Growing up, almost every little boy had a box of tiny Matchbox cars they use to spend hours playing with. We'd make exaggerated "vroom vroooooom" sounds revving their imaginary engines, over-blown "eeeeerrrrrrrrr" sounds sliding them round invisible hairpins, and no sound at all as we ran and hid after our Dad tripped over a little Lamborghini we'd left lying at the top of the stairs and had to spend the next 48 hours in Casualty having his broken legs plastered and the extendable ladder of the miniature fire engine unfortunately parked at the bottom of the stairs carefully removed from his rectum.

Adolescent owners of such vast automotive collections usually gravitated towards one of two personality types. The collector - who spent their time meticulously polishing and parading their vehicles, or the racer - who was responsible for more than a few of the chips in the skirting boards. After years of waiting, the first ever Gran Turismo on the PSP definitely belongs to the former school rather than the latter, and places the strongest emphasis so far on Polyphony Digital's choice of words in describing their series as "The Real Driving Simulator" rather than something like "The Greatest Racer Ever".

As is seemingly a mandatory requirement for any title in the GT series, the handheld version of Gran Turismo comes packing a huge amount of cars. In fact it crams the PSP so full of them it's surprising not the see the rear wing of a Nissan Skyline poking out of the top of your little console. There are 800 in total from the ridiculous, like the Daihatsu Midget, to the ridiculously expensive Ferrari 2007 F1 car. Front wheeled family saloons, like the Honda Accord, rub shoulders with rear wheel drive racers such as the Lotus Elise, and four wheel drive off-roaders like the Lancia Delta Rally Car. While the handling models for each of the vehicles lack some of the subtleties present in the series' outings on the larger Playstations - something emphasised by the resection in tuning options to only the most important and impacting features - each car still has its' own, distinct personality and there remains a respectable number of variables to tinker with including suspension and aerodynamics.

There can likewise be no complaints about a lack of different venues at which to test drive this vast catalogue of machines. There are 35 tracks in total, many of which can also be raced in reverse or come with multiple layouts. Dirt and ice tracks, city course, real and imaginary locations all feature in a greatest hits of Gran Turismo's varied portfolio; with the dust clouds and confusion of the winding Grand-Canyon-edge course sitting in stark contrast to the regular and precise thoroughfares of Paris, which look like they've been designed using a set-square.

The on-screen action is smooth. No, wait. Let me rephrase that. The on-screen action is immaculately smooth, with the work Kazunori Yamauchi and his team have put in to get the game running at 60 frames-per-second bearing glorious fruit. While trackside objects in the foreground aren't quite up to the same visual standard as the cars and the backgrounds, it's nothing short of impressive that Polyphony have managed to get something so fast looking so good on a PSP. In fact, the presentation throughout the whole game shines like it's just been through the ultra-premium-super-deluxe programme at your local car wash, with the menu screens possessing the same modern yet classic style found in most super car brochures.

With graphics, car and track rosters all easily ticking the necessary boxes it seems as if GT PSP is set to sail through its' M.O.T. with flying colours; but, unfortunately, when it comes to the racing itself it turns out that a considerable sized spanner has been thrown into the works.

All of the races are battled out between a measly four cars, that's including yours, and the A.I. of your computer controlled opponents sadly retains the utter blandness which has become standard for the series - disciplined, neatly spaced, never rash and rarely veering from the racing line - it's almost like watching a sensible driving display team. Once again there's also no damage, and, while the odd spark may fly, collisions feel more like your car is being cushioned, as they come with no feeling of weight or impact to them or negative consequences.

The real point of controversy with GT PSP, however, concerns the route Polyphony have decided to take with the game's single player experience. There are three options, Time Trial, where you pick a car from the ones your own, pick a track and then try and set the fastest lap; Drift Trial, where you pick a car from the ones you own, pick a track and then drive a small portion of it trying to drift through the gates placed on a handful of corners to rack up as many drift points as possible; and Single Races, where you pick a car from the ones you own, pick a track and then take on three A.I. competitors with increasing cash amounts awarded depending on which position you're in at the chequered flag. There's no career mode, no season, not even an option for pre-set or custom series of races. So what do you do with yourself? Well that's entirely up to you. The credits (GT's in-game currency) you earn in drift trials and single races can be used to purchase new cars, with the ultimate object being to own every one included in the game. As you progress your driver level will increase, allowing you to choose to compete against tougher opponents for larger rewards, but GT always leaves it up to you to make your own fun; and while it's nice to bask in the freedom of never having to do anything you don't fancy, racer-types especially need some sort of focus, a championship to strive for or a rival to vanquish and not having it here leaves a big dent in GT's gleaming bodywork.

Besides the time trials, drift trials and single races the only other single player option available is the Challenge Mode. An extension of the licence tests in other GT games, Challenge sets you blocks of tasks, each of which is based around improving a certain area of your driving. Things start off easily enough, with the usual come-to-a-stop-in-the-required-zone tests, but swiftly move on to more demanding techniques, such as advanced cornering and mastering difficult situations - which sadly doesn't include locking yourself out of your car while on your way to a fancy dress party dressed as Boy George. The challenges are varied and well designed to tempt multiple retries, with three trophies - gold, silver and bronze - available on each depending on your performance, and, more importantly, credits awarded for each level achieved.

When you've completed them all, or had enough for the time being, it's back, once again, to filling up your garage with new purchases. Although, by way of a strange restriction, which sits in complete contrast to the free-wheeling attitude of the rest of the game, you can only browse four car dealerships at any one time, with those available switching in and out after most races, and often not all of these will feature their full line up of cars.

While Gran Turismo doesn't accommodate any online play, its range of ad-hoc multiplayer features definitely win it back some valuable points. Despite being limited to one-off races, both the party and shuffle modes do a good job of ensuring balanced and exciting contests, with the former allowing for handicaps like head starts, while the latter divvies up a pool of vehicles, with the best performing drivers from the previous race getting the worst cars in the next one. Away from the track the inclusion of the ability to give cars from your collection to friends or trade with them one-for-one is an almost vital one considering the framework of the game, and provides more than a little insight into the things that are most important to the developers.

Gran Turismo was originally slated to be released for the PSP when the machine first launched five years ago. If it had, it would have been regarded as a stunning showcase for the new handheld's technology, which would have likely resulted in many more units sold and, round about now, the release of a sequel that dealt with the game's shortcomings. Making its debut today, however, GT on the PSP is an eye opening title. The lack of space on the system has meant that Polyphony have had to decide which features they value the most and, on the face of it, it seems that a near faultless visual standard and encyclopaedic range of vehicles have triumphed at the cost of any kind of real competitive single play challenge. Gran Turismo PSP is Polyphony's Pokémon and, as such, one that's more for the Jay Lenos amongst us rather than the James Hunts.

Reviewed by James Hamblin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).