F1 Race Stars Review

[Tom]

It's been some time since Codemasters had announced F1 Race Stars and most people either feared it would be a blatant Mario Kart clone and try to purely make money off the Formula 1 license or it'd simply not be fun to play at all. Rest assured: it's really fun! However, one can hardly deny that one or the other designer has played Mario Kart in the past or during the development cycle and the graphics are similarly cute - neither of which is a bad thing per se.





But let's start slowly and take a look at the features. Custom events, single races, time trial, career mode - it's all there!

• Officially licensed to feature all of your favourite FORMULA ONE™ cars and teams
  
• Features accessible controls for wheel-to-wheel competition for all ages
  
• Experience FORMULA ONE circuits like never before – speed through loop-the-loops, shortcuts, jumps and more!
  
• Collect and use awesome power-ups to overtake your rivals
  
• Share the fun with friends and family with four player split-screen, and play in split-screen against other players online
  
• Travel the world and enter a range of Championships in career mode
  
• Race online with up to twelve players
  
• Connect F1 RACE STARS™ to Codemasters’ free online hub RaceNet to track your races, rewards and rivals and enter community events
  
• Set your fastest lap and climb leaderboards in Time Trials
  
• There are three classes of competition for each championship - 1000CC, 2000CC, 3000CC
  
• Join the cast of F1 RACE STARS on Xbox 360 by importing your Avatar
  

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Our review is based on the PC version, published through Steam (still 10% off on Steam until the 15th of November 2012), so I couldn't check if my Xbox Avatar would fit into an F1 car. I doubt it. Well. The game is definitely appealing right from the start (but please don't make the same mistake as me and pick the quickest class & Monaco right away) and offers the right difficulty level for everyone to get used to the game. What's hard to accept is that the cars break rather quickly, at least judging from their looks, but they're not slowing down too much unless there's smoke & the tyres start to wobble around.





Powerups play a big role in this game, obviously - what kind of Mario Kart style game would it be without powerups? Similar to it's role model it's showing a warning if there's something incoming, but there's almost no way of blocking incoming projectiles. It certainly needs some luck (or skill) to drop that bubble trap right when the seeker bubble can't dodge it anymore. Most powerups have been replaced by Formula 1 versions and they're certainly matching the overall style of the game.

• Red Seeker Bubble –Use a heat seeking bubble that will stop your rivals in their tracks
  
• Blue Bubble Trap – Drop a blue bubble on the track to trap other drivers who are chasing you
  
• Yellow Ricochet Bubble – bounces around the track until impact or expires
  
• Purple Pulse Bubble – Projectile bubble that you can detonate remotely
  
• Safety Car – Call in the safety car to hold up the leader and allow everyone in the race to catch up!
  
• Wet Weather – Bring a rain cloud down on everyone – you’ll be the only car with the wet tyres to handle the conditions
  
• Rain Cloud – Activate a rain cloud upon the driver in first place, slowing them down
  
• Bottle Rocket – See your car turn into a fizzy bottle of pop – and plough your way through the field
  
• DRS – Pick up the DRS and see you car and driver turn silver as you get a super-charged top-speed and invulnerability
  
• Pulse – Damage your opponents
  
• Static – Use static to prevent others making use of their power ups.
  
• Teleport – use this power-up to zip ahead of drivers around you on the track
  
• Balloons - Drop these balloons behind you – when another driver drives into them, the balloon will burst, filling their screen with fun confetti
  
• Boost - In single and triple flavours, receive a quick boost for swift overtaking
  

With so many similarities there ought to be something special as well and yes, there is. It's subtle but most racing fans should get it once they see the driver selection screen. You can pick from all the usual 24 drivers from the 2012 Formula 1 grid and at first it's looking quite normal but 14 teams certainly isn't what we're seeing during the regular Formula 1 races. There are 2 special teams with special perks included in the game and one team, the one with the pink car (2nd from the right, bottom line) features what looks like Maria de Villota. The driver isn't named accordingly but it's pretty clear that it's meant to resemble her. Definitely a nice gesture after what happened to her back in July 2012.



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Apart from that it's just like what you'd expect from such a game: over the top tracks and crazy stuff going on, including jumping right into a sharks stomach and trying to make it out of the arena whilst 2 sumo wrestlers fight for their sushi. The included tracks, 12, feature the real-life Formula 1 locations of Germany, USA, Monaco, Brazil, Italy, Great Britain, Belgium, Australia, Japan, Singapore and Abu Dhabi. All 12 of them are trying to resemble both the country and the track and you'll see iconic corners like the first two turns in Brazil and the Loews corner in Monaco. The race modes are all there and what you'd expect from a Codemasters game: career mode, single race, time trial, multiplayer. It will also feature RaceNet integration and upload your quickest laps. It's also planned to have a store available to purchase additional content!





The gameplay is indeed great but it lacks one thing and that hurts the most: drifting. Every Mario Kart player loves that it's possible to drift around corners by pressing the shoulder button and gain speed if done correctly. Now one would expect to see such a feature in F1 Race Stars as well but no, not going to happen. Apart from that the controls are really great and straight forward even tho it's necessary to keep the down arrow pressed to fire powerups into the other direction. There are not much options regarding anything and that's not even necessary, to be frank - this game just works. Same for the graphics: set your resolution and you're all set.





The Verdict

Judging this game is easy and hard at the same time: easy because it's a great game in itself but hard because it's like Mario Kart but is still missing one of the key features of it's role model, drifting around corners. However, the sheer awesomeness and creativity in terms of graphical quality and translation of powerups into Formula 1 equivalents makes this game worth playing - especially if you're a racing fan. Another good thing is that your significant other might like the game if he / she is into Mario Kart but not too much into racing simulations. I linked one of the official trailers to my girlfriend and the first thing she asked was "We're going to play this until we fall asleep, right? Please!" - sweet!

The Good

• Graphics
  
• Fun
  
• Most powerups
  
• Split-screen multiplayer
  

The Bad

• No drifting
  
• Some powerups (like the bubbles) just don't match the others in terms of Formula 1 styling
  

The Ugly

• Safety Car driver is unrecognizable. WHYYYYYYYY!? BEEEEEEEEEEERND!?
  

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Overall this is a solid buy and at around 35€ / 50€ (PC / Consoles) it's not exactly a steal but well worth your money. Just keep in mind that it's not Mario Kart but still extremely charming and addicting. I tried to play one single race right when I got the review version and ended up playing until 4am. I started at around 11pm the day before. We're definitely looking forward to setting up racing clubs and maybe even a league for this!

You can now add your own F1 Race Stars videos in our media gallery, participate in the discussions in our dedicated forum or check out the official website how to (pre-) order your copy of the game. See you on track!

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[DjFIL]

Just want to give my opinion on the "no drifting" comment. F1 cars don't "drift"... so why should this game act like every other Mario Kart clone out there? This game rewards a good driving line, especially thru the "KERS boost" corners. I think the game is great fun. Had my pre-order in on Steam a few weeks ago... looking forward to getting home tonight, get the game download complete and playing it for quite some time. I would love to join an online series/club. Really hope there is a good multiplayer community via Steam.

 

[Tom]

Just want to give my opinion on the "no drifting" comment. F1 cars don't "drift"... so why should this game act like every other Mario Kart clone out there?

Well because that's the obvious role model it had. Every player has his / her own opinion and whilst I can't concur with your opinion I see your point.

 

[Tommi-TAG]

Thanks for this nice review, Tom.
We lost the paddock, press interview etc. in F1 2012.
But I really wish the podium feature for F1 2013 too

 

[Shawdad]

I played the demo on PS3 and enjoyed it. I also like the fact that the physics lead to more of a precise racing line compared to most (all?) other kart games. Hopefully they will offer it on the PlayStation store eventually.

 

[Diego Lopez]

reminds me of Mario Kart, a lil bit, anyone? thumbs up?

 

[lucianoizolito]

Just want to give my opinion on the "no drifting" comment. F1 cars don't "drift"... so why should this game act like every other Mario Kart clone out there? This game rewards a good driving line, especially thru the "KERS boost" corners. I think the game is great fun. Had my pre-order in on Steam a few weeks ago... looking forward to getting home tonight, get the game download complete and playing it for quite some time. I would love to join an online series/club. Really hope there is a good multiplayer community via Steam.

Actually, the fun thing about kart~F1 is oversteer/countersteer. But in this case is very small and fast. But we dont see it much because the majority of the drivers has no hability at all in it. Because theyre taught not to do it. If you listen to the instructions in F1 2012, you hear "drifting can be impressive, but its slow and increases tyre wear". But its very fun and thats the reason why Mario Kart is so fun. Codemasters F1 2012 has drift but its slow like it was raining - and under rain... there is no drifting in th game! Fangio was a king of drifting. Then we had Gilles (snowmobile driver), Senna (drive kart without braking, drifting) and Hamilton (drift in wet corners that Vettel goes wide to avoid... drifting).

 

[nothke]

Just want to give my opinion on the "no drifting" comment. F1 cars don't "drift"... so why should this game act like every other Mario Kart clone out there? This game rewards a good driving line, especially thru the "KERS boost" corners. I think the game is great fun. Had my pre-order in on Steam a few weeks ago... looking forward to getting home tonight, get the game download complete and playing it for quite some time. I would love to join an online series/club. Really hope there is a good multiplayer community via Steam.

Actually, the fun thing about kart~F1 is oversteer/countersteer. But in this case is very small and fast. But we dont see it much because the majority of the drivers has no hability at all in it. Because theyre taught not to do it. If you listen to the instructions in F1 2012, you hear "drifting can be impressive, but its slow and increases tyre wear". But its very fun and thats the reason why Mario Kart is so fun. Codemasters F1 2012 has drift but its slow like it was raining - and under rain... there is no drifting in th game! Fangio was a king of drifting. Then we had Gilles (snowmobile driver), Senna (drive kart without braking, drifting) and Hamilton (drift in wet corners that Vettel goes wide to avoid... drifting).

Fangio drove in an era when there were no aerodynamics (downforce), and the tire's slip had a wide range (instead of peak narrow grip like today), so drifting was practically necessary. In 70s and 80s, although tire compound slip was still wide, cars had big grippy tires and it was possible to easily perform a trick now known as "power oversteering" which is a short drift that allows quick turn and quick return to control. Today's cars aerodynamics are better than ever and work well on a wide "attack" angles, plus the tires that are designed to work in max grip on a short range. If you go over the slip, you lose all traction and, therefore, almost all control. Therefore drifting is a risky business and it has proven that it doesn't shorten laptimes..