F1 goes “toonified” with F1 race Stars: If you were a fan of games like Mario Kart and Mod Nation and you like formula 1 racing, then F1 Race Stars could soon become your new favourite game. Like Mario Kart, F1 race Stars is an unrealistic racing game, only this time it is a Formula 1 racing game. For Formula 1 racing games this is an entirely new experience and one that should have been though of a long time ago.
F1 Race Stars works much the same as Mario Kart, only you have the real F1 drivers in the drivers seat and you are racing with F1 cars. You will travel to all the same parts of the world an F1 season would, but the tracks on the other hand are all completely new and really fun to drive. You still get all the goodness out of going over the parts of the track that let you pick up things to use as weapons or defense. Much like Mario Kart, you get the red homing weapon, the yellow weapon will fire but you have to aim that one. Other things you can pick up include the purple which will work as shield or various speed boosts to help get you where you need to be.
I mentioned quite a few similarities to existing games, however, F1 Racing Stars does have enough of it’s own unique feel and twists to make it still feel like a brand new game. Like real Formula 1, slip streaming plays a big role in getting you where you want to be in this game. The other games have this, however, it is the other games trying to be like F1 when using it which is why it works so well now. Another great feature it does have that the others don’t this time is damage. When you are hit by a competitors arsenal, it will hurt your F1 car. To fix your F1 car, there are numerous pit stops throughout the track you can take to be quickly transformed to brand new again, including the famous stop down pit straight. It was key that they didn’t over-do being hit by weapons for this reason because the last thing people want to be doing is pulling into the pits every few seconds. With that in mind the game is slightly more racing orientated than its “predecessors with similarities” such as Mario Kart. A key example is if you have managed to get yourself into the lead in the late stages you would be unlucky to find yourself hit by some miraculous opposition arsenal that always seems to be the case in other games.
The downside of F1 Race Stars – if there is one – is it seems to be out of date before it’s even released much like the realistic F1 games. To this day, I still can’t work out why Formula 1 is the only sport to do this. With that in mind, you can expect to find a few of last years drivers in the field of a game that has just been released ahead of the new season with new drivers in real life. If you can looks past this issue, then you could still possibly find the game faultless. I guess it being an unrealistic game, as a pose to a realistic one, has this working slightly in its favour.
F1 Race Stars is available as a demo from Xbox Live today, however, be careful if you are going to buy the game. I myself was very close to downloading what a thought was a very cheap and amazing deal for F1 Race Stars. Luckily just before I paid, I noticed it was just some extra download-able content, even though it was found under the actual game title. I’m not sure why the game itself is not yet available to be downloaded, but it isn’t so keep your eyes peeled in the coming days.
