Developer Aspyr announced last week that the phenomenal Star Wars game Star Wars Episode 1 Racer is finally coming to modern consoles. The announcement was officially made via the sneaky Nintendo Direct Mini that was shadow dropped on YouTube. In the video of the full thing below the announcement comes at about 23:26.
Star Wars Episode 1 Racer Is Incredible!
The thing about Star Wars Episode 1 Racer is that it’s brilliant. It’s a game that takes all of the elements of that movie that weren’t up to par with the rest of the franchise, mainly the story, and gives you more of what you want, podracing. I’m actually a massive fan of this film, I saw it in the cinema when it first released, and must have watched it at least 200 times on my ancient VHS copy. But the thing I loved the most wasn’t the dual-bladed lightsaber, Darth Maul, or Ewan McGregor being lovely, it was podracing.
Podracing is an insane sport. It’s dangerous, about as dangerous as sport can get without you literally getting eaten alive, it’s fast, and it’s a lot of fun to watch. The nest best thing is being a podracer yourself, but by being a virtual one you probably won’t die in any of the crashes. The game was great when it originally released in April 1999, and it should be just as good when it hits PS4 and Nintendo Switch this year. With updated visuals, and hopefully some online multiplayer, I can see this being the racing game of choice for many people.
I think that bringing the game to both Switch and PS4 is a smart move. The Switch has a huge following, but the PS4 has the biggest of this generation. Owning the game on Switch will make it easy to set up a split-screen game with friends, but the PS4 copy will have trophies. I’m currently living through the nightmare that is trying to get the platinum in DOOM 2016, and you can bet that I’ll be going for this one as well.
One final note if you’re not convinced that this is good news. While it was still going, the awesome podcast A Tournament of Lies rated Star Wars Episode 1 Racer as the best game of all time. If that doesn’t do it for you, I don’t know what will.
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