This is an incredible game. I just bought it the other day and I love it. But I'm still not finished. Sure, I've beaten a few tourniments, but there is more.
See, the reason I'm writing this is because I've been reading a lot of reviews saying that it's just too easy. What they fail to mention is that even though Tournament mode is very very short, you have to play it with all your racers in order to make everything equal. In addition, there are secret characters that are unbelieveably hard to get. These are:
Episode 1 Sebulba: Win first place in all races on regular Sebulba's career.
Episode 1 Anakin: Beat the best lap time for each race (it seems easy at first, but those last two races make it almost impossible).
Watto: Beat the best 3-lap race time for each track (see above parentathis).
Darth Maul: Beat the best KO number in each race (oddly enough, it's the first race of the game that gives me the most trouble)
Darth Vader: Unlock EP1 Anakin, Watto, and Maul, then (and only then) win the tourniment with one of those three.
How difficult are these characters to get? Well, let me put it this way: I've been playing almost nonstop for a week and the only onje of the above characters I have is EP1 Sebulba (though I'm close to getting Maul).
So if you want praise for this incredible game, read some of the other reviews. However, read this one after to dispell the "too easy" myth. Sure, winning the tourniment mode with one character is wicked easy (I did it in a matter of hours). But try winning it with 18 and unlocking 5 more.
Dos neek ta tunk bantha poodoo.
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Unlike most people, I owned the PC version of the original Racer and I absolutely loved it. Even before I had seen the movie I was deeply obsessed with that game. There's nothing coller that racing inches above the ground and near sonic speeds. The sequel offers everything the first offers with a couple of exceptions and a lot of extras.
First my few complaints: there seem to be fewer tracks on fewer planets offering less variety. Basically you get the water planet (Mon Calimari), the desert planet (Tatooine), the jungle planet (Gamorra, sounds like a venereal disease, and my least favorite world), the planet with one side day and the other night, which was my favorite and maybe one other. Maybe my memroy hypes the PC version into something better than it was, but it seems that there were a lot more planets or at least a lot more tracks. Lack of variety in the tracks means the game is potentially very short, even though replayability is good.
My other problem might seem trivial, but there's no first person perspective without the pods in view. It was my favorite view on the first one for a couple of reasons. 1: the pods obstruct your view even thought they're meant to make a more realistic simulation. It's hard to see the upcoming turns and the guys in your way. 2. Without the pods it really increases the illusion of speed. It just sucked you in and made you feel like you were hauling ...
Other than these two minor complaints, this is an excellent game. There are tons of racers both old and new, including an older (non-Jake Lloyd) Anakin with a redesigned pod. I've already beat the game once with Teemto Pagalies and have every racer through Sebulba ( I think there are more, but I'll get to that later).
The music and sound, as with most Star Wars games) is excellent. Sebulba's pod still makes that cool thumping noise and the John Williams score is well... John Williams. The visuals are very impressive, especially the characters and pods. It seems like the backgrounds are a little rough and blocky at times, but I think that's to improve the frame-rate and you're going so fast you don't have time to stop and look.
One of the cool features you can unlock is the art gallery. In the gallery there are all the pods plus three that I find particularly interesting: a pod for Watto, one for Darth Maul and one for Darth Vader. In the credits there are voice acting credits for Darth Maul and Vader voices. It seems obvious that there is some way of unlocking these pods, but I don't know how and I'm dying to find out. Those Maul and Vader pods look ruthless.
The game is a lot of fun and made me remember why I loved the first one so much. There's something very cool about hitting turbo in a big underwater tube and letting the centripical force carry you upside dwon over your opponents at 600 mph. Or bursting out of one tunnel into a cavernous gap and after some mad hang-time, flying into another tunnel waaay on the other side.
Even without the Star Wars theme this is a strong game that stands on it's own. Star Wars fans or fans of high speed racing should not miss out.
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Options include single events, tournaments, and two-player mode. The tournament is where the hard hitting action is at. In tournament mode, your pod racer works his way through different race courses and earns money for pod upgrades (speed acceleration, cooling, defense, repair, etc.) along the way. The first 2 or 3 tournaments may seem to lack a serious challenge, but that all changes around the 4th or 5th round. It doesn't take much to go from 1st to last by hitting a wall. I've won races by as little as .1 seconds with the top 5 pods all coming within a few seconds of each other. I've also taken a wide turn while in 1st and finished 3rd. The game description says that speeds reach up to 600mph, but I have gone in excess of 700mph. Quality game with excellent graphics and game controlls. Would have given 5 stars, but the 2 player mode just wasn't meant to be... not enough room on the screen to accommodate it.
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I bought this for Christmas for my kids. We're all Star Wars fans, and we play it almost daily. I'm 33, and I enjoy it just as much as my kids. Racing at 500 or 600 miles an hour--what's not to like?
PROS: It recreates the feel of the Star Wars universe nicely, with opening scenes and even music from the movies as you race. There are enough tracks for plenty of variety, and the feeling of the different "alien" worlds each track is located on is created nicely. The game starts with only four tracks available to race, however, and you must win first place in a number of races in Tournament mode in order to unlock the remaining eight or so tracks. This offers challenge and incentive to progress through the game. The same goes for the pods/characters. You start the game with Anakin's pod and a few others (around seven or eight if I remember correctly), but more than half of them remain to be unlocked. I think there are a total of around 15-20 pods once all are unlocked, with Sebulba's pod being the last one to unlock. (NOTE: For those unfamiliar with Playstation games...A memory card is required for the game to recognize that tracks and pods from previous gaming sessions have already been unlocked)
CONS: The downside is it is quite challenging to win races sometimes. Also, the damage caused to your pod by bumping into obstacles can get annoying. There are no options within the game to change the level of difficulty or turn off the damage, which is really needed when you have young kids playing. My boys are four and six-years-old, and they frequently cannot finish a race because their pods reach the damage limit and explode too quickly. There is a button you can hold for a number of seconds to repair your pod, however. Still, for young kids who just want to race to have fun, it would be nice to turn that damage feature off.
I assume this game was designed for children, so I found it perplexing that I, having several hundred hours of racing games experience on a Sony Playstation 2, could not easily win each race here. I had to attempt certain races several times to win first place. Not a big deal for me--it was a fun challenge. But I'm calling it a downside to the game because my children still have yet to win any race. In fact, it's so difficult that they always come in last place. Furthermore, even when you find yourself racing really well and in the lead, taking every corner with precision, and racing at top speed, somehow the computer-controlled pods will be right on your tail the whole time and as soon as you make a mistake, they will fly right past you. I realize that this keeps the game challenging, but sometimes it would be nice to reap the rewards of building a lead.
CONCLUSION: Despite the drawbacks I've written about, this game is an excellent value. My boys and I have had hours of fun, with countless more to come. Sure, my boys don't like to come in last place every time, but they keep playing it because it's so much fun. If you can live with the drawbacks, the PROs to the game will delight you. I highly recommend this game.
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When Pod Racer came out on the N64 it was an instant hit. My friends and I spent many weekends playing it and admiring the graphics, and the sheer brutal speed of the game. Sound and game play were great too.
Now Pod Racing comes to the PS2 which is cool since I don't own an N64.
First and foremost this is a good game, it's fast, adictive and has good gameplay. I don't think that it has the brutal speed of it's fore-runner though. Nor are the graphics quite up to the task either. I think the problem with the graphics is simply that the PS2 can't anti-alias the screen, so the picture has sharp edges, not actual jaggies mind, just slightly too sharp edges, which remind you you are playing a game.
The biggest problem, for me, is the exclusion of Watto's Junk yard and store. In the N64 game you browsed the new and spare parts you wanted to buy. In this one, you simply adjust a bar representing one or other attribute of your pod. I preferred the N64's junk yard, it added character to the game. It kinda makes me wonder why too, the N64 game was cartridge based, this PS2 game has an entire CD to play with, so it's not like there wasn't room.
The addition of a combat element to the game you bash your opponents until they go bang, adds an element to the race, but at the end of the day it's still a pod race.
Is this a great game? Yes, buy it, play it. Is it better than the old Pod Racer? Well, it does remove the annoying screech of Annakin throughout the game, but apart from that, it's more of the same. The graphics are great, but don't have the smooth finish of the N64 version.
Lastly, no matter what *anyone* says, this isn't a "new" game, or "new" version, it's little more than the same game ported to the PS2. And to be honest I am very happy with that, I missed my Pod Racing. All I need now is that ice world track from the old game and a nice strong coffee to get my speed up.....
