F1 Race Stars Review

Ever wanted to trap your favourite Formula One drivers in floating bubbles while racing down river rapids, then you dreams have come true with the release of F1 Race Stars. F1 Race Stars lets you race with any one of the 24 drivers from the 2012 grid on novelty tracks inspired by the real world circuits. Codemasters seem to have tried to bring Formula One to players that don't really look at the regular F1 games, so will F1 Race Stars take you on a white knuckle ride or leave you feeling deflated?

Upon first loading up the game I can see that this game has taken a totally different route than the normal F1 games with cartoony menus, tracks and even drivers from the 2012 season have taken up a cartoon look. In the races you will take control of any one of the twenty four drivers from the 2012 grid with a bonus two teams, blue and pink with four made up racers. The two fantasy teams, I feel, don't add anything to the game and feel that two all star teams could have been made for the game that include racers like, Senna, Mansell and Hill. When choosing a driver you will be greeted by a generic voice given what country they are from, Button has a posh English voice were Webber sounds like he has just come from putting a shrimp on the barbie for a quick race. At first the voices are quite a good addition to the game but they do, disappointingly, get quite old quick, there is only so many times that I can hear "Hi I'm Alonso" in a Mario style voice.

Without any tracks F1 Race Stars would be pointless so there are a handful of tracks for the 2012 season to test your skills on. It is a bit disappointing that not all the tracks are on the game but the ones that are do have a very unique take on the famous ribbons of tarmac that the real drivers race on. All the track do share one or two unique landmarks with their real life counterparts, but that is about it. From Belgium where you will fly up through Eau Rouge then near the end of the lap end up on river rapids to the rollercoaster ride that you will have on the Abu Dhabi track when you race karts break into the famous Ferrari world. In most cases the tracks do feel a little on the long side which does take away from the fast paced arcadey feel of the game. Each track features multiple routes around - some quicker than others - as well as multiple pit lanes for you to repair your car. Also around the tracks are boost/KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) pads mostly on the corners where you are able to store boost for a quick speed advantage when you get off the coloured section. With most of these sections on the corners of the track it is slightly disappointing that the brakes feel that they don't really do anything. You are either going or locking up so most of the time I found myself smashing into the barriers due to the wheels locking and with it next to impossible for you to drift around really tight bends you find yourself off the track alot and not getting the speed advantage that you need to overtake the racer in front.  

There are several game modes for you to try out different drivers and tracks. The quick race mode allows you to try any track with any driver with no need to worry about where you finish, just use this to get to know the tracks and corners. Next you have the Career mode where, unlike normal career modes where you need to chose a driver and stick with them thought out the whole season, you are allowed to swap and change as you wish giving you the chance again to try every driver. The career mode is split up into 91 different tournaments which in turn can have two or more races in them, finish first and you will get a gold cup, second a silver cup and third bronze. As well as winning the cups the higher up the field you finish the more points you get, points are needed to unlock more tournaments. As well as the normal lap races in the career mode there are a handful of different race modes with elimination races where there is a count down then the last placed racer is knocked out. Along with this there are races where you will need to collect fuel to stay in the race but also try and win; the less fuel you have the faster you will be but if you run out you will be disqualified. Then there is the time trial mode where you can take to the track by yourself and try to get the faster lap without worrying about your rivals. As with all games that are released now there is the opportunity to go online and race against fellow F1 Race Stars owners in multiple game modes to fight your way to the top and try and become number one in the world.

Anyone that has played Mario kart will know that power-ups makes a race ten times better, thankfully Codemasters have added an array of weapons for you to use. You will have three different types of bubbles, a homing bubble that will find and chase after one of you race rivals, a bubble that you shoot and will bounce off the barriers until it hits someone and lastly a bubble that you will just drop and it stays in one place until someone runs into it. If you are unfortunate enough to get hit by a bubble you will fly up in the air then fall down to the track damaging your car more each time you do. Thankfully the various pit lanes around the track will fix your car. Along with the bubbles there is confetti that, when you drive into it, will stick on you screen for a couple of seconds, wet weather that will catch everyone but you out because magically you will have wet tyres on and everyone else will still be on slicks. Some of the power-ups don't damage the opposition but are used on your own car such as the power boosts which will give you a boost in power and the ability to change into a bullet that will auto pilot you around the track for a few seconds hoping to gain you places.   

Overall Codemasters seem to have brought F1 to everyone with a simple yet addictive game with F1 Race stars. You could say that if you wanted this kind of arcady racer you could go and buy Mario kart but then you will not have the fun of trapping Vettel in a bubble and watching him flying back to the track with a bang. I think if you're just getting into racing games this is one game that you need to buy because of the pick up and playability.