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Super Bombad Racing Hands-On

"Super Bombad" is a Gungan term that loosely translates to "supercool." But is Lucas Learning's entry into the kart-racing genre exciting enough to earn that title? We spent some time with an early build to find out.

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Star Wars Super Bombad Racing takes the popular characters of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace and slaps them into a kart-racing game that, while primarily designed for a younger audience, should still hold appeal for anyone looking for a little nontraditional kart action.

If there's an official storyline to Super Bombad Racing, it hasn't surfaced yet. From the looks of things, you're simply out to win - whatever way you can. The game has several different modes: the standard race mode, the arena combat mode, the challenge mode, and the co-op race mode. The standard race and arena don't add anything new to the kart-racing genre, but the other two modes are slightly more interesting. The challenge mode allows you to race a track, then race against your own AI, which should then react somewhat to your presence. The co-op racing mode allows you and a friend to race as a team; one player can stay back and play defense while another player tries to take first.

Super Bombad Racing offers a whole slew of characters and courses from Episode I. You'll be able to play as Anakin, Boss Nass, Jar Jar, Sebulba, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Amidala, and Darth Maul himself. Each character all flies his or her appropriate craft - Sebulba flies a podracer, Amidala flies her shiny ship, Darth Maul flies the Sith Inetceptor, and so on. The game will feature nine different racetracks and four different arena tracks. You'll be able to race it out on Corsucant, over the Tatooine podracing course, through the jungles of Naboo, and others, as well as battle it out on the plains of Naboo, over the Sarlacc pit, and so on. Lucas Learning hinted that the game will probably feature hidden characters and tracks from episodes four through six, but was hesitant to delve into concrete details.

Playing the game is reminiscent of other kart-racing games, with a few noticeable differences. Since you're not on wheels, Super Bombad Racing really takes advantage of the vertical aspect of racing. There are high paths, low paths, pits, jumps, and all other sorts of vertical oddities. To ensure that you'll be able to fully appreciate the vertical element, Super Bombad Racing lets you jump a fairly sporting distance at any time - in some courses you can jump to higher ledges, jump to reach power-ups or shortcuts, and in some cases, jump simply to stay alive. On one course on Corsucant, you'll have to jump from one large ship to the next. You have a shield-energy meter at the bottom of your screen that acts as your health gauge. Every time you run into something, your shield will activate and some of your shield energy will be depleted. Hit an obstacle without any shield energy and you'll spin out. What would a kart racer be without power-ups? SBR has this department covered, with a total of 25 different powers split into five distinctive groupings. Some power-ups give you speed boosts or shield energy, while others can be used for offensive and defensive purposes. But the meat of the gameplay is the down and dirty kart racing. You'll use the analog stick to control your character and the X button to accelerate. The controls are extremely responsive, almost to the point of throwing you off when you first pick up the controller.

The tracks are simply huge, and they feature tons of shortcuts and breakable objects. Each level has a home character that races that track especially well - down to knowing all the secret shortcuts and taking advantage of the level's peculiarities. The detail is extremely nice, and there's tons of stuff going on in the backgrounds. The characters themselves look pretty good - like huge-headed cartoon versions of the actual characters. The game speeds along at a fairly nice frame rate, although it sometimes gets choppy when there's lots of action. Lucas Learning promised that there will be an absolute minimum amount of slowdown in the final product, and it is still busy optimizing the current code.

The music definitely has a Star Wars feel, though it's been altered considerably to fit the cartoonish nature of the game. The game's producer went so far as to call it "Star Wars surf music," and that description is fitting. The main theme is a loony take on the Imperial March, with tons of xylophones and horns that offset the classic orchestral sound of the piece. The game also features tons of voice work, as each character taunts other the characters and goads the player to do better. The voices are pretty funny, but the constant taunting might drive some players insane.

Super Bombad Racing still has a long way to go before it's ready to ship in February, but Lucas Learning seems to have an excellent grasp of what it needs to improve to make what's already a great start into an excellent game. And while serious Star Wars fans may turn up their noses at the childish premise of the game, unreserved gamers who want to experience a little mindless racing fun should get a kick out of Super Bombad Racing.

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