Episode
1 Racer:
A Preliminary Review of the Nintendo64 Game
Review by Loren
Phillips
5/10/99
I had the opportunity
to play the new Episode 1 video game being released May 17 for Nintendo64. Titled
simply "Racer", the game is based on the Pod Racers from "The Phantom
Menace". It will be released for PC as well, however I have only played
the Nintendo version.
Basically, this game is nothing more than a regular racing game. The speed is button controlled and the steering is handled by the Nintendo controller joystick. Personally, I find the Playstation button steering preferable to this Nintendo joystick, which seems to overreact to the slightest movements. I haven't quite figured out why Nintendo incorporated the button controls into their pad if they aren't going to issue games that allow you to use them.
I played the game in "Free Play" mode, which allowed me to scroll throw any of the available races and play as a single racer. This was the only mode I tried for the simple fact that throughout the option screens I couldn't find any way of getting out of that mode.
| I had the option of several ships to choose from. The game has an "Inspect Ship" mode that allows you to do a 360 degree visual of the vehicle. In the campaign mode, race wins allow you to win money to add features to your ship or to repair damage resulting from races. Free play mode does not result in any damage to the vehicle. |  |
 |
You can also choose from 20 characters, including Anakin Skywalker. |
| This is fast racing. You can reduce speed to zero at anytime, but if you want to win, you have to really fly through these tracks. The track "radar" in the upper corner of the screen (seen here as a horseshoe-shaped green figure on the upper right) can normally be ignored by choice in racing games I've played, but it's a necessary piece of equipment in this game. Hairpin turns are extremely sharp, so the radar is mandatory to see them coming. There are entire sections of the track that are in total darkness, so during those sections, the radar is your only hope of completing the course. There are also multiple paths on the tracks, so the radar indicates when a fork is coming up for you to chose from. |  |
 |
All in all, I found the graphics to be of similar quality as other games as far as resolution. There are numerous tracks to play, but all are extremely similar in style, although visually set in different climates and scenes. The tunnels, which are a large portion of each track, are definitely the best part. Tunnels can be parts of ships, parts of planets, or anything, but they just seem to make the game more fun. During a few of the ship tunnels, I almost got the feeling of flying through hyperspace, with the lights going by so quickly. |
On the whole, the game is a good racing game, but not much different than any of the others I've tried. It's a great choice for racing fans, or die-hard Star Wars fans, but the $60 price tag will probably keep me from purchasing it considering all of the other racing games we have in our game library. I'll go for the Playstation adventure game first, but knowing the guys in my family, my husband will be buying "Racer" under the excuse of buying it for my son.
Fetching Results...
