1001 crashes, but the game is still fun
THE GOOD
+ the game has a real sense of speed
+ controls are terrific
+ lots of characters and tracks to choose from
+ multiplayer is very competitive
THE BAD
- the AI is very unbalanced
- pop outs in the distance are distracting
Star Wars Episode 1 Racer is a game with spectacular racing for its time. The game runs incredibly smoothly thanks to the 60 framerate per second, and the sense of speed is amazing.
The games tracks are very well designed and there are like more than 20 of them. There are lots of different pod-racers to drive, each with it's own ability, some podracers are better than other.
The menus are also very well designed.
The single Player has three modes: Tournament, Time Trials and Training. The Tournament mode has you playing through all the tracks where you have to win the races. It's the main mode of the game and where you will unlock all the unlockables.
By winning races you also earn cash for upgrades for your podracer. The problem in this mode is that the Difficulty curve just goes up high to fast, and the last few races need pure perfection to win them. It's a bit out of wack. The first few races are embarrassingly easy, but then it gets hard very fast and in the last few races the AI is so darn good that you'll only win without one or at the most 2 crashes. That's why you also need the upgrades, so you'll probably just pause the race and reset it when you are about to pass the finishing line in a bad place. Yes, that's cheating, but once you raced on a track you can't replay it so it's the only way to get through the tournament.
Training mode also suffers because of that issue. The early races are very easy while the later races are incredibly tough.
You can't win or loose something, at least, but I would have liked the AI to be on all tracks challenging, but not to hard. Seriously though, it's all because of the AI. If an AI gets out of sight they then suddenly drive so fast that you have almost no chance to catch up to them, and sometimes they drive so good that you barely have a chance to keep up with them. That is, except if you can drive the track perfectly. The AI is simply unbalanced.
But, as terrible as I might have let it sound, it isn't that terrible. Although the AI is very unbalanced, it still isn't impossible, and as long as you stay in first place everything will be fine. Halfways, at least.
The graphics in Star Wars Episode 1 Racer look impressive. The environments are big and detailed, and there is a lot of variety between the looks of the courses as well. It might look just a little bit muddy at some points, but for the most time this game looks impressive. The only problem of the graphics is a problem that also holds the game back: pop outs.
Pop outs are very annoying at times because they hinder you to see the far distance of a track, and by the speed the podracers drive you should be able to look out in the distance to see what is coming next before it's to late. There where times I didn't notice what was coming next and I crashed because of that, but for the most time it still was okay.
Multiplayer is where it's at, though. Here you can play with an other friend on all the tracks and you can play without the poor AI, and it's super fun and super competitive. The game doesn't have any problems with split screen and there is no down side of the multiplayer.
Star Wars Episode 1 Racers is a really fun and speedy game, but the poor AI hurts the game a lot. I would have wished that the AI was more balanced and I would even have liked it if the AI drivers also would have the abilities the drivers have when you play it, instead the AI drivers are all the same and seriously, they can drive through the tracks almost perfectly and they barely crash somewhere. Simply put, the AI should have been more like real drivers just like player 1, but oh well. The poor AI does hurt the Single Player experience, but the two-player mode makes up for that, because it's an absolute blast.
The racing is super good integrated and the tracks and amount of podracers to drive is also very impressive.
So at the end, although the game suffers a bit because the bad programmed AI, it's still a good game and multiplayer is an absolute blast.