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The little big racer with a portable slice of paradise.

I know this isn't the case, but it seems I almost always bring up Gran Turismo PSP when either playing or reviewing an on-the-go racing title for Sony's struggling handheld. Gone MIA, Sony and Polyphony's unfulfilled promises are often a yoke around the neck of other developers who may hear gamers utter the phrase, "Good PSP racer, but it's not..." You get the idea. Test Drive Unlimited, brought to you courtesy of Melbourne House and Atari, will not have to bear such a burden. It was quite ballsy of them in the first place to create a PSP version of a game that was massive in size and scope on the Xbox 360 (and now PC).

For those who may not have gotten the chance to try out last year's racing hit on the Xbox 360, Test Drive Unlimited is what I would refer to as a millionaire/car aficionado simulator. While not particularly heavy on the sim aspect, Test Drive Unlimited offered a somewhat detailed re-creation of the island of Oahu. Breaking the mold of traditional racers, Test Drive Unlimited built gameplay around collecting cars and participating in a virtual community with other racing fans. To sum it up, think of it as an MMORPG with vehicles and race competitions rather than battles and exploration.

Fast forward one year to 2007 and the PSP release of Test Drive Unlimited offers up a similar ambitious design. Again, the island of Oahu is your playground and multiplayer is just as much of a focus now as it was on the console version. Whereas most PSP racers are only able to offer you a linear single player progression, Test Drive Unlimited raises the bar in terms of multiplayer and single player enjoyment. Unfortunately, some sacrifices inevitably have to be made when porting such an expansive console game to the handheld arena.