Star Wars Racer Revenge

"Could' ve been a little bit better"

Star Wars Racer Revenge is a very good and enjoyable racing game. I wasn't hyped about this, and neither were many people, but when I played it, I actually enjoyed it. Unfortunately, after playing more of the game, I realized what problems this game had and how much better this game couldve been.

Graphics: 10/10

Racer Revenge has superb graphics, and possibly the best graphics in a Star Wars game up to this time. There was never any slowdown and the game runs very smoothly. The detail in the tracks, characters, podracers, spectators in the stands are amazing. Truly, the games' strongest points.

Sound/Music: 8/10

Racer Revenge uses many of the same sounds from the N64 version and from Movie Episode 1. The sounds are very good, from the podracers engines to the commentators voices, RR makes it feel like a Star Wars game. The music is nothing special during the races, but it's not a problem.

Gameplay: 8/10

RR is obviously a racing game, where you are a podracer racing at incredibly high speeds. By winning in races, you earn money (trugguts), where you are able to purchase parts to upgrade your pod's attributes (speed, acceleration, handling, etc). You also get bonus money for destroying opponents during a race. Each racer has a health meter, by smashing into them, you damage them, and once maximum damage has been reached, the opponent is K.O'd and out of the race. Of course, the same works for you, if you get K.O'd, you are out of the race and fail to advance. Once you fully upgrade the podracer's stats and win all the races in the tournament, you have mastered the character. Unfortunately, to completely master a characters attributes, you have to K.O a lot of opponents during the tournament. Simply coming in first place will not even get you close to mastering the stats. You are not able to replay a race in a tournament once you have gold, so if you have completed the tournament, but failed to master your stats, you have to reset the character and try again, which can become a challenge, but not a fun one. Completing a tournament with one racer does not take long (about 2 hours), and it is not quite hard, and there are no difficulty settings.

Replay Value: 7/10

As said before, you can master the game by completing all the racers and maxing out their stats, which adds to quite a lot of replay value and might take some time, but it could get frustrating at some points in the game. For some it could be a challenge, for others, it won't.

Rent or Buy?

Renting first is definitely recommended. If you enjoyed the first Racer for N64, you will enjoy this one, but you wont get as much of a challenge as the first one.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/30/02, Updated 09/03/02