Hello in the childhood! Of all the games I played growing up, this is the one I'd missed the most.

To my delight: it's just as fun to play when you're 26 years old as when you're 6!

Once again I'm speeding through the tracks - through rainforest planets and floating platforms, asteroid prisons and spice mines, frozen worlds and aquatic landscapes and - of course - the infamous Tatooine with its Boonta Classic. Podracers speed delightfully fast, and when the NPCs start to get on my nerves, I've got the helpful "Insults" button to scream something back at them in game.

Race tracks contain some repeated visual and layout elements, but nothing feels banally repetitive. Even the small chunks of tracks that are "copy-pasted" from one race to another feel fine - because each race in the same planet/zone is a notable bump up in difficulty from the last, and is definitely unique enough to make each race a thrill. Race tracks also contain a wide variety of challenges and obstacles to overcome. I'm whirling through zero gravity chambers, dodging past closing doors, bracing myself through earthquakes, sliding over ice, flying over jumps, cringing through ridiculously tight turns, squeezing past obstacles clogging the road, slamming into stalactites, maneuvering into secret shortcuts, and cursing to myself when a Tusken raider shoots my engine.

Every track is full of life and fun.

Twenty year old graphics aside, I have to say: Star Wars: Episode I Racer has aged astonishingly well. I'm impressed? Controls are enjoyably responsive, button actions are all the ones you'd want (repair, brakes, tilt, etc.), every podracer has a unique "feel," and game design takes almost everything you'd need into good account. The visual display is informative and gives you everything you need, with a helpful amount of customization. For instance, changing between maps can help you anticipate different forks in the road, or see how far ahead or behind racers are with a flag visual. How fast you're going, when you can boost speed, how poorly your engines are faring, are all displayed on screen with good informative design.

For extra gameplay challenges, the game allows you to horizontally mirror every race, change the number of laps between 1-5; change the number of AI racers from 1-12; choose whether the AI races slow, average, or fast; alternate between several first and third person views; compete for fastest lap and full race records; and change winning stakes from a fair distribution of money to "Winner Takes All." Multiplayer allows you to compete with your friends (assuming they're still your friends after they smash your pod into a wall). The only thing I feel obviously lacking is an Easy, Medium, Hard setting on the Tournament mode, though at least the game does a good job making each race and tournament progressively harder, and the other Single Player mode gives you the different AI speeds to control difficulty.

I'm not someone who plays many racing games, and I did play this game for countless hours as a child, so my perspective of how "hard" this is will be skewed. I'll try to assess how I feel about it regardless. There will be a learning curve and that can make the first time through some races a little challenging. I would say it isn't hard for the first half of the game, and then the second half can provide a little (though not SIGNIFICANT) challenge. It's more than possible (and I would recommend you doing so!) to pass the entire game without upgrades. Frankly the no-upgrade-until-you're-done playstyle is the only way I experience the game anymore.

I do want to give the warning that Steam's version of the game has bugs, glitches, and problems. I've been able to complete the game with no difficulty, and most of the time, I'm not running into glitches. HOWEVER. There's enough issues to be very noticeable. You WILL get glitches. Despite using an optimal machine, in the first five hours of playing, I have run into:

- Cutscene video and audio not matching; the audio lags behind and there can be minor visual jerkiness.
- Audio stuttering during the opening cutscene.
- The game occasionally crashing on me. This includes the first time I finished the Boonta Classic (game didn't save progress and I had to redo it), when I tried to select Multiplayer, and one time when I exited out of the game window and came back to it.
- When I earned Sebulba's pod, half of him was white.
- The pictures of the characters (during the final race rankings) turning bright white.
- On the race selection menu, all the buttons for the possible races turning white.
- Some weird display capturing issues (OBS/Streamlabs) when you try to record or stream the game.

So please bear that in mind before purchasing! The Steam version of Episode I Racer isn't perfect and I am sad about that bit. However, I'd say it still IS a great way to gain access to the PC version on the modern system.

Hello in the childhood! Of all the games I played growing up, this is the one I'd missed the most. To my delight: it's just as fun to play when you're 26 years old as when you're 6! Once again I'm speeding through the tracks - through rainforest planets and floating platforms, asteroid prisons and spice mines, frozen worlds and aquatic landscapes and - of course - the infamous Tatooine with its Boonta Classic. Podracers speed delightfully fast, and when the NPCs start to get on my nerves, I've got the helpful "Insults" button to scream something back at them in game. Race tracks contain some repeated visual and layout elements, but nothing feels banally repetitive. Even the small chunks of tracks that are "copy-pasted" from one race to another feel fine - because each race in the same planet/zone is a notable bump up in difficulty from the last, and is definitely unique enough to make each race a thrill. Race tracks also contain a wide variety of challenges and obstacles to overcome. I'm whirling through zero gravity chambers, dodging past closing doors, bracing myself through earthquakes, sliding over ice, flying over jumps, cringing through ridiculously tight turns, squeezing past obstacles clogging the road, slamming into stalactites, maneuvering into secret shortcuts, and cursing to myself when a Tusken raider shoots my engine. Every track is full of life and fun. Twenty year old graphics aside, I have to say: Star Wars: Episode I Racer has aged astonishingly well. I'm impressed? Controls are enjoyably responsive, button actions are all the ones you'd want (repair, brakes, tilt, etc.), every podracer has a unique "feel," and game design takes almost everything you'd need into good account. The visual display is informative and gives you everything you need, with a helpful amount of customization. For instance, changing between maps can help you anticipate different forks in the road, or see how far ahead or behind racers are with a flag visual. How fast you're going, when you can boost speed, how poorly your engines are faring, are all displayed on screen with good informative design. For extra gameplay challenges, the game allows you to horizontally mirror every race, change the number of laps between 1-5; change the number of AI racers from 1-12; choose whether the AI races slow, average, or fast; alternate between several first and third person views; compete for fastest lap and full race records; and change winning stakes from a fair distribution of money to "Winner Takes All." Multiplayer allows you to compete with your friends (assuming they're still your friends after they smash your pod into a wall). The only thing I feel obviously lacking is an Easy, Medium, Hard setting on the Tournament mode, though at least the game does a good job making each race and tournament progressively harder, and the other Single Player mode gives you the different AI speeds to control difficulty. I'm not someone who plays many racing games, and I did play this game for countless hours as a child, so my perspective of how "hard" this is will be skewed. I'll try to assess how I feel about it regardless. There will be a learning curve and that can make the first time through some races a little challenging. I would say it isn't hard for the first half of the game, and then the second half can provide a little (though not SIGNIFICANT) challenge. It's more than possible (and I would recommend you doing so!) to pass the entire game without upgrades. Frankly the no-upgrade-until-you're-done playstyle is the only way I experience the game anymore. I do want to give the warning that Steam's version of the game has bugs, glitches, and problems. I've been able to complete the game with no difficulty, and most of the time, I'm not running into glitches. HOWEVER. There's enough issues to be very noticeable. You WILL get glitches. Despite using an optimal machine, in the first five hours of playing, I have run into: - Cutscene video and audio not matching; the audio lags behind and there can be minor visual jerkiness. - Audio stuttering during the opening cutscene. - The game occasionally crashing on me. This includes the first time I finished the Boonta Classic (game didn't save progress and I had to redo it), when I tried to select Multiplayer, and one time when I exited out of the game window and came back to it. - When I earned Sebulba's pod, half of him was white. - The pictures of the characters (during the final race rankings) turning bright white. - On the race selection menu, all the buttons for the possible races turning white. - Some weird display capturing issues (OBS/Streamlabs) when you try to record or stream the game. So please bear that in mind before purchasing! The Steam version of Episode I Racer isn't perfect and I am sad about that bit. However, I'd say it still IS a great way to gain access to the PC version on the modern system.