There are rare few games on PSP that stand out, let alone a licensed game with naught but Fords to drive. I would rave for a while about my dislike for Fords and how Holdens are infinitely better (even though I really like Honda, I'd have to appeal to the masses), but after playing LA Duel, I can't. Wedged between a 1971 Mustang Mach 1 and a 2005 Ford GT, I can't help but revel in a manufacturer that has some sweet looking muscle cars tucked under its large, metallic chassis (cars don't have belts, so I had to substitute).

It's red, so it goes faster.

Loading up Ford Street Racing LA Duel was a pleasant surprise. Knocking about Career mode, where racing earns you credit to purchase and repair cars and to unlock new and faster tournaments, I selected the 'Solo' mode over 'Team', chose a nice looking 1962 Thunderbird low-rider from the first two cars in my garage, picked a nice shade of metallic blue paint and took to the first tournament. After spending some time looking at the loading screen (but not too long thankfully), I was presented with a smooth, beautifully rendered track filled with eight cars, big green arrows to define the course and some beefy engine sounds. The car handled like a tank and you'd be forgiven for thinking tread-less tires were fitted for all the sliding around I did – but it handled like I imagine it should. Impressive.

After a hard-fought win in a race that resembled a demolition derby, with aggressive AI and a tightly packed field, I noticed my car was mangled somewhat, so into the garage I went to spend some of that hard earned credit to repair the car. Unnecessary waste though, as I soon realised the visual damage I'd done had no bearing on performance. "Hey, there's a 'showroom'," I thought, whilst looking at the easily navigated menu screen. And that's when I bought another car, something faster, like a Mustang GT.

After knocking off more races and unlocking more cars, I noticed how different each car felt to drive. The older Mustangs, and most of the other cars in the 'Classic' collection, had more power and terrible handling but could be flung into corners with little more than letting off the accelerator. 'Performance' cars, such as the Escort RS and even the Bronco Concept four-wheel drive, required smooth braking before the corner, hard acceleration out and handled like a dream. The awesome 'High Performance' Ford GT and GT90's demonstrated just how smooth and quick LA Duel could be and needed precise braking and cornering techniques to safely win races. It's just nice when a game has a set of cars that feel unique to drive and it makes choosing the right car for your style of driving and the race type essential.

Nice use of dynamic lighting, there.

Something else makes Ford Street Racing LA Duel fun to play and that's the 'Team' racing mode, where the game becomes slightly more than a standard racer. In 'Team' mode, you select two cars to meet the particular tournaments racing criteria and are thrown into one of 11 different and interesting race modes. To spice up the two-car racing is the ability to switch on the fly the car you control, additionally, sitting at the top of the screen are two little icons, one for 'Block', the other for 'Boost'. If you thought you'd miss out on a little NOS action, you're wrong.

Boosting gives the team car closest to the back of the pack a burst of speed, then when that car overtakes the one in front, the boost is provided to the new back runner. Yo-yoing boost between the two cars lets you make your way through the pack faster and once ahead, lets both of your team cars make a nice lead, providing the other teams aren't boosting your behind themselves. Enabling blocking makes your car emit a red glow. If another car sticks too close to a blocking car then their engine is cut, losing speed and control. The closer two team cars are together, the better the block and faster the boost, making tactics an important part of the game.

So many game modes, so little time. Along with classic and elimination style games, there's a novelty 'overtake', where completion is achieved upon overtaking a set number of cars, 'team pursuit' puts you in control of two cars with the goal of catching up and overtaking a faster car than yours, 'team drop' eliminates the team with the last placing car per lap and even more. Every mode is well constructed and the added features in team modes make racing faster, more aggressive and thoughtful than most other racers, showing up pathetic team concepts in games like Juiced.

Is it just me, or do these cars have no drivers?

I didn't get a chance to play multi-player but it appears to be a pretty straightforward affair, with a choice of most game modes, full rack of AI opponents and everything else. Unfortunately, you need two copies of the game to play, which we don't.

A couple of things are missing from Ford Street Racing LA Duel that could have made the experience much better than it already is.
1) A rear-view mirror. That's right, there is no possible way of looking back to block charging cars unless you remove your finger from the thumb stick long enough to tap the d-pad down to look backwards, making it very difficult to block at all.
2) Besides the repetitive and crappy midi-sounding menu music, there isn't a drop of audio entertainment whilst racing. So, unless you're at home blasting the stereo and playing PSP, all you'll hear is the sound of engines. It's not so bad and does emphasize the racing but it would be nice to hear something other than the whining of a turbo or the chug of a classic beast. These exclusions do not make the game unplayable by all means, but they would have made for a more lasting experience.

Ford, noun - car manufacturer with a pile of fast, great looking, high-quality and well respected cars that, when thrown to a company such as Xplosiv, become well rendered, unique digital beasts making for one enjoyable racing experience.

If you're a fan of Fords, then this is the racing game on PSP for you. However, if you own Wipeout Pure, Ridge Racer or another decent racer and you're a Holden fan, give it a miss.