2001 · Kuju Ltd. · Racing · Simulation

Lotus Challenge

Timed PlayStation exclusive

Racing game, featuring 37 cars licensed by England's prestigious manufacturer, from vintage roadsters to high-tech concept cars designed by Lotus Engineers exclusively for the game. Players compete on 15 race tracks, ranging from highly detailed real-world city locations to exhilarating custom circuits and speedways. The game features five modes. In addition to standard racing challenges, Lotus Challenge there is also an innovative Story mode, requiring the player to perform a variety of stunts, missions and challenges -- weaving through oncoming traffic to escape the paparazzi, hill-climbs on treacherous, snowy alpine tracks, being filmed jumping lines of school buses for adverts and many others. The GameCube version, previously referred to as Lotus Extreme, is based on the Motor Trend-licensed game of the same name on Xbox.

Released: 2 November 2001
Platforms: GameCube PlayStation 2 Windows Xbox
Genres: Racing Simulation
Developers: Kuju Ltd.
Publishers: UTV Ignition Games
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Third person
Themes: Action
Country: England
Age ratings: ESRB E USK 0

About

Lotus Challenge is a racing game developed by Kuju Entertainment and published in 2001 for PlayStation 2 by Virgin Interactive. Versions followed for Windows, GameCube, and Xbox from different publishers.

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Lotus Extreme Challenge is a racing game featuring a variety of Lotus cars from different eras. The game includes multiple gameplay modes:

Story Mode: Players start with a basic car and compete in races to earn money, build a racing team, and participate in championships. Over time, they unlock better cars and gain movie contracts for stunt driving challenges.

Development

Virgin Interactive first announced the game for the PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Windows in August 2000 for an early-2001 release. The game was renamed Lotus Extreme Challenge in November 2000 with a North American release planned to be published by Interplay Entertainment, although this never came to circulation. The game would eventually see its release under its former name. The PlayStation 2 version was later ported to Japan and published by MTO on 26 December 2002.

In March 2002, Virgin Interactive announced they would release the game on the Xbox under the name of Lotus Arcade before reverting to its former name, with the announcement that the Xbox version would feature major improvements over the PS2 version. The game was due for a release in Europe by Virgin in September but this never happened. In November 2002, Xicat Interactive announced they would release the game in North America instead as an Xbox exclusive, with a GameCube port also announced. In December 2002, Xicat secured a licensing deal with Motor Trend to rename the title as Motor Trend Presents Lotus Challenge, with the Xbox version originally scheduled for release in late January 2003, before it was somewhat delayed to the end of April. The GameCube version was due for a release in August but was pulled for unknown reasons.

Reception

The Xbox version received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. GameSpy, GameZone, and Extended Play gave it above-average to mixed reviews while it was still in development.

The game sold more than 130,000 units for the PlayStation 2.