f1 race stars
Developed By: Codemasters
Published By: Codemasters
Release date: 16/11/2012
Format: PS3/PC/XBOX360/Wii U
Don’t bat an eyelash if you think F1 Race Stars is a more family friendly, arcade style version of your revered motorsport. Bobble-headed Lewis Hammilton’s, rivers streaming down the back roads of Spa and light hearted weapon flinging are the flavours which Race Star douses you in. A simply wonderful looking, seemingly joyous spin-off that refuses to give your eyes a siesta. Yet under the hood of this Catherham, you won’t find much horsepower beyond the lavish exteriors, which elude the fundamental groundwork that make kart racers enjoyable. F1 Race Stars keeps modes and options basic and light. You start off at the career mode, participating in 30 championships, each of which are themed through a variety of event types and conditions, which attempt to mix up the racing experience. As you win championships, you unlock even more championships where the variety becomes increasingly commonplace.
Championship events include a trophy chase game type- where you collect as many trophies as possible to reach a specified target. Another event, Sector Snatch has you racing as fast as possible through checkpoint zones, where acquiring the fastest sectors is the key to victory. A unique variant switches up the controls into reverse every time you’re in the lead. This variety is refreshing, as the bog standard races become monotonously difficult. They also present the segments of Race Stars at its absolute best-where you feel like you have a fair chance of winning. There are set pre-requisites that you must meet in order to unlock these championships. You may need to attain a certain number of trophies or place first in a particular event. This will require backtracking, as placing first is a matter of mature cheddar luck- particularly in Race Stars.
The racing experience offered by F1 Race stars, is an uneven quotient between a arcade racing core, and the simulation aspects acknowledging the sport. To say this mix is
"uneven and sloppy is an understatement."
Whilst the karting aspects are tuned and pitched well, the simulation aspects degrade the more enjoyable racing portions.
Handling is smooth for the most part and requires the precision of a formula one car to turn on sharp bends. Following the racing line is also a crucial necessity, as acts like this gift you badges to collect for your folly on the track. Unfortunately you never feel like you’re controlling a machine of velocity and carbon fibre because they feel slow to drive. It’s often the case in arcade racers that boost pads and abilities offset the slow pace, but this still isn’t the case with Race Stars. All cars feel the same and are even treated the same. Case in point, every kart on the track gets a KERS boost, so when you think you can get ahead of the pack in one swoop,
you’ll have to settle for the mediocre speed your kart affords you. This maybe an authentic aspect of the sport, but as a game you want to feel in control and ensure your race is going to be fair. F1 Race Stars never truly allows you to feel dominant in any way.
Another glaring problem Race Stars has, which detracts from the feeling of even-handedness- is the blatant need to rubber band. Normally in kart racers it’s common for the AI to gain cheap advantages when you’re out front. But in Race Stars, even when you’re in the middle of the pack, a ricochet bubble can blow any chance of a podium finish to smoke. If you’re really unlucky, you will receive a succession of blows. This is counter-balanced somewhat by the unique power-ups given to you if you’re tailing the rest of the pack. From rockets to a cheap teleport to move you up the field, these are designed to keep the pack together. Rarely does any racer gain a significant advantage out front. With all the weapons at their disposal, it won’t be long before they or you get swept up by a cheap blow. Balancing is a severe detriment which can infuriate players, in a game which is seemingly designed for families and the players to have fun.
Published By: Codemasters
Release date: 16/11/2012
Format: PS3/PC/XBOX360/Wii U
Don’t bat an eyelash if you think F1 Race Stars is a more family friendly, arcade style version of your revered motorsport. Bobble-headed Lewis Hammilton’s, rivers streaming down the back roads of Spa and light hearted weapon flinging are the flavours which Race Star douses you in. A simply wonderful looking, seemingly joyous spin-off that refuses to give your eyes a siesta. Yet under the hood of this Catherham, you won’t find much horsepower beyond the lavish exteriors, which elude the fundamental groundwork that make kart racers enjoyable. F1 Race Stars keeps modes and options basic and light. You start off at the career mode, participating in 30 championships, each of which are themed through a variety of event types and conditions, which attempt to mix up the racing experience. As you win championships, you unlock even more championships where the variety becomes increasingly commonplace.
Championship events include a trophy chase game type- where you collect as many trophies as possible to reach a specified target. Another event, Sector Snatch has you racing as fast as possible through checkpoint zones, where acquiring the fastest sectors is the key to victory. A unique variant switches up the controls into reverse every time you’re in the lead. This variety is refreshing, as the bog standard races become monotonously difficult. They also present the segments of Race Stars at its absolute best-where you feel like you have a fair chance of winning. There are set pre-requisites that you must meet in order to unlock these championships. You may need to attain a certain number of trophies or place first in a particular event. This will require backtracking, as placing first is a matter of mature cheddar luck- particularly in Race Stars.
The racing experience offered by F1 Race stars, is an uneven quotient between a arcade racing core, and the simulation aspects acknowledging the sport. To say this mix is
"uneven and sloppy is an understatement."
Whilst the karting aspects are tuned and pitched well, the simulation aspects degrade the more enjoyable racing portions.
Handling is smooth for the most part and requires the precision of a formula one car to turn on sharp bends. Following the racing line is also a crucial necessity, as acts like this gift you badges to collect for your folly on the track. Unfortunately you never feel like you’re controlling a machine of velocity and carbon fibre because they feel slow to drive. It’s often the case in arcade racers that boost pads and abilities offset the slow pace, but this still isn’t the case with Race Stars. All cars feel the same and are even treated the same. Case in point, every kart on the track gets a KERS boost, so when you think you can get ahead of the pack in one swoop,
you’ll have to settle for the mediocre speed your kart affords you. This maybe an authentic aspect of the sport, but as a game you want to feel in control and ensure your race is going to be fair. F1 Race Stars never truly allows you to feel dominant in any way.
Another glaring problem Race Stars has, which detracts from the feeling of even-handedness- is the blatant need to rubber band. Normally in kart racers it’s common for the AI to gain cheap advantages when you’re out front. But in Race Stars, even when you’re in the middle of the pack, a ricochet bubble can blow any chance of a podium finish to smoke. If you’re really unlucky, you will receive a succession of blows. This is counter-balanced somewhat by the unique power-ups given to you if you’re tailing the rest of the pack. From rockets to a cheap teleport to move you up the field, these are designed to keep the pack together. Rarely does any racer gain a significant advantage out front. With all the weapons at their disposal, it won’t be long before they or you get swept up by a cheap blow. Balancing is a severe detriment which can infuriate players, in a game which is seemingly designed for families and the players to have fun.
Power-ups themselves look bland and ineffectual to use at times. The attack bubbles come in shades of red, yellow and sky blue, one auto-trajects, one ricochets and one can be placed like a mine excreting from the back of your kart. They are used to gain a cheap advantage and aren’t all that fun to use. Other power-ups include a speed boost, some balloons which can obscure your opposition’s view with confetti and a power up which has your kart sporting a set of hot wheels which can blast any kart or object standing in its way. There are also purple pulse charges and F1 staples, such as one which can unleash a safety car to slow down karts ahead of you, and one which can raise a storm and make the track slippery for others to traverse.
There are moments of fun to be had in F1 Race Stars, and it’s immediately pick up and playable. But the frustrations over egg this pudding. Winning races can be a matter of trial and error and the amount of cheap hits from the AI make the supposedly joyous racing even less so. The inclusion of the F1 license burrows beneath the finer aspects of this middling kart racer, and makes the gameplay experience more like an F1 borstal than a super fun way to get your family involved in the cheeky arcade offering that Codemasters have tried hard to employ here.
The online offerings are standard and there is some fun to be had gathering a group of friends and having an even playing field to revel at. But the amount of circuits in which to do battle is
" befuddling and lightweight."
DLC has been released for more tracks to be made available, but this seems pointless as these should’ve been included to begin with. Game modes are lacking also, there’s no real reason to come back to single player once you’ve mastered the championships and collected all the badges and found all the shortcuts. Still there is a decent variety of event types and fun to be had playing online.
Race Stars looks great, and is a treat for the eyes. The creativity in repurposing each tracks with specific cultural themes. The branding from Santander foils the fictional beauty and reverence, but the creativity is admirably colourful and fits seamlessly with the audience Codies are catering to. The sound design is fairly weak by comparison; the whines of the karts don’t feel like they have the
bite to match the bark these machines should be boasting.
F1 Race Stars looks like a joyous kart racer. From a visual standpoint it ticks all the right boxes give or take hapless weapon bubble design. This is bolstered slight by rays of enjoyable and hectic kart racing. Unfortunately the promise of this kart racer is shot down by its over reliance on the F1 license, which hamstrings the grandiloquent and creative family oriented design, which gives Race Stars its zest. If you’re looking for cheap fun and thrills, there is room for Race Stars in your playing time, but that’s entirely dependent on whether you can stomach its plentiful frustrations.
James Davie 5/10
There are moments of fun to be had in F1 Race Stars, and it’s immediately pick up and playable. But the frustrations over egg this pudding. Winning races can be a matter of trial and error and the amount of cheap hits from the AI make the supposedly joyous racing even less so. The inclusion of the F1 license burrows beneath the finer aspects of this middling kart racer, and makes the gameplay experience more like an F1 borstal than a super fun way to get your family involved in the cheeky arcade offering that Codemasters have tried hard to employ here.
The online offerings are standard and there is some fun to be had gathering a group of friends and having an even playing field to revel at. But the amount of circuits in which to do battle is
" befuddling and lightweight."
DLC has been released for more tracks to be made available, but this seems pointless as these should’ve been included to begin with. Game modes are lacking also, there’s no real reason to come back to single player once you’ve mastered the championships and collected all the badges and found all the shortcuts. Still there is a decent variety of event types and fun to be had playing online.
Race Stars looks great, and is a treat for the eyes. The creativity in repurposing each tracks with specific cultural themes. The branding from Santander foils the fictional beauty and reverence, but the creativity is admirably colourful and fits seamlessly with the audience Codies are catering to. The sound design is fairly weak by comparison; the whines of the karts don’t feel like they have the
bite to match the bark these machines should be boasting.
F1 Race Stars looks like a joyous kart racer. From a visual standpoint it ticks all the right boxes give or take hapless weapon bubble design. This is bolstered slight by rays of enjoyable and hectic kart racing. Unfortunately the promise of this kart racer is shot down by its over reliance on the F1 license, which hamstrings the grandiloquent and creative family oriented design, which gives Race Stars its zest. If you’re looking for cheap fun and thrills, there is room for Race Stars in your playing time, but that’s entirely dependent on whether you can stomach its plentiful frustrations.
James Davie 5/10
