HomeVideo GamesF1 Race Stars - Game Review

F1 Race Stars – Game Review

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F1 Race Stars - Game Review 1

Title: F1 Race Stars
Developed By: Codemasters Birmingham
Published By: Codemasters, Namco Bandai Partners (Australia)
Based On: 2012 Formula One Season
Console: Playstation 3, XBox360
Genre: Racing
Review Conditions: Playstation 3, Physical Media
Special Thanks: Namco Bandai Partners for providing me with a copy of this title to review

Experience Formula One circuits like never before – speed through loop-the-loops, shortcuts, jumps and more! Collect and use crazy powerups to overtake your rivals. Share the fun with friends and family with four player split-screen and play in split-screen against other players online!

Travel the world and enter a range of Championships in career mode. Race online with up to twelve players.


F1 Race Stars - Game Review 2

It seems like we have quite a few racing games set to compete for your attention this Christmas – Sony with LBP Karting, Sega with Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Microsoft with Forza Horizon and finally Codemasters with F1 Race Stars just off the top of my head. Each of these games offer something different from the others and just from looking at them you might be able to tell what gameplay/visual styles capture your attention, but how exactly do they play?

My last racing game review saw Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed walk away with an A- so will Codemaster’s F1 Race Stars shine just the same? Read on in my review of F1 Race Stars, now available for the Playstation 3 and XBox360 from Codemasters.

F1 Race Stars - Game Review 3

To start off with, the one aspect of F1 Race Stars I found hard to fault was its visuals. Whilst I do not really follow Formula One racing, the games 24 characters (Which are split over 12 teams) are based on participants for this years seasons, and are included as creatively planned out caricatures who all seem to look quite accurate when compared to their respective counterpart. Taking a leaf out of ModNation Racers, they also attempt to shake things up by including brief pre and post race animated segments involving the racers interacting with each other. They are simple touches but helped contribute to the whole experience than if there were to go from Menu > Race > Menu.

The character and kart designs contrast well with the race track designs that are both creatively thought out and well detailed. Each of these tracks represent a particular country from Australia to Japan, and are reasonably respective of the locality the race takes place in. In addition, each of the tracks are considerably long in length and will take you several minutes to complete a lap, but unfortunately this falls into the first area of concern with this game… there are far too many tournaments and not enough tracks to go around. After making your way through the tournaments and championships on offer, I found some of the lasting appeal about these tracks were diminished having been made to repeat them over and over again despite some deviations to the regular racing formula.

F1 Race Stars - Game Review 4

To give the game credit, it  does not deviate too much from what we have seen in racing games before – you make your way around a semi-linear track using a number of creative weaponary and defensive items against other racers in the hope you will finish X number of laps in first position. It is well implemented and doesn’t mess up the basics you would expect to see in any racing game. However, while the game pulls off the basics right there was very little that managed to capture my attention for an extended period of time or give it some memorable aspect in comparison to other games.

What sets this game apart are the references to the actual racing such as a damage system which requires you to make pit-stops during the race if you get damaged by another racers items (Amounting to nothing more than a slight detour really) and the inability to drift (Instead requiring you to slow down and navigate your way around sharp corners). Codemasters have also thrown in a couple of creative item ideas for use on the track, from the ability to change the weather on the track to spawning a safety car which slows down those ahead of you so you can catch up. Aesthetically these are relatively bland for the most part (Including an overuse of weaponized bubbles) but serve their purpose well.

As mentioned above, the game comes with too few tracks for far too many tournaments. While I didn’t feel this fully made up for the lack of tracks, they did use a number of variants to the normal racing formula to provide additional challenge. Some examples of this include fuel racing where you have to balance speed with fuel capacity as you are travelling down the track (Too much fuel = low speed, Too little fuel = High Speed but potential to prematurely end your run) and Elimination where you must keep yourself ahead of the pack as players are incrementally removed from the race. Couple this with three difficulty levels (1000cc, 2000cc and 3000c) and at the very least some of these alternative game modes shine even if they are on the same tracks.

F1 Race Stars - Game Review 5

As with any good current-release race game, F1 Race Stars comes with split-screen multiplayer as well as online multi-player. With support for 4 and 12 players respectively, this is the mode which really shines and in my limited hands-on time with the multiplayer proved to be rather enjoyable. There was some minor issues with lag during some of the online races, but I have seen worse.

Overall, F1 Race Stars is nothing new to the realm of racing and there is a good chance it will never be remembered as well as some of the racing game greats. But that being said, it is a well designed game that I think provides everything needed for a decent racing experience. Granted there were a few issues here and there (For example, I only receive trophies upon booting up the game) but it worked well with the source material and was an aesthetically pleasing experience with visually charming racer caricatures and well planned tracks.

Final Score
Storyline/Character Development: N/A
Design: B+
Music/Voice Acting: C
Gameplay: C+
Replayability: B
Personal Opinion: C
Overall Score: C+

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.
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