I bought this on sale, completely fueled by thirst for nostalgia. Growing up this was always a game that was out of reach for me, only playing it for half an hour at a time when at a friend's house. Each time I picked it up it was exciting enough to pique my curiosity after all the years.
Growing up in the early 2000s, Episode 1 is in engrained in my brain. From the lego sets, to the random plates and cups, it was one of the first mass media events I remember as a child, and it has helped cement the movie as one of my favourites. To say it has flaws is being generous, but I still get that feeling of being a kid whenever I turn it on.
Unfortunately, this game does not seem to have the same nostalgia blinders that the film gets the courtesy of receiving. The tracks are too long, and you are either blazing past every opponent, or at the back of the pack with no hope of regaining your places. The difficulty starts off being painfully easy and combined with the length of each race it's a snore. Some tracks are nine minutes long. Paying attention is the greater challenge than actually completing the race.
After you complete the first set of tracks the difficulty does a 180 and any mistake made in a race is met with the punishment of needing to restart. You are able to upgrade your pod, but I found this barely makes a difference because the performance of your pod is not the problem, it's the unfair NPCs and rubber banding. Some courses have decent challenge on their own and the driving feels good, but between the length of some tracks and the NPCs it made the experience feel incredibly frustrating or boring.
The only problem now is that I have zero G racing itch. Maybe it's time to go back to F-Zero X or give Wipeout a try.
Growing up in the early 2000s, Episode 1 is in engrained in my brain. From the lego sets, to the random plates and cups, it was one of the first mass media events I remember as a child, and it has helped cement the movie as one of my favourites. To say it has flaws is being generous, but I still get that feeling of being a kid whenever I turn it on.
Unfortunately, this game does not seem to have the same nostalgia blinders that the film gets the courtesy of receiving. The tracks are too long, and you are either blazing past every opponent, or at the back of the pack with no hope of regaining your places. The difficulty starts off being painfully easy and combined with the length of each race it's a snore. Some tracks are nine minutes long. Paying attention is the greater challenge than actually completing the race.
After you complete the first set of tracks the difficulty does a 180 and any mistake made in a race is met with the punishment of needing to restart. You are able to upgrade your pod, but I found this barely makes a difference because the performance of your pod is not the problem, it's the unfair NPCs and rubber banding. Some courses have decent challenge on their own and the driving feels good, but between the length of some tracks and the NPCs it made the experience feel incredibly frustrating or boring.
The only problem now is that I have zero G racing itch. Maybe it's time to go back to F-Zero X or give Wipeout a try.