Let us tell the tale of Fud Sang, a useless little rubbish lad who I love. He is the only character in Star Wars Episode 1: Racer to take my mind off of unlocking Sebulba. Fud Sang is the true MVP of podracing.
Star Wars Episode 1: Racer – My Sweet Galactic Trash Boy (Jimpressions)
Let us tell the tale of Fud Sang, a useless little rubbish lad who I love. He is the only character in Star Wars Episode 1: Racer to take my mind off of unlocking Sebulba. Fud Sang is the true MVP of podracing.
Now THIS is Jimpressions!
This just makes me want another F-Zero. Or maybe rerelease GX with online play.
The best version was at the arcade with the two engine throttles at the side. It was one of those games I wished I could replay.
Now THIS is pod racing!
What ever I think about Phantom Menace, I like the idea of “pod racing” and is a imaginative and positive piece of Star Wars world building.
I’ve also heard its availiable on PC! A true cross-platform game!
Seriously though, so much time spent on this and pit droids when i was younger… good times
In a world where every game is trying to be John Wick, Star Wars Episode 1: Racer is The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
I’d love to see more HD ports of old games on the modern hardware, as long as they don’t try and update anything beyond the overall fidelity, framerate and perhaps some texture resolution.
I wouldn’t trust the modern games industry not to fuck up that simple request, though.
I’ve always loved the look of these kinds of early 3D games because of their artificial nature. They make me think about what it would look like if someone tried to make these environments for an adventure playground and that instantly puts me in the mood to play in them an explore. Realism sucks.
I didn’t know The Chunky Grumbler had a racing career- oh he’s so mad at The Force
The Need for Speed devs should make these instead of car games.
Their cars already handle like podracers.
Tbh if they made a podracing game the numbnuts would probably make the podracers handle like cars.
I feel like the older graphics made it easier for the game to communicate with your brain. You don’t have to work so hard to separate important items and characters from the environment.
The fact that this video exists and it’s almost purely because of Fud Sang, it just makes me smile a lot
“What of waste of possible monetizations” thought EA executives looking at this game
Now THIS is Schindler’s List!
Despite it being an arcade racer, I feel like there was always much more depth to Episode 1: Racer than most gave it credit for. The repair and engine heat features end up having a massive effect on gameplay and add a layer of strategy you don’t typically see in a title like this. Boosting to catch up to or get some distance from your opponents is important if you want to clinch a victory, but boost for too long or too often and you’ll overheat and damage your engine, slowing and potentially destroying your pod. Fail to take the time to repair your pod and the lost speed over the next lap or two may cost you a win. Repair at the wrong time and your slowed movement might give someone else a chance to pass you. Scrape against a wall at breakneck speed rather than slowing to coast through a tight turn and you may lose more speed later when you have to repair that damage. There’s much more to think about than just mastering the layout of the tracks and the handling of your vehicle.
That’s not even taking into account the risky and often dangerous shortcuts, the damage you take from bumping into other pods or being the first racer to crash through a wall to a hidden path, varying track surfaces and low gravity sections that affect your handling and speed, the broad range of statistics for every podracer that allows some to specialize and excel in certain situations, the abilities to tilt and drift your pod, how tilting your pod up and down affect your turning, speed, and airtime, and the upgrade system. Episode 1: Racer may have been geared toward casual players and Star Wars fans, but it did much more than most arcade racing games do, and even surpasses a lot of racing sims in some aspects. The game wasn’t perfect, but the more I think about it, the more I understand why I found myself playing it on and off for nearly five years, and why I continue to look back on it so fondly.
Imagine having a podracer that is dumb, oblong and blue and not cool, aerodynamic and blue.
-This post was made by the Ebe E Endecott gang.
Woah. First off: Ody Mandrell is where it’s at. Second: This was a real treat.
Visual noise: a lot of modern games are filled to the brim with “hawt grafix!”, which can actually be a little exhausting to take in. These older titles had to be a little more economical. They’re the Ikea of games; clean simple angles.
I had to laugh out loud when you said “if they made this game today.”
Electronic Arts would have a field day with this as it’s entirely aimed at kids. Easy pickin’s.
Forget about unlocking Sebulba. He would be locked behind paywalls, gambling boxes, subscriptions, season passes and whatever other sleazy pay-pig mechanics they can come up with.
Today’s generation of kids won’t be looking back on modern star wars games with this level of fondness. That’s for sure.