Dreamcast

Star Wars: Episode I - Racer

The illusion of speed is effective, and the game does a fine job of capturing the spirit of the film. But is it worth the upgrade if you already own the N64 version? No. In fact, unless you compared both versions side-to-side, you'd never be able to tell the difference.

Episode I Racer is basically no different to the PC version released some time ago and as such is a little disappointing. It would have been nice if some of the criticisms levelled at the game all that time ago had been addressed. Never the less, Episode I Racer is a very playable futuristic racer, which would perhaps have benefited more from the introduction of weapons than it has from the incredibly irritating alien voice samples of your opponents. Much like the film, Episode I Racer is not terrible when taken at face value but definitely fails to live up to expectations.

While the lack of any major enhancements (like internet play) is an utter disappointment, especially considering the power of the console, it still retains the feel of Episode 1. If you have yet to experience the game, this is the version to go with. The graphics, while not breathtaking, are sufficient and the sound just screams Star Wars.

Racer is an incredibly fast, superfun game to play once you get a few levels into it. While it may be true that it doesn't come close to tapping the graphic and audio capabilities of the system and that it's release comes far later than it should have, the gameplay is still very solid, and it fills the futuristic racing niche for the Dreamcast nicely.

Au final, Star Wars Racer déçoit. La fraîcheur et la rapidité qui avaient émerveillé les précédentes versions semblent bien plus pâles maintenant. Ce qui a pour effet principal de stigmatiser les quelques défauts du jeu. On a tout de même un jeu rapide et intéressant mais pas le hit auquel on aurait pu s'attendre.

Overall, Episode 1 Racer isn't the worst Star Wars game (Rebellion, Force Commander, The Phantom Menace, and Jedi Power Battles are worse), but the graphics are nowhere near the level that is expected on the Dreamcast, and there isn't really anything here that we haven't already played on the N64 and PC. Developers need to stop shoveling graphically inferior titles onto GD-Roms and just tossing them into the market. Rayman 2 shows that a game can be multi-platform and still look absolutely amazing on each system it hits. Why is it that we have to settle for this?