The fastest racing game I've ever played!

Author's Rating:

Pros: SWEET speed effects, deep strategy, strong A.I.

Cons: Slow loading, useless pit crew, repetitive voice samples.

Author's Review
Star Wars Episode 1 Racer for the Dreamcast is loads of fun, but it does have a few problems in its execution.

Let me start with the things I HATED about this game:

1) "Real time repairs": I really hated this feature because as far as I know, nothing ever got repaired! The instruction booklet prompts you to buy the max number of "pit droids" (4) as soon as possible for 1000 drukuts (the "currency" in the game) a piece, but I've no earthly idea why. The only benefit I could see to buying these overpriced gadgets was mere window dressing. I still found myself having to replace damaged items with system upgrades. Whoopi. Doo.

2) Aside from "tournament mode", there is no saving of tracks and vehicles. BOO!! I spent an entire night opening up tracks and pods on the "practice circuit" only to find that only my high scores were recorded. This ENRAGED me. What is the point of a practice mode when you can't go back and practice any time you want?

Okay, enough of the bad, let's get to the good stuff:

This "Racer" cooks! With Tibennium Gas! I have NEVER felt the sensation of speed this game delivers! When your pod racer has its acceleration and top speed beefed up, you are in for some edge-of-your-seat, hold-on-for-dear-life racing power! Unbelievable stuff!

The graphics are a little low-brow--the character models and vehicles would have benefited from having a few more polygons thrown at them--but more than suffice. The environments are crisply drawn, tho' you will have a hard time really focussing on them since they rush by so fast! The only time I noticed any fog was on the worlds where fog was a natural obstacle, otherwise the only short-coming I noticed was a little draw-in in the distance, but nothing to hamper the over-all experience.

The game-play is surprisingly deep--maybe not on the lines of "Gran Turismo", but a lot deeper than most racing games on the market. You have the opportunity to upgrade all facets of your pod from traction (a little puzzling since you float above the ground) to turning radius to braking, as well as how fast you make repairs on the fly. All these features are well executed and allow for much strategy while competing against the other racers on the track. In other words, the fastest racer isn't always gonna get you to the finish line, I actually found I had to down grade certain aspects of my ship to stay on some of the tracks! Way cool!

The tracks start out pretty easy, but the learning curve goes up sharply once you graduate to the intermediate circuits. All have nice short cuts--but you don't necessarily have to know them all in order to win. I don't know about you, but I like knowing that actual driving skills are more important than trying to ferret out shorter paths to the finish line. If you DO find a short cut, it's just that, a SHORT CUT, not simply the only way you can win (see Hydro Thunder).

The A.I. is very nice, too. Computer opponents are wily and decisive in the way they negotiate the tracks and/or take you out: if they are in a lighter racer they will generally focus on the course and give you a wide berth, but if they're racing in a well-armored vehicle, LOOK OUT! They'll knock you out of the sky any way they can! Each opponent has their own personality and taunts, if they don't like you, rest assured they'll let you know.

The sound is a little bit of a let down. While the music is top-notch, it was kind of a bummer to find that most of the pods sound alike. Oh, well, no big deal. And Watto will most likely get on your nerves everytime you go shopping for new parts. But repetitive voice samples are to be expected. One odd thing I noticed was how your particular character reacts to collisions and near misses--he screams out "whoa" (or some equivalent thereof) AFTER the incident actually happens, instead of WHEN it's happening. Wierd.

Overall, I found this game to be immensely satisfying. Sure, it could've been a little prettier, and would definitely be nice to save practice tracks (or at least to be able to practice on tracks opened during a tournament). And load times are definitely too slow, but for butt kicking racing enjoyment, no fan should be without this game.