Star Wars: Episode I Racer

Reviews / previews

Review: Star Wars Episode 1: Racer

But, in the end, it's Star Wars Episode 1: Racer itself that's likely to sell them.

Racer pounds along at a mean pace. It pits the dual-engined podracers against each other in a variety of Ben Hur settings--all with the purpose of gaining more cash to upgrade your racer with new turbines, better repair functions, and more responsive air brakes.

As you progress through the races, you find that the challenges get tougher, the AI of other racers quickly adapts and becomes more aggressive, and the tracks become complex. And, at this point, the games other cool feature, hidden routes and time-warping shortcuts, kicks in. You'll find yourself discovering ways to get around the tracks that will shave seconds off your time.

Although the action/adventure (reviewed here) follows the movie's plot closely, you'll find Racer veers somewhat off course. You can still pick Anakin Skywalker or a host of other racers at the start, and as you clear each track you can also win competing racers' pods. It's like racing for pink slips--all with a Star Wars flair.

Graphically, the game smokes the competition, making most other futuristic racing games look like Flash Gordon. Extensive detail on the pods, smoke trails, lens flares, and wildly imaginative tracks--spread throughout the whole Star Wars galaxy--all move the game along at a speedy clip, while the symphonic music of the film dominates the opening sequences and the final laps. (Sadly, the music does not accompany you throughout a lengthy race.)

Control is a breeze, even without a force feedback joystick. The mouse and keyboard will do fine, unless you want to seriously burn the competition in a multiplayer race, which works well even with machines of varying speeds, and also re-creates the heightened tension and heart-pounding podrace sequence from the movie.

But don't expect a lot of head-thumping chariot-combat racing, Judah Ben Skywalker. The game is amazingly weapon-free, with a heartfelt insult or two your only recourse to being bumped around the track. If you win all the races (24 total, including four invitational races), you compete against Sebulba for his ship, which also spouts flames at the opposition (there always has to be one intergalactic hellion in the bunch.) You remember Sebulba? He was the podracing pilot that looked like a cross between Joe Camel and Amelia Earhart.

Like the action/adventure, Racer requires a 3D accelerator and performs best on a hefty system like a P2 300 with a Voodoo 2 board. (Anything less is oh-so First Trilogy, if you know what I mean.) The in-race insults from aliens get annoying. And the game is too shortand way too easy in the beginning levels.

But Racer will definitely have Star Wars fans glued to their keyboards, and even the uninitiated will find the grueling turns, engine burns, and canyon squirms to be a hot time at the old track tonight. Go pod racer, go!-- Lawrence Neves / GamePro