STAR WARS™ Episode I: Racer

Finally GOG has it! Do not wait, its working, its working! Totally worth the money. Races are extremely entertaining, fast and intuitive. Just like in the movie. Yes, there is a couple of bugs, but who cares?

This is one of the most enjoyable racing games ever made. The graphics are indicative of the time periode this game was made in (1999) butt are charming to game in regardless. Wonderfully enough you can set the games resolution to your monitors native resoltion (for me 2560x1080). The keyboard controls work well, but I wish there was controller support. The game itself features a hand full of tracks (not as many as you might like) that are fun to race on because they work for the way the pods race, feature various short cuts, and each map looks unique. This game really brings part of the Star Wars universe to life. I owned this game years ago but gave up on running it as compatability with windows became an issue. Glad to see this game on gog!

I wouldn't have known about this game unless my grandmother didn't have it installed on her Windows 98 PC for some reason (I was the only one who ever played it). Things the game does right: - Vehicle damage. Having consequences for boosting ahead makes it feel more rewarding. - A layer of verticality. It's not space racing. It's not car racing. It's something in between. Flying in this game is just gliding, which really fits well to the theme. - Controller configuration. It is incredibly easy to configure a controller. It took me less than a minute to tweak the default settings to work on a Xbox 360 controller. - For a racing game of its time, it has quite a lot of depth in vehicle selection and upgrades. Things the games doesn't do right: - Controls. They aged pretty well considering the added verticality, but there are some things that aren't that great. Menus just glitch out if using a mouse and are pretty hard to navigate with the keyboard. For boosting, you need to glide down first, which is just annoying and doesn't feel like it has any other purpose other than annoying you. Things the port does right: - Resolution. Maybe I'm a bit biased, because I bought it on day 1 it launched on GOG, but going from 1024x768 (or some more exotic resolutions) to 1920x1080 after the second hot-fix, was amazing.

I have a weird time with racing games. I love them, and I really really want to show them that I do, but it usually just doesn't feel right. Forza is a beautiful franchise, and can really put you in the drivers seat! I never played one game more than 10 hours before i would never play it again. Repetition in sims felt like a chore. Then they can feel way too Arcade-ish. Like Cruisin USA on a Console or PC, where its just race after race with increasingly better cars and increasingly improved competition. Fun for a while, but not more than an hour. I'd keep them around for a short distraction. But then there is this. I almost passed on it due to my obse....due to my deep appreciation for the original Original Trilogy, which caused me to see so many EP1 merch as seeds of evil. But this game, with easy to pick up and play Arcade racing combined with an as-deep-as-you-want-to-take-it upgrade system, and with uniquely balanced unlockable Racers, you can play through multiple multiple times, each time with a new racer, a new stat to focus on and strengthen, and it feels refreshed and new. Each time. Just save Neva Key for the last racer you try. You wont race any boring old Pod again. Neva Key and the Inverted Pod will become your favorite, since there is no one better, end of discussion, no argument! ;) maybe some...

Glad to finally get a version that runs on a modern PC. Game runs smooth as butter reflecting a well done optimisation job. Game captures the sense of speed perfectly authetically encapsulating the feel of being a podracer. Anyone that plays as anyone else apart from the Toong Ben Quadinaros is a sleemo, and deserves to get blasted by Sebulba's exhaust vents on the final lap of the Boonta Eve classic.