated racing game despite there is no GRAN TURISMO career mode.

One fond memory I have of this game was me doing drift events in a Nismo Fairlady Z while boarding on a plane flight. Little me have no PS3 nor know much about the latest on goings of gaming, so I have zero knowledge about GT5 Prologue; so, coming off fresh from GT4 I was immensely impressed with the game's handling physics. I've spent some time trying to drift in GT4 with the smidgen amount of knowledge I had back then which only ended in failure, so I was surprised to find GTPSP having a dedicated drift mode while letting me do the smoothest of drifting that I can only dream of doing in GT4. I was so enamored by the drifting that it got me hooked, I practically only play the game just to fool around sliding around Tsukuba and El Capitan back then. To this day I still think PSP was the best handheld platform, especially if you're a fan of racing games.

I feel the same lol drinkin and was like yooo :p new sub

Impressive! I used to grind the snow tracks.

All i have to say is that since i didnt enjoyed the previous games, and at the time since i wasnt always in my home, this hit the sweet spot. And hey, we lose career mode but at least we had a huge improvement in crash physics and AI, and since GT4 i REALLY wanted that. Disagree but good video 👍

See, the thing is, I don't mind the lack of a career mode, because I get that this is just a portable game. It isn't trying to upstage the main line of GT titles, but just be something where you can pick it up, do a couple races on the go, and put it back down again. I feel sorry for anyone who's actually trying to play games like these for hours on end as if it's how you're supposed to play them. Nah, the way I see it, portable and mobile games are best for when you're stuck at the bus station for an hour and need to kill some time, or if you just want to grab a game to play for 10 minutes while you're on the can or something. Save the big, fancy career mode stuff for your console/PC games where you're willing to invest that kind of time. And as a hotlapping game with the bare minimum of what can be called "progression" and a car collecting angle, I think GT PSP works beautifully. For when I'm out and about somewhere and I just want to fart around on the Nurburgring while I wait for my bus ride home, it's excellent. It'll never replace the experience of a main line GT game, but that's not the point to me. So yeah, I don't mind the lack of a career mode. I wouldn't complain if they had tried to add one to it, but it being missing doesn't take away the appeal, at least from my mindset. And the fact that it's basically the best looking PSP racing title with the most content and best physics says a lot too.

The game was tailor made for the PSP, including the game structure: It was made to be played on the go, short session after short session. A traditiona career mode doens't work when you play like that.

Not bored, used the money cheat twice to get most of the cars

Despite people founding it lacking in the content area, is funny how they treat it as a bad racing game or a bad GT game when its the first GT to offer actual penalty for crashing into a wall and a IA that can actually detect you instead of blinding driving into you, thats why i also dont mind less racers since they feel a bit more real and their cars scale, while in previous games it was just or easy to win or impossible. It was something reviewers at the time were already complaining it and it took 5 games to fix it. I also feel the driving itself and camera to be surprisingly improved to GT4. Few people talk about it but for some reason they made the camera very stiff only on that game. Definitely doing the series slogan a favour imo. It may be more repetitive than previous games if you just expect a game like the others but the core gameplay is definitely way better. P.S: What is quite interesting is that people call many of the PSP GT content or changes to be limitations, but dont do justice to how powerful the PSP is even at the side of the PS2. I actually think a few of the graphical downgrades of GT4 (but still impressive) were more for the size of the UMD, as the PSP had a way higher CPU clock speed than the PS2 on its maximum level which this game uses it, maybe thats why driving and AI improved while the game is maintaining 60 fps. You dont need GPU to do that. Its clearly that GT PSP was as it this for the decision of the devs, not technical limitations as some say.

Damn memories man,memories😮‍💨

2:51 I think that’s the silliest thing they did, not display all cars.

No Aston Martin in PSP? I didn't know that.

the Multiplayer of this game is tbh fun

Gran turismo 5 prologue si tuvo actualizaciones de autos y circuitos los demas del gt hd para abajo no tuvo nunca updates

Well boring is a wide term, i mean its a racing game, you get lots of tracks and cars so what you do in a driving game? Right, drive times and get better, thats the point. And for on the go the more arcady style made more sense anyway. But overall good review, i loved it when it came out and still own it and my psp and always have em with me cause switch has no good racing games aside from grid and i dev prefer gt here

Lack of career was a big disappointment but once you got past that and made your own career mode the game was actually fun. Enough cars and tracks to have a different race and even if the random cars was considered a disadvantage for some I saw it as a good thing. Kept you from buying your dream car and then some and actually forced you to drive something different. Artificial scarcity ironically extended the games life to me. I will say after many hours on the PSP, I wish they replaced the license tests with a basic campaign and the cars at LEAST had some tuning like gear ratio’s or even a basic turbo upgrade.

“Gran Turismo for Boys” when “Forza for Girls walks in”

The non-existent main career (GT Mode) made me not want to play this, so i always go back to playing 1 and 2 on my phone

@19:39 There is a lot of substance if you have managed your expectations properly. This is not a full-fledged Gran Turismo experience.

Is PlayStation doing a PSP 2?

For the cars, many tracks of the series/trading and more its fair. It is GT but mobile. Not TOCA 2&3 ports to PSP or NFS Shift PSP. For driving missions, arcade mode, it works. A career would be nice, the 4 manufacturer cycle over 70 days is ok of an idea but not the best. Thry tried something different, handheld but also different then would expect from a handheld game like the manufacturer cycle as well.

Honestly? Both. Yes, almost 1000 cars on a damn 1GB PSP UMD is impressive but it's just a little time killer given that this doesn't even have some sort of randomizer to surprise you in some way. It could've been just as good if they cut it to 500, or even 300 cars or so and add some more gamemodes. Heck, they could've just remade GT1 or something, played the PS1 titles on my old PSP recently and I probably sunk more hours in that than this. Like, it's good, but it feels like a tech demo of sorts

Comparing it to the other games in the series, this is by far the worst one, but comparing it to other mobile circuit racers (even today), this is probably the best portable driving game there is. If you treat this as a little time killer game, for commutes or a bathroom break, its honestly perfect. Collecting the cars is something to look for, the physics are top notch for a PSP racing game, and when it released there was no competition, even now I still play it on my Vita. I do believe using the recently discovered money cheat is the way to go, just trying to beat your high scores on drift mode and lowering times on time trial, skipping the races or challenges. This is a game for those who value driving and car collecting more than actual racing. And the circuit selection is amazing even comparing to fully fledged racing games. My only gripe with this game is the lack of sense of speed when using the 3rd person camera. Its a terrible racing game, but a good "car game". Not for everyone, but the perfect game for my needs lmao, as I my favorite part in all of the GT games is just trying out the cars around tracks like the Nordschleife or Citta di Aria (my favorite track in all of Gran Turismo). Good video tho, keep up the nice work!

I had this on the psp and wanted to like it but just couldn't since no career mode. Because of that I gave up on it pretty quickly 😢

This game isnt bad, It’s like GT4 but underwhelming. The game okay in my opinion.

I don't like how they structured this game. I know they made it as portable friendly as they could, but there isn't a career mode and the way you buy cars is annoying. When we wanted a portable Gran Turismo, we wanted a full Gran Turismo experience I think. It feels more like it was meant to be a mobile game, you pick it up and play it for 5-10 minutes then put it away again.

To be fair if I'm going to play gran turismo on the PSP, I'm gonna play 1 and 2.

They should've made it a 2 disc like the older titles on ps1. An arcade and simulation mode. I wouldn't have minded that

In my opinion GT PSP is the only GT game where i struggle to call it actually good for several reasons (i consider most GT games to be simply brilliant, just as most FM games). First being it's horrible structure. No open campaign that was a staple of a franchise and made you feel like a free agent in a world of racing. Single races not only offer no class selection, but also choosing higher lap count (which is more risky as you can waste more time and loose at the end) makes every lap worth less instead of more. The idea of short cycled (2 days only) random car store is another horrible idea - you have no idea what cars you can stumble on, and if you spot a car you want at day 1 of the cycle, your only option if you can't afford it is to race the same race over and over again, without returning to the race selection which counts as another day. No tuning whatsoever. The racing mechanics themselfs are a problem too. Ok the physics engine is impressive but it's just not fitting very well with barely working analog steering and no option for analogue gas/break (in every previous GT game you could at least assign right analogue stick for it). More advanced physics call for more advanced control option, here it almost feel like playing on keyboard. Then there is god-awful fov which makes every car feel slow, and takes so much time (for me) to adjust to it. Camera setups are half baked with only decently working options being bumper, and behind a car view. Then there are graphics - on one hand in theory game looks good-ish... but very often it looks empty as well, and it can only render 4 cars at a track at the same time - comparing it to other racing games on psp i think much better choice would be to maybe lower a bit polygon count on cars (but keeping proportions), add at least two more cars, and focus on stylized graphics instead of trying to make it as photorealistic as possible. With a bit simpler visuals, but with more attention to colors, time of day, cool looking lights and so on a game would end up looking better, than this attempt which ends up like GT5 on very low graphics. In my opinion polyphony focused on making a "technical marvel" instead of good game. What they should do is to realize PSP limitations, and create full fledged GT game that would be based on simpler physics model of psx games. Not only they could tweak it, but these games are still amazing even if a bit less advanced in a simulation aspect (but still hanging in pretty simillar simcade spot as most GT games). This style of physics would allow them to increase number of cars on tracks, and it would fit more to psp simple controls. And there are really great looking psp racing games - Motorstorm Arctic Edge, Test Drive Unlimited, Flat Out, F1 2009, Burnout Dominator and few more. And yeah stable 30fps would be enough for psp screen if they went for something of a reimagination of Gran Turismo 2. But i think they were also a bit lazy with it, my guess is they used what they had and stick into porting it to psp, instead of building from grounds up something more fitting psp's nature as a platform. We ended up reciving the worst GT game ever made, with bland visuals, boring gameplay, and horrible progression. Even the artstyle of the menus looks a bit boring and uninspired. I also have to add that just giving you the option to freely roam every dealership would make a game vastly better - doing random races without specyfic requirements would still be boring, but you would get at least a clear goal. This system feels like some stupid lottery instead, where you are afraid to spend your money becasue next day you can stumble on car you want even more, and you can screw up counting days and end up having to wait HOURS just to stumble on it once again. And i can't agree that the game looks all that good. In my opinion they used way too advanced models, while lowering textures on them. I would much prefer something of a high resolution version of psx visuals - a mix up of old and new with a focus on stylized elements. I the end i much prefer playing eboot files of GT1 and GT2 on my psp.

iI think if you consider that this game is meant to be played on the go the whole setup of the game makes more sense, at least from the perspective of the time it came out in. That being said I played it for the first time only a couple years ago and I enjoyed it quite a lot. At the end of the day the driving is very fun and that's what matters. But if I was expecting something like GT4 I would probably very disappointed. But I think this game also encapsulates why the PSP at the end of the day couldn't compete with the DS, just bringing PS2 Levels graphics to a handheld isn't enough if the games don't have enough substance.

Also, as an avid player of this game, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND changing the race physics from “Standard” to “Professional.” By default, the physics are set to standard mode, in which cars are easier to control, but it doesn’t play very realistically at all. Contrarily, on professional, it plays almost exactly like the home console games. Yes, the cars are harder to control; yes, it takes some getting used to, but once you get over the learning curve, there’s no going back.

Pra um portátil tem um gráfico excelente, mas era extremamente arcade, faltava um modo campanha/carreira, pra prender a jogatina.

Watched this review because I liked the content in terms of cars and tracks and it seem to run well on the PSP emulator. But why did they stop at 85% and did the unusual car buying experience and worst of all no career mode like in GT4? I could live fewer AI cars and no upgrade system but they could have done a nice progression scale around the 800 cars and 45 tracks in there to play around with :) So altough it sure is a technical achievement, it seems like getting boring fairly quick with not alot of replayability.

Okay I'm like 50/50 on this game bc despite having so many cars which I think is very impressive for the time especially on a psp I believe it was the reason there wasn't a fully fleshed out carreer mode but I still enjoy the game despite its flaws.

Someone should do a romhack with a career mode

These days, it's just boring. Tried to play GT5 again the other day, gave up in less than 40 minutes.

It *COULD* have been possibly the best racing game on the PSP, if it only had an actual career mode.

I’ve always described it as: “Very meh by GT standards, but very technologically impressive by PSP game standards.” I truly think this was designed to just be a casual game you could pick up and play for a few minutes and then put down again. I kinda wish it had a slight name change; something like “GT Portable,” to reflect that nature. But oh well.

This game is the worst one and a disappointment for me, not because of graphics and physics, but simply because there are only 3 AI opponents in the game. I cannot understand why did they decide to cripple the racing experience. I bought my first PSP because of this game, but once I played it, never got interested in it again.

Impressive looking game but in the end nothing more than a car collector for Gran Turismo 5 :/

the graphics is impressive and the collection of cars, but lack of career mods and story makes it boring.

Emulating gt4 on a retro handheld makes this game obsolete

Boring

Gt psp was awsome. This video is whats boring.