Bam! did a better-than-great job of converting Driven to the 'Cube.  They must be very familiar with the GC controller because they put every command in the right place.  The over-sized A button is used as the main button in most games because that's what Nintendo wanted.  But in Driven, pressing the A button will activate the rear-view camera angle.  It sounds strange, but it feels very natural.  I had no problems whatsoever.  Great job, Bam!

Driven is one of the few games available that uses the GameCube controller's analog shoulder buttons.  Everybody knows that they feel great as regular, single-function buttons, but how do they stack up when put to the pressure-sensitive test?  While Sony's Dual-Shock 2 is still king, Nintendo has developed a solid controller that functions pretty well in almost every situation.  In Driven's case, it functions better than "pretty well."  Seriously -- the GameCube controller feels like it was made for this game!

Playing through Driven again was a lot of fun.  The cinematic races and intense crashes really capture the essence of the film.  If you haven't seen the movie, who cares -- a good game is a good game, and you don't have to know a thing about the movie to enjoy it.  I'm sure that some of you hate the movie, and that's fine too.  Personally, I don't even think about the movie when I'm playing the game.  They're two separate things.  One is a non-interactive story, the other is a video game that puts the competition to shame.  Formula 1 racing games are not my cup of tea.  I could list the reasons here, but I don't think I have enough space, so I'll just get to the point: Driven is the savior of the genre.  I didn't have any interest in the genre until Driven was unveiled early last year.  Hopefully this game will turn out to be a catalyst, rather than a one-time thing.  Of course, it's up to the developers to make that happen.  I know I can count on Bam! to deliver a great sequel (assuming the movie license extends that far), but one game isn't enough to keep a genre alive.

Bottom line: if you don't have Driven, now is the best time to get it.  Resident Evil isn't due out for a few more weeks, and Super Mario Sunshine won't be released for several months.  For that reason alone, Driven is a great buy.  Don't get me wrong -- this is not a substitute game like Diddy Kong Racing was in 1997.  I feel that it complements the GameCube lineup.  There aren't many racing games on the console, so hopefully more people will give Driven the attention it deserves.

Gameplay: 8.1
After playing the PSone version, I had hoped to have a new experience with the game on Nintendo's console.  Unfortunately, this is just another port.  In Bam!'s defense, they released the game pretty quickly (less than six month after the PS2 version).  Most gamers haven't experienced Driven on any platform, so to them, this is a new game.

Graphics: 7.5 
The graphics are a little cleaner, but other than that, Driven is identical to the PS2 version.  That's not a bad thing, but with games like Resident Evil coming out later this month, GameCube's standards (visually) have risen quite a bit.  I still like the cinematic Zone effect, and the transition from the cartoon loading screen to the polygonal race is pretty cool.

Sound: 4.5
Driven's soundtrack is like a broken record because every song repeats itself.  The sound effects and voice-overs are much better, but they're not as good (or as entertaining) as they could have been.

Difficulty: 7
Driven is one of the hardest racing games on the GameCube.  With tough opponents, good track design and decent AI, Driven is fairly hard to beat.

Concept: 5.5
As an original game on the PlayStation 2, Driven is a great concept that translated into a really good game.  On GameCube, it's not much more than a port of an old game.

Multiplayer: 6.5
Driven doesn't take multiplayer racing to new heights, but it is pretty fun.

Overall: 7.5
Bam! beats the competition to the market with the first Formula 1-style racing game on the 'Cube.  I don't usually like Formula 1 racers, but Driven's action-oriented gameplay; smoother controls; cool graphics and better track designs make it easy to enjoy.  Arcade racing fans should be pleased by this one.