There's a Disney Quest nearby that has a couple of Star Wars Pod Racer units linked together. The setup is awesome. You sit in the cockpit and have throttle control over each of the two pod engines. If one could imagine being in a pod race, this is what it would be like. I have fun with that game every time I'm there, which is what got me so excited about the latest pod racing game to come home, Star Wars Racer Revenge. Even though Revenge is not a straight arcade port, it just couldn't seem to shake its arcade roots, and what we're left with is an average racer with little value.
My expectations were pretty high going in based on the fact that it was developed by the very talented group at Rainbow Studios, and because I felt it might truly capture the feel from the arcade version I had played so many times. With an option that's sure to please, you can quickly dive in and change to advanced controls. This maps the throttle for each engine to the left and right analog sticks. Perfectly mimicking the arcade controls, this is surely the preferred method over gas/brake and left/right steering. Once you're out on the track, the sense of speed is amazing, especially from the cockpit views. The control is easy to pick up if you stick with default, but the advanced controls have a pretty high learning curve. The difficulty of the advanced controls is further compounded by the speed at which the pods are whipping around the track.
So, first impressions are great. I even led a few people into thinking this would be a must buy after one evening with it. The tracks are laid out in similar fashion to Wipeout or Extreme G, but it feels a little more open in Racer Revenge due to lots of wide track sections. They are intricate and interesting but ultimately flawed. The tracks run along more natural routes than man-made ones, and this facilitates opportunities for shortcuts like in Hydro Thunder. It also makes for more annoyances than anything else.
Almost every single track suffers from imperceptible walls. They just aren't defined, and it hard to tell when you are actually going to hit one. They come in the form of rock formations or plant growth, which makes it hard to tell where the track ends and the wall begins. Matters only get worse when you find that some tracks have these same formations in the middle of the road. Until you memorize the track layout, it's difficult to tell at such high speeds if you are coming up to a fork in the road or a hairpin turn.
The design problems with the tracks are moot once you consider the actual racing. Regardless of the control method chosen, you have button for sliding and a button for repairs (yes there is bumping and crashing involved), and a button for boost. The slide button is there to help you around some of the tighter turns, and the repair button keeps you in the race by fixing damage on the go. I suppose damage and repair was added in an effort to stay true to the movie, but it really doesn't belong. The whole idea of ramming into other pod racers to attempt to take them out of the race feels tacked on. I guess they couldn't decide whether to make it combat racing game (sans weapons mind you) or a conventional racing game, and it fails to perform as either.
Judging solely by the controls you have over your craft, you would think that the driving would have some depth. It's all good in theory. The shield repair button slows you down to fix the damage, so you need to balance when you repair with when you need top speed. The problem is, you don't take a very significant loss in speed during repairs. You can easily hold down the button during a narrow stretch of track or through a section of tight turns and never be passed. But easily the largest problem belongs to collision. You can wreck into opponents or walls without losing too much momentum, and then jam on the turbo boost right afterwards to make up any ground you may have lost. What's the point of the complex controls if you can basically ram and boost your way around all of the tracks?
To sum up the gameplay, it's too easy. Even with the frustrating track design, you can just careen around the tracks semi-blindly and still place well. To illustrate my point, I beat the career mode for Anakin Skywalker in one sitting placing first in all 17 events on the first try. I may be good a games, but that's pretty ridiculous.
The career mode is one of a few options for racing also including free race and versus modes. This is a good idea for replay value in theory. You pick a contender and race through 17 events. If you place third or higher you get prize money and can move on to the next race. Extra money is also offered if you KO some opponents during the race. This money is spent on upgrading the pod in similar fashion to upgrading the stats of your snowboarder in SSX. Like I said, I ignored the whole combat-type racing. I finished first in all the events, and still had my pod nearly fully upgraded by the end of the career. The career mode also unlocks extras like art galleries and new playable characters, but one run through was all it took to accomplish that.
The graphics are impressive at times, and downright ugly at others. The character selection screen really set the bar high for the rest of the game. The pods look amazing, and are chock full of animating parts. The characters themselves are genius in design and also animate well while waiting for you to pick them. Once you're out on the track I think some of the polish was sacrificed for speed. There are some areas that are just so ugly, and the poor textures only make distinguishing the walls tougher. Also, in order to get the great sense of speed, you need to play in one of the cockpit views. These views, though, block a lot of the screen with the pod engines making it all the more difficult to see oncoming traffic or (again) walls.
The sound is the strongest area of the game. It starts the game with the well-known John Williams score, and continues down onto the tracks with more up-tempo classical jaunts. It's great music to race to, and it really fits in with the Star Wars theme. The announcer also does a good job of calling the race almost like a play by play. He'll say things like, "Don't mess with Anakin," when you ram into and destroy one of your opponents. They also did an admirable job of recreating the sound of those powerful engines dragging the pods. They sound like big jet engines screaming in your face, and it's all presented in Dolby Surround Sound, which is a nice touch.
Star Wars Racer Revenge took an excellent control scheme and a promising career mode and sucked all the life out of it. Not being able to tell where the track ended and the walls began could have been a major flaw if weren't for the fact that you can still win even if you bounce off and boost your way around to the finish line. With a little better definition on the track designs and a little less arcade in the driving engine this series could really shape up to be something special, but for now I suggest you pass.
