GT Advance 3: Pro Concept Racing review (Game Boy Advance)

The first two GT Advance games are widely regarded as the best racing games available for the Game Boy Advance, and THQ is hoping that lightning will strike a third time with its latest sequel, GT Advance 3: Pro Concept Racing. If you're familiar with the two previous releases, you'll recall that the first game, GT Advance: Championship Racing, was a realistic racer done in the style of the Gran Turismo series, while the second game, GT Advance 2: Rally Racing, took the action into the dirt and snow for a bit of off-road racing. Conceptually, GT Advance 3 is a combination of the two. The courses are paved and the vehicles are all city models, but car handling is slipperier than it was in the first GT Advance--meaning that lengthy drifts and fishtail slides are now integral to successful race strategy.

One of the game's nicer aspects is its car selection. In all, there are 97 cars in the game, hailing from manufacturers such as Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, and Toyota. To start with, your initial garage contains only a dozen or so vehicles, but you'll earn an additional car for each first-place finish you achieve. The game also includes a tuning menu that allows you to install performance upgrades, which you can earn for first- and second-place finishes in specific races. Upgrade options include engine, muffler, suspension, limited-slip differential, air filter, seats, CPU, and weight reduction--each influencing overall handling, speed, and acceleration to varying degrees.

The courses in GT Advance 3 are lengthier than those in GT Advance, and they're also much better at challenging your driving skills. U-turns, S-curves, and combination hairpins are more common, and you'll participate in a fair number of nighttime and rainy-day races as well. In all, there are 40 tracks, which you'll unlock by completing races in the five classes of the championship mode. A new feature of GT Advance 3 is its license tests. Before you begin a set of races in the championship mode, you have to successfully complete three test situations in order to qualify for that particular racing class.