In the tradition of American muscle cars, the Ford motor company is trying to expand its product by coming to the video game market place. Do Eidos and Ford get a head start off the line in the race against other PSP racers, or does the duo stall?

Features

• Classic Ford muscle cars up to the present day
  
• Up to 6 players for online multiplayer and all 37 courses are playable
  
• Progressive car damage
  

Gameplay

Ford, Bold Moves is a racing simulator and not an all out sprint to the finish arcade racer. Eidos and Ford worked together to deliver as true of a driving experience, and the simulated cars fill the stereotype, sluggish and not the best handling. This racing simulator is reminiscent of TOCA Racing meaning that the player will have to apply racing techniques such as drafting, blocking and most importantly, braking to outsmart the competition. Aside from simple single player races, Ford, Bold Moves includes Team play. In this mode, the player will be able to control his or her teammate by ordering the computer to block, or boost. Single player racing options include “Solo Race,” “Elimination," “Time Attack,” “Solo Overtake,” “Solo Duel,” and “Solo Speed Attack.” Team play expands on the game options by adding “Team Drop,” “Team Defend,” "Team Pursuit,” “Team Spirit,” “Team Overload and Lone Wolf.”

Driving is simple and intuitive; X accelerates, Square brakes and puts the car in reverse, Circle uses the handbrakes, and Triangle changes the camera view. The Left and Right shoulder buttons initiate the Team block and boost respectively and steering is done with either the directional pad or the analog stick.

Graphics & Audio

Ford, Bold Moves is not by any means a graphic master piece on the PSP. The cars are blocky and the surfaces don’t seem smooth or clean. When the car takes damage from other cars or from the course the damage takes a long time to render and show up on the car. The course obstacles such as light poles and trees will damage the car, but will not break away or disappear, but will disorientate your car; sometimes the car will drive right through without any resistance, but other times your car will ricochet into the nearest wall. The HUD shows all the usual racing info: race positions, lap number, time elapsed, MPH, and a map of the course. The audio is mainly the sounds of the engine running and the breaks squealing, and the crash sounds are rather generic.

Final Word

Ford, Bold Moves is a rather generic racing title with little innovation. The game features the classic line up of traditional Ford muscle and racing cars as well as selected models from Shelby. Coupled with mediocre graphics and generic audio effects, this title stalls out before the finish line.