Star wars: Episode 1 - Racer (U)

The other game spawned from The Phantom Menace is Racer. It's based on the pod race featured early on in the film in which Anakin Skywalker tears through the Tatooine desert and which some critics have likened to the chariot race in Ben Hur.

Actually the pods in Racer are pretty similar to chariots, albeit ones with no wheels and two huge jet turbines attached to the reins - literally - instead of horses. You sit in a small pod some metres behind and are pulled around at several hundred miles per hour. Various bits of technology keep you hugging the ground rather than heading into orbit and various controls keep you on track and out of the way of mountains.

Obviously Racer is a racing game and there are two modes of play. Quick start drops you in a pod seat and has you pelting round in seconds but the Tournament mode makes things a little more interesting. You start out as Anakin, or if the prospect of playing a nine-year-old boy doesn't appeal, one of the other alien racers. With a mediocre pod and a handful of cash, you have to fight your way to the top by winning races around several tracks on several planets. As the prize money accumulates, you can buy new components to boost performance, thus improving your race chances and you'll also need to set some cash aside for repairs.

Mastering Racer takes some doing, not least because of the complicated nature of the controls. Yes, there's left, right, go and stop but since the pod doesn't actually touch the ground, there's also roll left and right and pitch forward and back. Throw in 'slide', 'afterburner' and other assorted extras and you end up with more keys to press than Sy Snootles has fingers. It's still far from a simulation though and a suitable joystick makes it all fall into place.

So far, Racer sounds just like any other racing game and in fact, that pretty much sums it up. The graphics look lovely with a good 3D graphics card and the inclusion of extra scenes (Watto's junkyard, for instance) add to the cinematic feel but at the end of the day, there isn't much new ground broken.

The simple fact that Racer has a Star Wars connection will mean it'll sell by the bucketload and if you're a fan of the franchise, you'll love it. Racing aficionados though, would be better served elsewhere.

- £39.99 (inc VAT)

- Activision: 01268 531 222

www.activision.com

STAR WARS: EPISODE 1 - RACER

Overall ***

Minimum requirements: Pentium 166 PC, 32Mb RAM, 3D graphics card, CD-ROM drive.

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