Driving Episode I Racer

Star Wars: Episode I is out and crowds are lining up. This week, gamers also get a chance to play Episode I with the first games for the PC based on the movie. One of those games, Star Wars: Episode I: Racer brings players into the world of pod racing, a futuristic sport where the winner takes all in a hovering cart built atop two amazingly powerful thrusters - imagine clamping a go cart to two jet engines and you get the idea.

Fans of the movie looking for fast-paced racing action inspired by the Boonta Classic race in Episode I won't be disappointed. The game lets players to race at up to 600 scale miles an hour against some of the nastiest racing fiends this side of Naboo. Players will choose from six players. They will have their own unique pods and race over seven courses.

A call to the local Electronics Boutique confirmed that the Racer and LucasArts' action-adventure game The Phantom Menace have been selling extremely well. One EB store in the San Francisco area said that LucasArts shipped large amounts of the game to retailers, in anticipation of the masses of gamers heading to stores this week to purchase the games.

Here are some of the early shots we pulled from a retail version of the game. GameSpot will be posting a full report in review form later next week.