Coming in fast around the corner with blazing speed and potential is upstart Enthusia: Professional Racing trying to overtake current leader and the genre-defining Gran Turismo series. Konami has a tough challenge ahead of them to knock that powerhouse out of the competition, indeed.

While I am no expert on racing titles, my days of playing Need for Speed at home and Cruisin' USA in the now archaic arcades, qualify me with at least a learner's permit.

While maybe not as “photo-realistic”, the graphics come pretty darn close. The cars host a myriad of sharp details and vibrant colors, especially on the lights and other reflected areas. The decals and logos for advertising also show up crisply and help bring that all important realism factor home even more. Sadly, there is no damage modeling here, a real let down. I was a HUGE fan of the Destruction Derby line of games, and I really missed seeing bumpers flying off and the like. The course themselves are well done if a bit sparse, but a few natural highlights like sun effects and waterfalls add a touch of life to the seemingly endless pavement. A number of intriguing effects also are present, from speed blurs and a very gripping slow-mo effect before major crashes. The sense of speed is decent, but from other titles I have played, it could be a bit better. The faster, the better is usually the way you go- this isn’t Pole Position anymore.

Sound wise, we have an interesting assortment of tunes, but not necessarily a very good collection… A lot of melodic jazzy stuff is present here, where I would expect to some heavy guitar riffs or techno beats to drive the pace of the game to match your torrid pace around the tracks. I don’t know about you folks, but when I want to drive fast, I put on some Fat Boy Slim or Chemical Brothers and go tearing out - not Kenny G. The sound effects comprise your usual racing game stuff - squealing tires, purring engines and an assortment of environment ambience, nothing ground-breaking here.

You have your choice of several modes of game play, but the meat ‘n potatoes is the Career mode, where you try and overcome many challenges while unlocking new cars and features. But before I get too far ahead, lets touch on a bizarre combination of driving and the game Dance Dance Revolution, another Konami title. During a race, several lines will pop up on the side of roads, whereby you need to drive through them at certain speeds for max points-FUN! Umm…not really.

Back to the Career mode though… here you have no currency, but points that you spend on upgrades and such. But what is maddening about these is they are sparse to come by, especially early on. It’s a tedious balance of going for the win versus staying cautious and placing at an intermediate level to avoid being docked points by hitting cars, going off course etc. You can actually receive a wealth of cars - 40 companies worth - after every completed race via raffle, an odd way to accumulate your rides.

Konami touts a special Visual Gravity System, or VGS, whereby you have a depiction for your car in your HUD that shows how physics are acting upon your vehicle, and how you can supposedly adjust off these readings. Ultimately, it doesn’t seem too helpful, just another buzzword to get more sales.

There is 2 player support, and I suppose going at it with a buddy is a decent experience, but no online play whatsoever is a big let down. Enthusia also offers support for a host of driving tools, such as the Logitech GT force steering wheel. I recall my fond memories of playing Die Hard:Trilogy with my wheel and pedal set, crashing over golf courses in ice cream trucks while chasing down bombs set to explode…. good times. Unfortunately I sold that many moons ago, so I didn’t get to test out the visceral rubber-gripping experience for this title. Shucks.

While the courses themselves are pretty forgiving with few sharp turns, the controls themselves are a bit sensitive and floaty. I felt forced to use the more reliable cars in sacrifice of speed, which sadly made the game seem less exciting. There are your adjustable preferences for novice to advanced drivers, but the aforementioned issues don’t seem to be affected much by any tweaking.

As I mentioned above, the controls are unforgiving and finicky. On a good note though, the menus are easy to navigate and the HUD, if a bit busy, has a lot of good detail and information that helps you excel at keeping ahead of the pack.

Enthusia: Professional Driving with mediocre graphics, suspect controls and an awkward Career mode frankly doesn’t do enough to overtake the checker flag champ, Gran Turismo, or the more arcadey Need for Speed series. Konami should have kept this sucker in the shop a little longer before they let it drive off to wreck some poor gamer’s budget and general gaming experience. Please Konami, stick to the crazy dancing games and that one game with that… ummm, oh yes, that lovely Snake character. That one's a keeper.