I first played Podracer for the Dreamcast and loved it.
I played it before I even seen the movie, and it made me want to watch it even
more. When I got it for the PC I was somewhat skeptical. However, it surprised
me in several ways.
The best thing about it being for the PC was the fact that I had so many choices
for controls. I played it with an actual non-gamepad joystick and it was so
much better. At first I had to adjust to the change, but once I did I was getting
new lap records left and right.
This game is fast and that’s one of the things I liked the most. You literally
had to “use the force” in order to get through some areas without
scratches. Once you do it for the first time though, you can hardly believe
it. Reflexes are a must in this game, especially when you kick in the turbo.
You start out on Tatooine and race your way up through the circuits. Along the
way you earn money, which you give to Watto and he’ll pimp your ride,
methinks. After racing over and over, your pod’s parts will take damage
and you will have to trade them in. Using the turbo a lot will overheat your
pod as well, and so you’ll need plenty of cooling. If you don’t
listen to the beeps of warning though, your pod will catch fire, and eventually
explode.
Once you’ve beaten all the tracks, which isn’t easy, you will be
allowed to mirror or reverse each track. This adds to the variety of the tracks,
and makes it so you have three times as many ways to race. One of the greatest
things to do is improve on your records, then see if any of your friends can
top them. I did this quite a bit and it really increased the hours of gameplay.
This game even has multiplayer support, which I never got to work. Oh well,
I’m sure it was awesome. I had multiplayer in my own little way with the
lap records, and that was good enough for me.
Buyable
Cheatable (www.gamewinners.com)
Beatable
Unrentable
Single and Multi-Player
USB Support
Altogether this game gets an 8 out of 10