Special seasonal expansion packs of games have a long tradition. Among the many Lemmings expansions released in the wake of its success, a large number were short Christmas-themed level sets. In 1994, the Christmas issue of Amiga Format included a short free game called Cannon Soccer, a variation of Cannon Fodder in which you fought against teams from Sensible Soccer on snow covered pitches. Outside of the UK and the Amiga, Sega released a promotional version of one of their big Saturn releases called Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams. As a chance to play a cut-down version of a familiar favourite mixed with festive excitement, they were all well-received.
Gran Turismo Concept 2002 Tokyo-Geneva is basically equivalent to those, but for people for whom the Tokyo Motor Show is Christmas, and the Geneva Motor Show is Easter.
With one of the most honest blurbs around, the back of its box says ‘It’s not complicated. It’s not difficult.’ This comes after putting ‘arcade challenge’ and ‘instant fix’ in large bold type. Based on Gran Turismo 3 but slashing the number of cars and tracks available, it offers little of the same range of things to do. You still have to do a ‘course licence’ time trial and beat a target time to access races on each track, because this is Gran Turismo after all. But it does a good job of throwing races at you without needing to mess around buying cars or doing ten different tests.
That small scope proves a bit of a boon, in a weird sort of way. Gran Turismo 3 had its own arcade mode, but I found it far too tempting to get right into the detail. And as I worked my way up through championships to buy a Jaguar, I never got as far as doing any rally races. With so few alternatives, I soon did the rally trials in Gran Turismo Concept and had a great time sliding round the hairpins of Tahiti Maze and trying not to spin 180 degrees on the Swiss Alps track.
As a distillation of the appeal of the driving and racing experience of Gran Turismo 3, it’s a good demo. It wasn’t a demo or a prologue, though, but a full release afterwards. And yet, with one very limited unlockable exception, it has no new tracks. It has few activities, and doesn’t even have new songs on the soundtrack. The only draw it has of its own is new cars, including those shown off at the shows in the title. It offers the chance to race in new concept cars, without too much faffing around, and it’s very focused on that one thing.
What I realised, though, is that I just don’t care enough about cars for it to do much for me. I enjoy collecting cars in other Gran Turismo games, from the ones I’ve heard of to the bizarre and unusual I definitely haven’t. I even enjoy reading the descriptions of them sometimes. But I enjoy the collecting in the context of the series’s upgrade and race and reward loops, as much as mementos of my steadily accumulated progress as anything else. Just being available from a menu screen or unlocked in quick succession gives none of that. It’s funny, but it took until the instant fix Gran Turismo game to find one that I’m too much of a casual for.
Top of the charts for week ending 27 July 2002:
UK games: Gran Turismo Concept 2002 Tokyo-Geneva (Polyphony/Sony, PS2) 
Japan games: Super Mario Sunshine (Nintendo, Gamecube) 
UK films: Austin Powers in Goldmember 
UK singles: Gareth Gates – Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake) 
UK albums: Red Hot Chili Peppers – By the Way