After the ignominious debacle of Driv3r and the near-competence of Driver: Parallel Lines, Ubisoft's purchase of the U-bend bound franchise has already yielded spawn. Driver 76's storyline occurs two years prior to the events of Parallel Lines (if anyone's masochistic enough to play these games for the plot and dialogue) and features Ray, a wheelman keen to woo the daughter of Triad boss Zhou by driving as fast as possible. With its impressive-looking New York City, car handling beautifully engineered for a tail-happy 1970s flavour and a soundtrack (featuring David Bowie's Suffragette City, Blondie's One Way Or Another, WAR's Low Rider) to match, this has its roots firmly in the decade that taste forgot.
Alas, the AI is frankly dim-witted, and quite a number of the 27 missions will have you publicly gnawing your PSP in frustration. All of which underlines the real problem - Driver 76 really isn't a patch on the Grand Theft Auto series it apes, both PSP instalments of which make this look like the limp piece of wet lettuce it is.
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