With some Star Wars fever going on, I’ve decided to start a series of Star Wars game Reviews. First of all is a racing game for the N64 (Dreamcast too), more specifically, a “podracing” game. Basically, a character sits in a small pod attached by cable to two engines, which carry the pod at an extremely high speed. This comes from a certain scene in Episode 1 of Star Wars with a big podrace. Of course, anyone with sense knows for sure that the podracing was mainly put in the movie for games, toys, and the like. Still, it is a pretty exciting scene the first time you see it.

As with all of my Reviews, this game is rated on a 0-4 star scale. Any of you with trouble understanding this
probably shouldn’t be here.

Graphics: ***

The graphics aren’t excellent, unless you have an Expansion Pak in your N64, which will greatly improve the look of your game. Still, they’re good for the N64. The courses look great, especially the icy ones. If you zoom in on a character too much, you’ll see how poor the graphics really are, so I suggest always looking from afar. (Seriously, I actually get a little sickened by bad-looking characters in video games.) This game was released about dead center in the middle of the N64’s life span, which explains why it isn’t perfect in graphics, but at least things look nice. Without an Expansion Pak, the score would be 2 or 2 1/2 stars.

Sound: 1/2

Uh, what music? The only good stuff is a few lines characters say and the opening menu’s music. The rest
of this game has nearly inaudible music tunes or none at all, or music that just suddenly turns on at the beginning of the last lap, then fades away slowly. I know they could have done better.

Difficulty: ****

What a surprise! This game’s so difficult, as you start out with pathetic podracers against good ones, and you explode too much. Plus, the computers start off ahead of you and don’t make mistakes. This makes them incredibly hard to pass. Now if you use the big cheat for this game that unlocks practically everything and lets you become invincible and make the computers super slow, sure, it will be easy. In fact, that’s what I did, after I pretty much gave up on the game. It’s a shame. I firmly believe that games should not be so hard that they discourage players the first time they play it. I feel a game should start out easy and end up hard. All truly successful games are that way. But for some reason, this, and the other two Star Wars games I have as well, are so hard it’s impossible to win without cheating.

Characters: **

Well, this is a mixed bag. Sure, you’ve got Anakin Skywalker and Sebulba, and then you have 25 guys no one cares about. The characters are pretty cool, which earns some points, but you won’t care about them, which loses some points. All in all, this game gets an average rating in this category.

Controls: ***

The controls are pretty simple: A to accelerate, B to brake, Control Stick to steer, R to repair, and double R to blast opponents with fire (only with Sebulba, though). There are other controls too, but due to the fact that I can’t remember them, it proves to me that the controls aren’t perfect. Perfect controls need to be easy to remember, but all those C buttons do something and I don’t know what.

Tracks: ***1/2

Wow! Some of these tracks are just plain fantastic! You’re going to go through icy mazes, lava caves, jungles, desert, large obstacle rocks, and more in this game. Oh, those “space” levels are fantastic! You
feel like you’re just floating in space, and other times you’re in big metal mazes. Very, very good, I have to say, with the only exception being that most of the tracks are so long, it will take 15 minutes to finish them, and that’s with invincibility and excellent speed and acceleration turned on!

Concept: ***

This has to earn a good rating, as it was a good idea to make this into a game. I think this was purposely put in the movie just to make money off it, though. I know, I always have the cynical business ideas, but when it comes to games, there always are the cheap money-makers.

Multiplayer Mode: 1/2

This is a downfall to the game. Why have only a two-player mode? Why not three and four players? I don’t get it when game makers decide to go cheap and cut the multiplayer department short big-time, as most games’ popularity will come down to its multiplayer abilities. This one falls well short in this category.

Replayability: ***

There are lots of tracks to try, and they’re also available in reverse as well. Plus, the two-player mode adds extra excitement. Unfortunately, there’s no three- or four-player bash, nor are the tracks any shorter. Still, it’s good to play over and over.

Fun Factor!: *1/2

Well, this game’s fun to a certain extent. Sometimes it’s funny when your podracer blows up, or fun if you’re in a close race with another live opponent. But in other cases, it can be quite boring, if you’re killing or getting killed as in race positions. And the fact that it’s rarely neck-and-neck, especially with computers, is enough to make the game just plain aggravating.

OVERALL: **

Yes, this game gets the dreaded two-star rating. It’s not exciting enough to be a good game. It’s not short
enough to be a bad game, either. Should you buy it, rent it, or skip it? My recommendation is definitely to rent it. Sure, you won’t get to unlock much, which is why you may want to buy it, but you won’t get stuck with lots of boredom and get completely discouraged from constantly losing, which is why you may want to skip it. It’s very tough to call. I’d rent it, if I were you, but someone spent $60 on it instead and gave it to me. It’s not worth that much, unfortunately. Still, it’s not a bad game, just not a good one either. So rent it!

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