Electronic Arts’ annual F1 offering finally makes its debut on the Nintendo Gamecube, despite being a little late to catch the start of the season. Officially licensed by Formula One Administration Limited, F1 2002 features all the drivers, teams, cars and tracks from the 2002 FIA Formula One World Championship. We feel it is our duty, however, to tell you that this is not the same game as F1 2002 on the Playstation 2, but a port of the 2001 game. Including the two newest teams, Toyota and Renault, F1 2002 recreates comprehensively the whole Formula One experience, giving the player the chance to compete for the illustrious F1 crown. Selecting from 22 drivers and 11 teams from the current F1 season, players race through the complete 17 track Grand Prix. A challenge mode is available, which allows the player to unlock various aspects and options of the game, such as manual transmission and car damage, whilst also serving as a beginners’ training mode. It may sound a bit annoying but it is a handy place to start the game, as it allows players to become familiar with the controls and features. The main game, as one would expect, features the usual array of car set-up, practice laps, warm-ups, and qualifying stages followed, of course, by the full race itself. The visuals in F1 2002, as expected, are looking exceptionally nice. The tracks have been faithfully recreated and generally manage to fly by at a respectable frame rate. An impressive array of effects are on display, such as smoke, rain, heat distortion and reflections, the attention to detail most noticeable when observing the cars’ interactions with the environment (watch for skid marks). As with most EA Sports releases, F1 2002 is very thorough. It’s all very official and all possible options are included. The fact that this is a conversion of last year’s game and not the same game as the current PS2 release is misleading to say the least, but is not necessarily a bad thing. A great many people would agree that this is a superior game anyway.