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Rating: Average Star Wars Episode I: Racer is a decent game, but it doesn't come close to living up to the massive amount of hype surrounding it. The game is very much like Wipeout XL in style, only nowhere near as good. While the vehicles in Racer look nothing like the vehicles in Wipeout XL, the environments and the general feel of the game are very similar to Psygnosis' smash hit. One of the game's biggest flaws is its complete lack of strategic gameplay. All you really have to do in order to win is hold down the accelerator button and avoid the obstacles on the courses. This can be said of many racing games, but that doesn't make it excusable. In addition, Racer is very, very fast, but this speed actually works to its disadvantage more than it helps. The life-threatening obstacles on the courses are so plentiful and pop up so quickly that there is often little chance to avoid them. There's nothing more frustrating than racing along and all of a sudden dying after crashing into an obstacle that you had no real chance to avoid. The game's graphics can be summarized very quickly. They're good (especially if you have the N64's Expansion Pak), but not good enough to really impress. Maybe I've just been spoiled by early glimpses at the Dreamcast, but there was nothing in Racer's graphics that really amazed me. Also, while the game features many characters to choose from, most of them feel like they were just thrown in. This particular flaw isn't really LucasArts' fault, though. The pod racing sequence in the movie focused so exclusively on Anakin and Sebulba that it's very hard for any of the other characters in the game to develop any kind of personality. Racer's weakest area is probably its sound. Buying parts to upgrade your pod is always a painful experience because you have to go to Watto's Shop and listen to him ramble on with phrases that almost seem like they were intentionally made annoying. Not only that, but Watto keeps reapeating the same few phrases over and over again, making him even more aggravating. As if Watto weren't bad enough, the in-game voice-overs are even more repetitive and annoying. The speed of the game requires intense concentration, and nothing takes your mind off the race quicker than little "Annie" Skywalker yelling, "Ahh!" or "Hey!" every time his pod suffers damage. You can't even repair your pod without listening to him (in an extremely annoying voice) say "It's working! It's working!" every single freakin' time. It worked the last 20 times; why are you so excited that it's working again? This could be forgiven if you could simply turn the voice-overs off, but you can't do that without turning off the rest of the sound effects as well. Doing this makes the game completely silent most of the time because the music only plays at certain points (mainly on the final lap of any given race), and there's no option to always have it on. Like most LucasArts games, this one couldn't stand on its own merits if it didn't have the Star Wars license. Even with the license, Star Wars Episode I: Racer still isn't good enough to be worth buying.
© 2001 ivan@mastergamer.com