Game ReviewsStar Wars Episode 1 Racer from LucasArts We have to admit we were a bit skeptical about Star Wars Episode 1 Racer, the new offering from LucasArts. Although we have a lot of respect for the quality of LucasArts games and have enjoyed several of the earlier Star Wars-related games, did the world really need another racing simulation game? Plus, we were initially put off by the $45 street price for the game. When we found it on sale at the local BestBuy for $30, we decided to check it out. And the result: pleasantly surprised. Yes, this is another racer, but it has enough unique angles and so accurately reflects the speed and excitement of the race in the movie, we give it a high rating. Plus, it's just real damn fast. Read on. Overview In case you are one of the three people in the world yet to see the new Star Wars movie, a little explanation is due. In the movie, pod racers are nifty contraptions perhaps best described as super chariots. The horses are replaced by two massive jet engines and the actual chariot is replaced by a small pod that flies behind the engines connected by cables. The two engines are connected by an electric arc between them. The racers are extremely difficult to fly and our "hero" in the movie, young Anakin Skywalker, is the only human who can handle the task.
In the game, you can fly as Anakin or one of several other alien racers. The game offers single player tournament play, single player "free" play and (our favorite, of course) multiplayer modes. In all modes you can race on a number of tracks on different planets against the number of opponents you choose. You also can select the number of laps of the track and the "speed" of the other racers, essentially setting the difficulty of the game. In tournament play, every win racks up money that you can use to buy parts and upgrade your racer. That's a neat option that adds a lot more variety to the game. As usual, the game comes with a ton of options for graphics, sounds and controllers (joysticks, etc). Installation/Network Setup Installation was quite easy, but get ready to eat up a ton of hard drive space. The folder on our computer takes up 188 megs! LAN network play requires IPX since there is no TCP/IP option. Fans of internet play will be disappointed to find that option missing. On the LucasArts web page, they explain in great detail that the graphics in the game simply move to fast to be able to play over the internet. Even a small data loss would mean a pod could be complete off course in no time. Gameplay Gameplay is outstanding. With a short learning curve, you can link up with another player and blast around a course in no time. You truly feel like you're rocketing down the course at 400-600 mph only feet off the ground. Very cool. Lucas Arts recommends (c'mon forget the worthless "minimum requirements") a Pentium 200, 64mb of RAM, and a 3D accelerated graphics card. Two of our game machines met this recommendation and one (a 166Mhz with 64mb of RAM and a Monster 3D video card) only met the "minimum requirement." Needless to say, the game was difficult to play with the third machine. Even a barely noticeable hesitation made the pods difficult to control with the joystick. Bottom line: if you don't have a recommended system, we'd skip this game unless you have a LOT of patience. Summary If you were blown away by the pod racing scene in the movie, you're likely going to like this game. Particularly if you can find it for $30 or less, as we did. The action is extremely fast and engaging. We have to mark off a bit, though, for the game being a bit limited in scope. It's not that there was necessarily a lot more you could do with this game, it's just that we expect a whole lot from games in the $40 and above price range. Take a look at games like Half Life and Descent 3. You'll see what we mean. These and other games simply open up whole worlds with lots of interaction and bends and twists. Here in Racer, we get some neat tracks and a few neat racers. Not bad at all, but a bit limited. Still, if you want a neat way to relive the exciting pod racer movie sequence over and over, take a good look at this game. A demo is available, but we haven't downloaded it to be able to assess the quality. Check it out here. Grade = A- Details
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