STAR WARS EPISODE I: RACER

RELEASED OUT NOW! Reviewed on PlayStation 4

Also on Nintendo Switch

Publisher Aspyr Media

Even the grumpiest Star Wars fans have to admit that The Phantom Menace’s podracing sequence was pretty spectacular. Those high-speed racers on Tatooine offered plenty of CG adrenaline. It was almost as if that sequence was designed to spawn a videogame – and thankfully it did, released on the PC and N64 back in 1999.

Make no mistake about it, this revival is straight from Watto’s junkshop. It might still run good, but it’s a 21-year-old relic from the past. A simplistic arcade racer, it mainly requires you to focus on holding accelerate and banking your zero-G racer hard on turns (there are air brakes too for the rare truly troublesome corner).

A handful of planets, with 25 tracks, feature in the arrangedby-difficulty Tournament mode (alongside two-player, Time Trial, and Free Play), and they offer some impressive variety for the time, though little in the way of challenge. Volcanoes spew lava, ice fields reduce zero-G grip, a moonbase offers a Death Star-style trench run, and of course the original Tatooine track features, among others. Sure, the pod-racing still feels blazing fast, even with the blocky old-timey graphics, but it’s more like a rollercoaster ride than a racing challenge. There’s not a lot to keep coming back for (besides maybe multiplayer with mates), but it’s a fun retro trip while it lasts. Oscar Taylor-Kent