Episode 73: Star Wars Episode I: Racer

Retro Spectives

Star Wars: Podracer launched with a bang. It wasn’t the first Star Wars game, but it promised something that the world had been waiting for 16 years: a new movie. With only a few short segments of the film at their disposal, the in-house LucasArts Team designed a racing game - aiming to not only replicate the environments, but even the imaginary physics of the vehicles. The fact that they produced something uncannily similar to the pod racing scene from the movie is worthy of celebration in and of itself.

But can it hold up all these years later? While it was released to fairly spectacular praise, there were some that damned it as just another F-Zero knockoff. And while there were many F-Zero titles released throughout the years, there’s only one Podracer. Does Star Wars: Podracer still provide an entertaining, lightning in a bottle racing experience today? Or are you better off spending your time shitposting over on r/prequelmemes?

On this episode, we discuss:

• How does the meta-structure of earning credits to spend on upgrading your vehicle influence the challenge of trying to beat races? Is it better to have non-mechanical ways to succeed, or does this rob you of a sense of accomplishment?
• Is it better to have a track structure that feels like it blends into the environment, or are races more enjoyable on sterile and purpose built tracks?
• How do the boosting and repair mechanics add to the tension of Podracer? Is an internal cooldown on a boost more or less enjoyable than tying a boost metre to a recharge item or length of track?

We answer these questions and many more on the 73rd episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Star Wars Episode 1 OST: John Williams

Are there any other high speed racing games that can hold a torch to F-Zero or Podracer? Are there any cool shortcuts or crazy mechanics we missed? Are you mad about our opinions on the Star Wars movies? Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!