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DEVELOPER
Human Entertainment
PUBLISHER
UbiSoft
AVAILABLE
Now
MEDIUM
Cartridge
PLAYERS
One
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 inally,
after months of waiting, UbiSoft has answered the prayers of N64 owners
everywhere. F1 Pole Position 64 is the first true racing simulation for
the system. Every driver, car and track from the 1996 season is included,
save Jaques Villeneuve, who's been replaced with 'Driver-X'.
Players have the option of doing a full season, single races or time
trials. In season mode you go up against every other driver on the circuit
in pursuit of the world points championship. In arcade mode you choose
your track and weather you want to race against one driver or the entire
field. Time trial is pretty self-explanatory.
F1 also comes with a full complement of options. Race length, fuel percentage,
tire compound and steering sensitivity are just the tip of the iceberg.
One particularly nice feature is the fact that there are three different
control options to choose from. 'SNES' mode allows you to use the digital
pad to steer with the buttons controlling acceleration and braking. 'Left'
mode uses the analogue stick for acceleration and braking, while 'right'
mode uses it for steering. It's nice to see a game truly taking advantage
of the N64 controller's versatility.
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The car models are some of the nicest on a home console
to date.
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I have a sort of love/hate relationship with the gameplay. While it's
solid and very responsive, it could have used a little tweaking. It doesn't
seem to be quite tight enough. Otherwise, there's a lot of realism here,
including transmission failures. That is to say that it's possible for
your car to actually drop a gear, forcing you to manually shift from first
to third, even though you may be running and automatic transmission. I
can't remember a console game that ever did this before, making it quite
unique among its peers.
The car models used in F1 are gorgeous; they really show off what the
N64 hardware can do. In fact, the entire game looks quite good. Everything
is solid, the tracks are modeled realistically and there's a fair amount
of detail. One problem with the track models is the fact that they seem
to be made up of huge chunks, which leads to a sort of jagged look on the
surface. I also would have liked to see a little more equipment and people
on pit lane; it looks kind of like a ghost town. Although there's a little
pop-up, it's barely noticeable, and Human decided not to make use of that
well used crutch known as fog to hide anything. Thank heavens. The most
important thing to remember is that the game runs at a silky smooth frame
rate at all times.
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Use the cockpit view to get up close and personal
with your competitors.
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Each team of cars has it's own unique sound, and all of them seem authentic.
One of the most impressive promises UbiSoft made early on was the fact
that there would be full communication between you and your pit while racing.
While they did deliver, the voice used by your crew chief is frightfully
synthetic sounding. It's like driving for the Borg.
In the end I found myself enjoying F1 Pole Position 64. While the control
has its frustrating moments, overall it's pretty good. UbiSoft was smart
to release this title, for while arcade games are a dime a dozen on this
system, the true racing fanatic finally has a game to call his own.
-- Greg Sewart
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