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Review By: Christopher
Coey |
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| Developer: |
Rainbow
Studios |
| Publisher: |
LucasArts |
| # of
Players: |
1 |
| Genre: |
Racing |
| ESRB: |
Everyone |
| Online: |
No |
| Accessories: |
Memory
Card |
| Date
Posted: |
4-2-02 |
A lot of
readers will have played other versions of Star Wars:
Podracer already. Originally released on the N64, the game
was ported over to the Dreamcast, PC, and Mac. There was also an
arcade unit released shortly after (not a port however, a
different engine completely.) The first Podracer game came out
shortly after the release of The Phantom Menace. Rainbow
Studios has had quite some time to work on this game (it's been
four years since Episode I was released), and yet at first look
the N64 version had a LOT more to offer.
Now, I'm not going to put the two games up against each other
head-to-head. One game was made four years ago, on the N64. The
other was made for a 'next generation' system, and is advertised
as cutting-edge technology. It wouldn't be a fair comparison,
for the new game. It's not that this game is a direct sequel,
because it's not. It's a completely new game that just happens
to be based on the same thing as a game that came out years ago
(Racer Revenge is supposed to happen 8 years after the original
Episode I podrace, which would put it about a year before the
events of Episode II). But, if anyone should to want to make a
game based around Star Wars Podracing they would be smart to
include all of the components from the N64 version. It seems
like the developers of Revenge didn't bother to even play the
first game, but they might have played Super Bombad Racing (and
I'm surprised, but relieved, they didn't include Jar Jar). Plus,
a 'next generation' system should also include additional
components. I just felt there was a lot missing from this game.
Take the sound effects for instance. If you happened to be
winning a race, way out in front of the pack with no real
obstacles in front, there's almost no sound. You hear your
engine and a few ambient sounds only. You simply
drive along by yourself, staring at the screen. No tension, no
sense of 'Star Wars', nothing. I'm not really sure what I'm
looking for the developer to add here, but something. Wind
sound, screeching when you turn a corner,
dust, rocks, dirt, or whatever. But I found myself in the lead a
lot, with a lot of time to think about other things, and mostly
my thoughts were 'this is kinda boring.' Plus, the crowd sounds
reminded me a lot of the crowd
effects from EA NHL '96, i.e. FUZZ.
Then there's one of the fan-favorite characters: Watto. From
watching the movie alone, there is a lot of background on
Watto's garage, and podracer parts and equipment, not to mention
the work that pit-droids do. Are they in the game? Barely, some
pit droids can be seen in the background of the 'upgrades'
screen. But that's all there is, an upgrade SCREEN. There's an
animated Watto, but no parts or equipment, save from a written
list of various pod enhancements. The PS2 is a powerful system,
and the developers had a LOT of time to work on this game, where
are the animations?
Speaking of animations, what about some kind of racer-specific
race intro? There's the usual 'panning shot' of the current
track, but no characters. No taunts or pre-race trash talk. For
a game that distinguishes itself by way
of it's aggressive and bitter rivalries, there should have been
more shown on-screen, not just in the manual and advertisements.
I waited a long time for this game (almost as long as they had
to work on it), and I was excited about it. I LOVED the N64
version. The screen shots they released looked incredible. So
what about the graphics? Well, that's complicated. See, the
screen shots that have been shown are legit. Any still screens
look great. Incredible detail and lighting. Good particle and
blurring effects. All of which makes for a perfect picture.
However, once that picture starts to move; as in, once you are
actually playing the game, things don't look as great. All of
the right 'parts' seem to be there, but the 'whole' seems to be
lacking. It's as if the environment is TOO detailed (and the
particle effects don't behave always realistically.) Not enough
thought was taken in as to what those environments would look
like as the racers zoom by at 600mph. At some points, the
graphics are too polished, and
not gritty enough for a podracing game. At other times,
particularly the out door environments, the 'over exposed',
washed-out color look tends to make things hard to distinguish,
almost like fogging. Not to mention that there is relatively
poor sight distance, and the occasional bad pop-up (even during
the animated track intros!). These problems are inexcusable
given some of the other games that we've seen so far on this
system.
The tracks themselves are also somewhat uninspired. There are
few short-cuts, or choices to make. And the short-cuts that can
be found are extremely difficult to maneuver into, unless you
slow WAY down, which sort of kills the point of having a
short-cut. Any alternate paths usually only last a few seconds
before they rejoin the main path.
Alright, I've gone on a lot about the issues I have with this
game, and I have a lot more. But I don't want to sound TOO
negative, so I'll quickly mention one more: No re-race option.
Once you loose a race you get kicked back to Watto's garage,
then have to sit through the re-load again (unless you
specifically quit a race before it ends.) I hate that.
SO the big difference between this game and that 'other'
version, is the inclusion of pod combat. During the race, you
can actually take out the opponents by smashing into them, or
forcing them into walls and obstacles. But as far as the general
'racing' aspect of the game goes, there's no point in trying to
take anyone out. It just slows you down, then forces you to play
catch-up later in the game. The only real reason to get KOs is
to beat the track PAR. Now, does this seem weird to anyone else?
Using the term PAR in a race, referring to how many other racers
you need to eliminate. PAR is
a golf term, what's it doing in a Star Wars game?
On the other hand, if you don't bother trying to take anyone
out, most of the tracks are pretty easy. I achieved gold in each
of the first 12 races (out of 13) the first time I put in the
game. The only track that gave me any difficulty was the final
track, the Boonta Eve Classic, which was mostly an obstacle
course and not much fun. A poor climax to a sub-PAR game.
Unfortunately, winning isn't the only easy thing in the game.
It's easy to get confused, and turned around (again, I'm
reminded of Super Bombad Racing). There are a lot of blind turns
ending in walls, and a whole lot of random obstacles in the
middle of tracks.
If the only difficulty the game developers could come up with
was to make the courses hard to negotiate, so that winning comes
down to avoiding pointless obstacles and mapping out blind
turns, rather than actually racing, I call that poor game
design. This is a problem I'm seeing more and more lately,
specifically in 'branded' titles like Star Wars, or Army Men
etc. Developers need to come to realize that there are vastly
more 'experienced' Star Wars fans who are gamers, than there are
younger NEW fans. Spend some time developing for adult gamers,
or at least gear some parts of game towards them. Games are
certainly NOT for just kids anymore. If anyone needs evidence of
this, check out the sales figures for Grand Theft Auto III
or State of Emergency.
So what DID they do right? Well, the first thing that comes to
mind is the rain course. One of the tracks takes place in the
evening, on a rainy night. The rain, splash, and screen effects
were very well done (but nothing we haven't seen before.) Also,
some of the ingame commentary is amusing: "Angrier than a
shaved Wookie", "Uglier than a naked Jawa",
"Sweet Sarlac Soup!" etc. And I always love it when
games include unlockable extras like Art Galeries. In Racer
Revenge, you can unlock three separate galleries for each of:
characters, pods, and courses. Also, if you win the final
circuit you are treated to a different finale animation for each
character. The animation is showwhat interesting, although it's
a little disturbing seeing Jabba the Hutt actually being nice!
Back again, from the original pod-racer game and from the movie
are the voices of Andrew Secombe (Watto), Lewis MacLeod (Sebulba),
and Jake Lloyd (Episode I - Anakin). The most unfortunate
omission, however, is that of Dax
Gazaway (voiced by Tom Shank) from the movie's original
pod-racer scene. The game's announcer is supposed to be Dax
Gazaway, but he's voiced by some new guy and just doesn't have
the same 'zippy podrace feel' that the movie had. It's clear
that the voice actor isn't a Star Wars fan, and doesn't really
know what he was saying. I know that I'm being the geeky
over-zealous fan here, but I liked the announcer dude, and the
new guy is a poor replacement;
he sounds like he's trying to sell an 'Ab-Roller.'
HIGHS:
- Great
sense of speed, fairly good controls
- Detailed
graphics
- Probably
the last Episode I game (before a slew of Episode II titles)
LOWS:
- Poor use of
sound effects
- Too easy,
unlockable things too difficult to obtain
- Awful
upgrade system
- Few new
additions
FINAL VERDICT:
Looking at
other gaming sites and magazines, I seem to be in the minority
when I say that this game just wasn't all that great. Maybe I
was too big a fan of the original version to appreciate the
unique things that this game
has to offer. Admittedly, my first impressions of the game were
very bad. But after a while the game did grow on me. It's not
terrible, and it does have a lot of redeeming qualities. The
graphics are great, but in a limited way. Some tracks has the
over-exposed look that worked so well in ICO, but in a racing
game it just makes things harder to see. And the game is VERY
easy. If you boost into the lead, unless you make a number of
stupid mistakes, there's almost no way the other racer's can
catch you (the AI is not very 'intelligent'.) There's supposed
to be a focus on in-game aggression, but unless YOU try to
knock-out an opponent, you'll never see it. The other racers
almost never take each other out (maybe one per race
every ten races, if you've already damaged that pod yourself.)
Overall, if you never had a chance to play the original, and
love Star Wars, Podracing is always fun. But, if you're looking
for a quality race game, look somewhere else.
Overall
Score:
7.9
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