Star Wars Episode I: Racer

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Genre: Racing Release Date: Available Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Lucas Arts System: Nintendo 64

That all-important line was, "I'm the only human that can do it."

Immediately I thought to myself, "I could probably do it." When the pod race scene occurred I had a few doubts but still retained hope.

Later, I got a chance to find out the truth, to find out if I could do it, thanks to Lucasarts' Star Wars Racer.

The game takes the single pod race from the movie, and expands it into a full-length game. You start off on the Boonta training course, and must race your way to the Boonta Eve Classic, the race featured in the movie. As you prepare for the Boonta training course there is a limited selection of pods, and you must free up more racers and courses by placing in the top four on a given race. Eventually you can race over twenty-four courses on eight different planets, using one of twenty-three different pods.

Don't plan on reading any signs on the roadside from your pod. At the ludicrous speed at which they travel this is, I'm sorry to say, completely impossible. As Qui-Gon says, pod racing is very fast and very dangerous. In fact I would say that no other racing game has captured the feel of insane speed through extremely narrow passageways the way this game does.

Then again, this game captures everything extraordinarily well. The graphics are great, and Racer is compatible with the expansion pak. The expansion pak allows you to play in high resolution, providing remarkable graphics. The different components of the pod, the cockpit and two engines, are all independent entities, and react as such with the movement of the pod. Sparks fly as your engine scrapes a cavern wall (not something I recommend doing), smoke changes color if your engines start to overheat (also not recommended), and your pod changes color as lighting changes. Smaller outcroppings of rock or ice shatter as your pod smashes through them at high speed and your pod explodes as it smashes into larger outcroppings of rock or ice. There are even spots on a few of the courses where you are genuinely annoyed by realistic glare from one or more suns burning directly in front of you (strangely enough I mean that as a good thing).

All of this takes place among a variety of detailed environments. From the frozen icy caverns of Ando Prime or the lush jungle fauna of Baroonda to the dilapidated gas mines of Ord Ibanna or the prison and mining camps of Oovo IV, the scenery that surrounds the course is remarkably detailed. The only drawback to this is due to the speed at which you travel, there is hardly time to enjoy it. The only real chance you get is the brief intro to each course that usually shows a key point of the course or the starting area.

Sound is also very nice, playing music from the Episode I soundtrack at times, as well as a nice tune hummed by Watto while the race results are displayed. Well it's as nice as can be expected from Watto, anyway. The ability to insult your opponents is well presented by different voices for each of the over twenty different racers in the game, who speak Huttese in different accents and inflections. The only English you will hear comes from Anakin, the announcer, or Watto the disgruntled parts dealer. The pods scream through the courses with sounds similar to those I remember from the movie, and the grinding of metal on metal that accompanies flying sparks is how I would imagine it to sound. Few of the courses have audible ambient sounds, but this is perfectly rational due to the volume and speed of the pods.

Watto seems to have created a corporation of his shop, as you can find it and it's wares no matter which of the eight planets you happen to be racing on. At his shop you can upgrade your pod making it move faster, handle better, or even repair faster. If the new parts are out of your price range, you can pick up some secondhand equipment out back in his junkyard

The play control is extremely responsive, which is definitely necessary due to the speed that some of the turns are taken at. Even the most basic pods that haven't been upgraded respond to every touch of the controls, however, I would not recommend using them, as they naturally respond poorly in reflection of their lower quality. However, this ultra-responsive control leads to a small problem that makes crashing an easy thing to do because you have to use the control stick. In order to go faster, and to turbo boost, you must hold the control stick forward. I have found it is extremely easy to accidentally move it to the side while holding it forward, sending your pod careening into all sorts of unpleasant things, (but careening is generally unpleasant regardless of what you careen into).

The challenge is definitely present, as the difficulty steadily increases after the first four races or so. I remained challenged throughout the game, and still have not managed my way to the Boonta Eve Classic, the final race of the game.

There are a couple of other minor problems with Star Wars Racer that need to be mentioned. First of all, in narrow passages on some courses, it is often extremely difficult to figure out which way the course is going. This could lead to the course going one way, and your pod going the other, causing you to think "Ohhh, it was a wall..." as you explode into tiny bits. If you are anything like me, you will be less calm after several similar occurrences. Also, since there are many small secret openings that lead to shortcuts, many times you see a new secret, only to discover that the secret was just a target for your pod to smash into.

To make this worse, as I mentioned, there are eight planets and twenty-four courses. This means that obviously, multiple visits to each planet are necessary. The unfortunate part of this is the fact that not only does this make several courses very similar, it makes parts of those courses identical. For instance, there are several races on a planet called Aquilaris that is covered with water. Due to certain passages being blocked and unblocked, in the first two races on this planet, about a quarter of the course is identical. This gets even more annoying when the repeated place is one where the course goes the wrong way (obviously it wasn't my pod that was wrong).

As I have mentioned, there are still several courses I have not cleared. In this game, you must clear a race to go onto the next one, so I have several races that I haven't even played yet. I have never been very fond of this system, in any game. You also must free up the various pod racers in the same way, which means you don't get Sebulba until you win the Boonta Eve Classic, which is the final race of the game. I also disliked this, since at the rate I am going, it is possible that I will never get to race as Sebulba, which is logical since he is the racer I wanted to use to begin with.

The worst side effect of this is the fact that you must free up both courses and racers for use in multiplayer games. This wouldn't be so horrible, except for the fact that you can only free them up racing single player. Thus, odds are the player who owns the game will have the good, well upgraded pods, giving the owner not only the advantage of experience, but technology as well.

On the other hand, multiplayer games run just as well as single player. This is probably because there is a maximum of six racers during multiplayer, instead of the maximum of twelve for single player. Only two players can race at once, which is a good thing, because already with the split screen visual problems come up. The problem with the course going the wrong way is much worse in multiplayer, and in fact parts of courses that were dark in single player are doubly so in dual player mode. On a course on Oovo IV, that I hadn't raced single player yet, I found a curve towards the end of the course to be incredibly dark and impossible to navigate. The first time I raced it single player I was surprised to see that there is actually a nice path on the ground to follow that had been invisible in the two-player game.

Overall, I would say that the problems are definitely minor and appear even more so when compared with the rest of the game. The only problem that is really annoying is the fact that you must free courses and racers up for multiplayer from single player. It would be a lot more fun to race through the game multiplayer, perhaps only freeing up the track or racer for the player that placed higher. Either way, I would definitely recommend this game for any Star Wars fans, or any racing game fans. Of course, if you are a fan of both, then this is the game for you.