F1 Race Stars – Review

Imagine if Formula One relied on shooting different coloured bubbles at each other, jumping over canyons and avoiding giant sumo wrestlers rather than actual driving skill. No, I’m not drunk, well not that drunk, I’ve simply been playing F1 Race Stars.

With releases like Dishonored, XCOM, Assassin’s Creed 3, Halo 4 and CoD: Black Ops 2 coming out recently you have a great excuse not to be aware of F1 Race Stars. But just because it’s not got the budgets and advertisements these games have doesn’t mean it can’t pull its weight with the rest of them.

F1 Race Stars is a kart racing game developed and published by F1 2012 creators Codemasters. Due to Codemasters already owning the rights to make F1 games this means that everything is fully licensed. Forget made up drivers and imaginary cars, as Sebastian Vettel you can shoot Fernando Alonso with a yellow bubble and ruin his hopes of the title if you want. Everything is included, from trackside sponsors to the likeness of every driver and car from the 2012 season.

The thing that instantly makes the game recognisable is the incredible art style. Codemasters have flawlessly combined cartoonish drivers and circuits with realistic looking cars and helmets to make the game look and feel as unique as it actually is.

One complaint about the art style, however, is that the border of the track can something become blended in so much that you can’t distinguish between the track and some sand or grass that will slow you down dramatically. This is particularly prevalent on the Abu Dhabi track where the track is made from sand and the borders are made from an ever so slightly darker shade of sand. Add the fact that some corners literally come out of nowhere and ruin your race and you have a perfect recipe for some very naughty words.

Cars become damaged only after being hit with weapons and colliding with other drivers won’t do anything other than slow you down which is good news for Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean. After being damaged your car will run at a much slower speed and this can only be fixed by going into one of the many pits that are dotted around each track.

Despite the drivers’ cartoony appearance they’re all easily identifiable including their stereotypical accents and voices. My personal favourite voice in the game is Kamui Kobayashi’s as it’s nothing more than a set of grunts. Combine this with Kimi Räikkönen’s character actually smiling and you’re in for a treat when looking through the characters. Also included are four created characters, three of which are female (Ruby Power, Jessica Chekker, Josh Merit and Kira Hoshihara) for some obvious diversity.

The tracks in F1 Race Stars are what make it the impressive game it is. Like much of the game, they blend actual Formula One with crazy, loop-de-loop, flying through the air insanity. On the Belgium circuit you’ll find Eau Rouge, in Abu Dhabi you’ll follow Ferrari World’s famous roller coaster and in the Italian track you’ll come across the legendary Rettifilo chicane. Mixing reality with absolute craziness is something this game does so well and it’ll put a smile on your face every time you notice it. Oh, and don’t forget to look out for the speed camera on the British track. Another nice feature is the weather system; on all circuits you’ll have the weather changing from dry to wet and with it so do your tyres, the way your car handles and how fast you’ll go.

If you’re worried about the game not having too much replay value, then don’t. With 11 tracks (12 if you buy the Valencia street circuit exclusive edition) and eight different ways to race you can get a lot of time out of this game. My personal favourite race mode is ‘refuel’ where you collect fuel that is dotted around the track to keep your car going. However, as it is in real F1, a lighter car will go faster. Again, the mix of obvious video game mechanics and something true to life makes the game all the more enjoyable.

Obviously this is a video game and it’s not a Valve game, therefore I have some complaints about it. First off is the animations before and after races. As you start a race you’ll see the drivers do the same pre-race animation over and over and over again. There literally is only one animation and it grates after a few races and the same applies for the podium animations. Luckily it is optional and you can skip it, but you will be skipping it, I can guarantee that.

Another complaint I’ve heard and that isn’t a complaint of mine is that the art style and gameplay makes this a child’s game. All I can say to you if that is your point of view is that you need to lighten up. The game definitely does have a childish feel to it but that’s the point!

The game appears to be having some issues regarding online play as I simply haven’t been able to find a game. At all.  Hopefully if this is a bug it’ll be patched soon enough so I can give the online a try out. However, through playing the game split screen it’s obvious that it already works amazingly with someone else playing with you.

For F1 Race Stars Codemasters could have just made your run-of-the-mill karting game and pasted F1 cars and drivers into it. They didn’t do that, and they tried and succeeded to blend reality with insanity. A fun, challenging and fulfilling game, I would definitely recommend F1 Race Stars to anyone who enjoys F1, multi-coloured bubbles and swearing at your friends.

F1 Race Stars is available for Xbox 360, PS3, PC and the release date is to be announced soon for the Wii U.