undefined

Product Description ------------------- Climb on, strap in and experience the pure adrenaline-pumping excitement of the Podracing sequence from Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. Take the controls as Jedi-to-be Anakin Skywalker, or any one of over 20 Podracers, and feel the full-force blast of two massive jet engines at simulated speeds of up to 600 mph. Rein in a turbine-driven chariot through 8 spectacular worlds. Negotiate through flaming methane lakes, Tusken Raider assaults, anti-gravity tunnels and much more in a pulse-pounding, do-or-die fight to the finish where anyone will do anything to cross the finish line. How far will you go? .com ---- Star Wars: Episode 1: Racer lets you participate in the famous pod race sequence that was the critical highlight of the 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace. These lightning-quick vehicles are capable of reaching simulated speeds of up to 600 miles per hour while skimming a mere 4 feet above the ground. You can race alone or against a friend in split-screen mode on more than 21 courses among eight worlds. Take the controls as Jedi-to-be Anakin Skywalker or any one of over 20 pod racers. Feel the full-force blast while avoiding hazards such as methane lakes, meteor showers, and the unfriendly Tusken Raiders. P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); From the Manufacturer --------------------- Climb on, strap in, and experience the pure adrenaline-pumping excitement of the Podracing sequence from Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace. Take the controls as Jedi-to-be Anakin Skywalker, or any one of over 20 Podracers, and feel the full-force blast of two massive jet engines at simulated speeds of up to 600 mph. Rein in a turbine-driven chariot through eight spectacular worlds. Negotiate through flaming methane lakes, Tusken Raider assaults, antigravity tunnels, and much more in a pulse-pounding, do-or-die fight to the finish where anyone will do anything to cross the finish line. How far will you go? * Relive all the thrills and excitement of the Podrace sequence from Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace. * With ers on, Podracers max out at a simulated 600 mph. * Race in furious competition against 20-plus nents. * Take on over 20 tracks in eight unique worlds. * Avoid hazards such as methane lakes, meteor showers, and Tusken Raiders. * Featuring Jake Lloyd as the voice of Anakin Skywalker. * Spectacular 3-D environments (3-D hardware required). * Sound effects and epic soundtrack taken directly from Episode I. * Supports most DirectX-compatible Force Feedback joysticks and steering wheels. * Multiplayer support. Review ------ The Force is strong with Racer, which succeeds as both a racing game and a Star Wars game. There really isn't a lot of competition for Star Wars: Episode I: Racer on either front. The driving genre hasn't had a lot of hits in the past few months, and the only other Star Wars: Episode I game is the disappointing Phantom Menace. But even if Racer had to compete with a host of other good titles for your interest, you'd still want to head over to Tatooine and suit up for the Boonta Eve classic (that's Star Wars talk for getting in gear for some pod racing). Racer is a fast and fun racing game, one that evokes memories of the PlayStation hits Wipeout and Wipeout XL. It has a little Star Wars flair to add to its appeal, but the pure racing action alone is enough to make this game a rewarding experience. Racer's best feature is its speed. The tracks streak by at a quick pace, especially in tunnels, canyons, and corridors. The illusion of zooming through circuitous levels at 500-plus miles per hour is conveyed quite successfully. It's a sensation that I haven't felt since playing Wipeout on the PlayStation, and I think it's this similar evocation of speed that made me like this game initially. Then I discovered other things about the game that reinforced my positive opinion of Racer. I like that there is an appreciable difficulty curve in the game. The beginning amateur circuit is quite easy, and you'll feel really good about yourself as you race to the number one position in race after race. However, once you move up to the semipro and then pro circuits, you'll find that the other racers are more aggressive, the tracks much more treacherous, and the races just plain harder. Take it up a notch to the invitationals, and you'll notice the racers always taking the shortcuts and really banging into you and leaving you in the dust. I also like the upgrade and parts-buying aspect. If you continue to win races, you earn money that you can use to upgrade your pod. You can improve turning, braking, acceleration, speed, and several other areas of your vehicle. Or, if you don't have enough money, you can go to Watto's junk pile and scrounge up some parts at a heavily discounted price. You're able to choose from a handful of pod racers in the beginning of the game, and more will open up for you as you win new races. I stuck with Anakin most of the way, but there are over a dozen racers from which to choose. They all have different ratings for handling, speed, and other statistics, but I didn't notice much appreciable difference between the pods. I was pleased to find that not only were there eight different worlds to race on, but that each world offered a different track for each circuit. Thus, you'll race on the ice world of Ando Prime three times, one per circuit, but each track will be different enough to constitute a totally new challenge. The graphics for the game are good overall, although the trails left when racing through snow, water, or dust, seem awfully blocky and unfinished. Some levels look particularly good, such as the antigrav mining tunnels on the prison planet Oovo IV and the underwater cities of Aquilaris. Others, like the ghost colony of Ord Ibanna, could have been better realized (the fact that I couldn't fly through this track's netting to plummet to my death from the floating city really bothered me). I would have to say the sound is decent, although I hated every time the race commentators cried, "It's a new lap record!" It made even less sense when I was in tenth position. How can I make a lap record and lose the race? Anakin's "I won! I won!" exclamation was grating at times, but I liked the angry cries of the aliens when I passed them, as well as their smug taunts when they passed me. Watto humming the Mos Eisley cantina ditty and Anakin humming the Imperial March were also nice touches. But all is not well on the pod-racing circuit. As good a game as Racer is, it suffers from a few flaws. First, the mini is bad. The entire graphic for the track looks like some blurry port from a console. The track is shown as a blocky dotted line, and the competing pods are so hard to discern because they are the same size and nearly the same color as the dots that make up the track. The poor exacerbates the second problem I have with the game: confusing track layout. Like I said earlier, I like pretty much all the tracks. They are colorful and make for some exciting and windy racing action. However, some of them are also damn confusing to race. Sometimes you can't tell which way you are supposed to go, either because the path blends too closely into the surrounding terrain, or there are no markings pointing you in the right direction, or certain graphic elements look like pathways and turn out to be dead-ends. The track hardly helps because it doesn't show enough of the track. The third issue I have with the game is a request: Give us some weapons! This game would have been excellent if we could drop some spikes, bombs, or grease trails behind us to impede nents. I understand that rockets and missiles wouldn't work because the pod racing is based on the movie, but LucasArts could have squeezed in dynamic sabotage, such as throwing garbage behind you or casting some grease bombs or spikes on the track. Once you unlock Sebulba you can use his side-shooting flame jet, and that wasn't even in the movie, so I know the designers could have tried to squeeze in a few more sabotage weapons. Multiplayer gameplay is fun, because the game itself is fun, but without a way to add computer players to multiplayer races, the game loses some of its appeal. Overall, though, Racer offers good gameplay. Its sense of speed is great, especially when you are whipping past corridors and canyons at 600mph. The graphics for the most part look good; the tracks are plentiful, varied, and interesting; and the racing experience is plain fun. -- Elliott Chin --Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc. -- GameSpot Review See more ( javascript:void(0) )