It’s been just over a year since Codemasters rebranded itself as Codemasters Racing, at the time we had a conversation in the office about how many new racing IPs Codemaster would produce. F1 Race Stars is the first new IP to come out of the newly branded company and taking from what they know from their F1 background (Formula one) and producing what can only be described as a breath of fresh air within the ‘casual’ (I use that term loosely) gaming market.
Codemasters Racing has pulled off what can only be described as a stroke of genius by using their F1 license to appeal to a larger audience. They hold true to that in the vehicles, drivers and even weapons as you battle across globe on stages from the USA to Japan and everything in-between. Unfortunately it’s an arcade style racing game from what can be referred to as the ‘karting’ genre which has been notoriously known for doing nothing but produce Mario Kart clones. But is F1 Race Stars a Mario Kart clone? Sort of.
Graphically the game is very pleasing with bright and fun tracks that take mild cues from their geographical locations. The cars look like miniature versions of the real life F1 cars and fully licensed drivers are very detailed to the point that any fan of the F1 series will be able to recognize the comical bobble head style drivers. I was lucky to be able to take my review code home where my 3 year old daughter and I both feel in love with its cartoon style.
Codemasters does a good job of using the license to differentiate F1 from other karting titles by implementing important F1 mechanics like drafting and removing the ability to drift (this is F1 after all). Bad weather, the safety car and pit stops are also all woven into the F1 style gameplay. Where it does fail though is in the power-ups. Using the ‘KERS’ (kinetic energy recovery system) you’ll drive over parts of the track in which you can power up your KERS to provide a powerful boost to your velocity. Although very satisfying, it never seems to confer much of an actual advantage on the track. You’re also able to use different weapon types; fire ‘red bubbles’, which act like homing missiles, ‘yellow bubbles’ which fly in a straight line before ricocheting endlessly and Blue bubbles’ that sit on the track as ‘bananas’ to wipe out your opponents. I appreciate taking cues from the best in business but the all-to-familiar weapons feel bland and stale in this environment.
Gameplay is easy to pick up but hard to master. Learning to use the brakes in the corners instead of drift and actually having to choose the proper race lane when entering and leaving those corners, is definitely not something we’re used to in kart racers. Once you readjust to Race Stars’ and discover the tracks’ secrets – featuring things like hidden keys that unlock short cuts - you’ll find there’s more satisfaction to the driving than first appears.
Trying to shave of 100s of second on your fastest lap before passing the controller over to a family member is something that we still do on Mario Kart after 20yrs, but now we have all new versions to get sucked into. But how many of you remember that feeling when you first fired up Mario Kart on the SNES? I do and Mario Kart on the SNES is still the clear favourite in my home. Many have tried to make a clone, many have come close and many have failed but, in the case of F1 Race Stars from Codemasters Racing they have set a new bar in the Mario Kart clone.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or on our Facebook Page www.Facebook.com/MasonicGamers, where you can join a community of 3200+ gamers, share opinions on the latest gaming news, reviews and rumours, share Gamertags and win some great gaming prizes in our Facebook only giveaways!
