Two Engines. One Champion. No Limits.
Climb on, strap in, and experience the pure adrenaline-pumping excitement of the Podracing sequence from STAR WARS™: Episode I The Phantom Menace.
Take the controls as Anakin Skywalker, or any one of over 21 Podracers, and feel the full-force blast of two mass...
Climb on, strap in, and experience the pure adrenaline-pumping excitement of the Podracing sequence from STAR WARS™: Episode I The Phantom Menace.
Take the controls as Anakin Skywalker, or any one of over 21 Podracers, and feel the full-force blast of two massive jet engines at simulated speeds of up to 600 mph. Rein in a turbine-driven chariot through 8 spectacular worlds. Negotiate through flaming methane lakes, Tusken Raider assaults, ant-gravity tunnels and much more in a pulse-punding, do-or-die fight to the finish where anyone will do anything to cross the finish line. How far will you go?
SW Racer came in period when Wipeout and F-Zero are the best in the genre. Except for Extreme G and some random clones, we don't have much options
The gamedevs don't have much access to the source material so they have to be very creative
A fast, sharp and curious SW game that in the end you need Jedi's reflexes to winning the race hehe
Controls are a bit strange (left on WASD and right on Arrow Keys) but thats old-school gaming for you. Crashes rarely after finishing race but it's negligable.
TL;DR - despite a couple areas that remind you this game was released during the Playstation/N64/ATI Rage/NVidia TNT/3DFX Voodoo days and possible wonky controls, it's still a terrific game and worth getting.
First off, this game works terrifically in Wine on both the Mac and Linux. So if you don't have a Windows machine, don't fret - Wine's got your back.
Second, this game runs extremely well in Windows 10. I installed it on machines ranging from a Core 2 Quad with GeForce 8500 graphics to a Core i7-8086k with Radeon Vega56 graphics, and both machines produced 1080p/60 effortlessly. I also put it on my wife's Core i3-7100u laptop with Intel 620 graphics and it ran a smooth 60 fps on there as well.
The only thing that can be weird for those of us that played it previously on the PC, Mac, or any of the consoles it was originally released for is the controls. If you have a DirectInput controller (Logitech F310 on "D" mode, for example), the controls can and will be exactly how you remembered them working on a PC or Mac with a dual analog stick controller (and can be set to match the DualShock controls on a Playstation). For Xinput controllers, however (Xbox 360, Xbox One, Logitech F310 on "X" mode), setting the buttons can and will get a little weird as the triggers are seen as an additional axis instead of a pair of buttons.
DirectInput and Xinput flight and driving controllers will also work. Keyboards and mice make for weird controls here, though.
Still, this game plays great even today, looks good outside of cutscenes, and the terrific compatibility with Wine makes this worth a purchase for anyone that remembers and loves this game. I'd highly recommend playing this with a gamepad or other controller, however.
The sense of speed this game offers is insane, you really do need jedi reflexes once you've upgraded your podracer. This game has 25 tracks, but once completed there are mirrored versions of the tracks so really there are 50 tracks. Following this you can then unlock a "fast" mode that makes the competition a lot more challenging for the more experienced racers. Definitely worth picking up
The only downside to this game that it's lacking the features of the other versions of the game. The dreamcast version had superior difficulty settings (the fast mode was way more challenging in this version) and had a network link to upload your high scores. The N64 version had the cheat codes including 2 secret extra podracers, more pit droids and dual stick controls to match the star wars racer arcade style. Both of these versions also had split screen options. It would be amazing if a version of this game was finally released that brought the best features of all versions of the game together for one perfect definitive version of the game. They could even make Jinn Reeso and Cy Yunga unlockable pilots that don't replace Mars Guo or Bullseye Navior. Like with its sequel, racer revenge, they could add preset lap records and track records to beat on each track. Beating every lap record could unlock Jinn Reeso, and beating every track record could unlock Cy Yunga.
This game is a must play though for any star wars or podracing fan. I hope the hype and success of this re-release will prompt a release of the arcade version of the game, as this has never once seen a re-release and is nearly impossible to find in 2019. Given the popularity of this, i hope they will soon release Racer Arcade, as well as Racer Revenge on gog.com
In the meantime, i would highly recommend picking this up.