Nintendo finally ended its dry spells of Nintendo Directs today with what they claimed was a Mini Direct. Honestly, a 30-minute presentation packed with that much stuff is hardly something I would call mini but that is beside the point. One of the surprise pieces of news to pop up during the Direct was the news that Star Wars Episode 1 Racer would soon be hitting the Switch. In a follow-up article on Starwars.com, it was announced that the game would be coming to PS4 alongside Switch. The game is set to include the original split-screen multiplayer from the original N64 and Dreamcast releases and Switch is even getting LAN support for local multiplayer matches. The key features of the game are as follows.
25 playable racers including: Anakin Skywalker, Sebulba, and Ratts Tyerell
Race tracks spanning 8 unique worlds including: Tatooine, Baroonda, and Malastare
Work with pit droids to upgrade your podracer for higher top speeds and acceleration
Discover short-cuts and secrets to master your lap times
Split-screen multiplayer (Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4) and LAN multiplayer (Nintendo Switch)
Now when the news broke in the direct I let out an audible “WHAT” from my excitement! Episode 1 Racer is one of my favorite racing games of all time and seeing it get a second life is exciting. Sadly the more I have learned about this version, it has killed my excitement. First off the game is bafflingly skipping release on Xbox One just like the previous Star Wars re-releases. Why? The console may not have been the best selling but that is still an audience of millions you are denying sales from. It just doesn’t make sense. I have been asking this same question about Nightdive’s Turok releases since it was announced to be coming to the Switch as well. Why on earth would you cut off one console from a multiplat release?
Whatever I tell myself, I can just get it on Switch as that is probably where I would get it anyway. I look up the released images of the game and can’t believe the pixelated mess I see before me. Episode 1 Racer across its original N64, PC, and Dreamcast look so much better than this as they apply bilinear filtering on the textures. Just for comparison, I have included a screenshot of the GOG version of the game running on my PC vs the new screenshots for the Switch version. notice how the texture filtering has been removed completely along with all environmental effects? It seriously looks like an inaccurate emulated version of the game and it is just odd to see.
Now, as long as performance is solid I will likely not care about the botched presentation and I am sure there are many out there who will like the sharper textures, it’s personal preference after all. The biggest issue I take with these early screens is it shows how little work is being put into this release. The HUD stretching from the PC version running in widescreen hasn’t even been touched for crying out loud! If you are spending this much time completely recoding the game for new platforms why not fix it? At this point just get the game on Steam, GOG, or Origin as it will be cheaper, run amazingly, and look better. Hopefully, by the time the game comes out this year, things will have improved but as it stands now my hype has been deflated and this release looks like nothing more than the cheap cash grab it likely is.
