Hello everyone and welcome to my overview of My First Gran Turismo. I recently fully completed the game and wanted to write an opinion piece of it, but you may ask why there’s two reviews of it. That’s because fellow co-writer for the website, Nirast, wrote his own opinion piece on it from the perspective of a newcomer to the franchise (and not that familiar with racing games in general). I’ll instead be writing about the game from the perspective of a series veteran, and I feel like both viewpoints of the game are justified when considering the target audience here. I’ve been a fan of the franchise for close to 20 years now, and I’ve played nearly every game that exists. If you’re a long-time fan of the franchise like me, this review will be more your speed (excuse the car pun). Otherwise, you’ll probably prefer sticking to Nirast’s review if you’re similarly unfamiliar with the series.

What is My First Gran Turismo?

Good question.

My First Gran Turismo is in many ways, analogous to Gran Turismo 4 Prologue and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, which were both tiny little games released before their proper respective numbered entry to give players a taste of Gran Turismo 4 or 5 before the game would be released and they would buy them for themselves. My First Gran Turismo is very much like that for Gran Turismo 7, except this game was released after Gran Turismo 7 instead of before it. It not only serves a very similar purpose, but is structured in nearly the same exact way.

The game has just about all of the standard bells and whistles that you’d find in a typical Gran Turismo game: A license mode, races, and a tiny bit of side content. And it’s all condensed into a tiny little package. Even though the game is aimed primarily at people new to the series, it does have driving modes aimed at experts in the case that you’re a series fan that decided to play the game anyway out of curiosity. No matter who you are, there’s something for you. This is also reflective in trying to get gold on all of the license tests and time trials. If you enjoy the borderline masochistic grind of trying to get every gold trophy, there’s that for even the pros. Granted, that very well may also be a result of me using the Expert driving options. Time Trial also exists as an equivalent to the S license in previous games, only not advertised as such.

Same cannot be said about the races though. There are a total of only three races as at each of the three tracks in the game (more on that in the next paragraph) and each one was a slouch to win even on the highest difficulty, though seeing as the game is primarily aimed at new players, it was probably made easy on purpose to accommodate for this. Music Rally from GT7 also features in this game too, which is basically an arcade-like sprint to cover the most distance before the song ends, and you’re scored based on how far you traveled. This is also quite easy, but it’s a fun piece of side content that’s representative of the full game.

There are a total of only three tracks in the game: Trial Mountain, Deep Forest, and the Miyabi section of the Kyoto Driving Park. This is actually a really nice selection of tracks since it encompasses two “legacy” tracks that have existed in every numbered game in the franchise since the first game, and one that was new to the series in GT Sport and carried over to GT7. All three of them are also original tracks that show Polyphony Digital’s legacy of being the king of original racing game tracks. Even though this is a very short selection, this is probably the best selection they could’ve possibly chosen if they were only going to have this many tracks.

If you’re not trying to grind for every gold trophy in the game like I did, this game will probably take you somewhere in between a half-hour to a full hour to beat. But what’s at the end of the tunnel? Surely this game isn’t just an hour-long romp for absolutely nothing, right? And you would be right because the reward for 100%-ing the game is really sick! If you manage to do this, you’ll get gifts in Gran Turismo 7 that will net you all 18 cars in the game for free.

For a new player, this reward is honestly a double-edged sword. On one hand, you get to start the game with a lot of really good cars. On the other hand… you get to start the game with a lot of really good cars. This does mean that your sense of progression throughout the game will be hampered a bit when you already have both a 911 Turbo and a Countach in your garage. If you’ve already completed a bit of GT7 though, then this is just another reward on top of your garage, and that’s always fun. It’ll even help you complete some of those menu books.

Do I Recommend it For Series Veterans?

But before we move onto the final verdict, it’s time to give this game a DougScore.

Starting with the Weekend categories:

  • Styling is copied directly from GT7, which itself copies its styling from GT Sport, but the way those games look is quite nice, so I don’t mind this and it gets an 8 out of 10.
  • Acceleration is not high for most cars. The 911 Turbo and the Countach are quite fast, but the game otherwise errs on the slow end of cars and it gets a 4 out of 10.
  • Handling is absolutely perfect. I experienced no frame slowdowns, crashes, or weird bugs. It runs perfectly and it gets a perfect 10 out of 10.
  • Fun Factor is a bit of a weird one. The fun is quite short lived, but it maintains the typical Gran Turismo fun during that small amount of time and it gets a 7 out of 10.
  • Cool Factor swings in both directions here. It’s a bit weird to see a tiny Gran Turismo game like this, but I appreciate PD for trying something new and it gets a 5 out of 10, for a total Weekend score of 34 out of 50.

Next up, we have the Daily categories:

  • Features is something the game is both light and heavy on. It’s impressive how much there is for how small the game is, but it’s still a demo game and it gets a 5 out of 10.
  • Comfort is quite high. It’s easy to just sit down, relax and play the game, and it gets an 8 out of 10.
  • Quality is something that Polyphony Digital prides itself on, and this game is no exception to that. Everything is taken great care of and it gets a 9 out of 10.
  • Practicality is good, but not amazing. The game doesn’t take up much space, but you get what you paid that much space for. It’s a fair trade-off and it gets a 6 out of 10.
  • Value is the game’s highest point. It’s a game that costs no money to play and it nets you 4 to 5 million USD worth of cars… for free! It’s no surprise that this gets a 10 out of 10, for a Daily score of 38 out of 50.

Add it up and the total DougScore is 72 out of 100. This is one of the highest scores given, tying with cars like the Monza SP1 and the Nevera, and only one point behind both of the Bugatti Chiron models.

To close out the review, this game is very good for racing game players of all kinds (Gran Turismo or not). The game is literally free, so there’s no loss for trying it and not liking it. But if you do like it, it nets you some absolutely awesome rewards for Gran Turismo 7. Players new to the series will love it for being a risk-free way to discover one of the best racing game franchises to ever exist, and long-time fans of the series will love it as a fun little time sink to get more out of the franchise, get some new cars for the garage, and possibly stave off a little bit longer until we get an announcement for Gran Turismo 8.

Basically what I’m saying is that you're even mildly interested in playing Gran Turismo… just get the game! I played the first game for the first time on a demo disc all the way back in 2004, and it was that short little two-minute gameplay loop that got me hooked onto wanting to try the franchise. All these years later, and it's my favorite video game franchise ever made. I can imagine a little kid as young as I was playing this game for the first time and getting into the series that way. That'd be very similar to how I got into it.