History VideoGame / StarWarsEpisodeIRacer

* TheAlcatraz: Oovo IV is one of these [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]]

** Aquilaris: The water tunnels on all three tracks have a set of security doors (presumably in case of flooding) that randomly open or close at a moments notice, increasing the risk of crashes. ''Sunken City'' and ''Bumpy's Breakers'' have segments that take you into an abandoned city littered with giant pieces of debris to go around or crash into.

** The Game Boy Color port of the game is also heavily diluted from the console versions of the game, understandably due to the handhelds technical limits [[PragmaticAdaptation forcing the gameplay into being a]] ''Micro Machines'' clone. There are no laps--each race plays out like a drag race--there are only five planets (Tatooine, Ando Prime, Baroonda, Mon Gazza and Malastare) split across 20 tracks and [[CutAndPasteEnvironments simplied into using colors to distinguish themselves from each other]], only two racers on the course at any time, and a few less racers to choose from.

* ItsPronouncedTroPay:
** The "Prime" in Ando Prime is pronounced as "preem."
** Oovo IV's Chief Warden is Fenn Booda, but it's pronounced "bow-dah," not "Buddha."

* NearVictoryFanfare: In the N64 version, music only plays during the final lap. It both mimics ''Phantom Menace'' where the first two laps in the film's race were without music, while also having a practical use in not driving players crazy with short compressed clips of music (due to the cartridge format) over 3-lap races that could go seven-plus minutes.

* NearVictoryFanfare: In the N64 version, music only plays during the final lap. It both mimics ''Phantom Menace'' where the first two laps were without music while also having a practical use in not driving players crazy with short compressed clips of music (due to the cartridge format) over 3-lap races that could go seven-plus minutes.

* NearVictoryFanfare: In the N64 version, music doesn't even play during a race until you reach the final lap.

* AdaptationalBadass: Ben Quadinaros, the guy with the four-engine pod that blew up at the beginning of the race in the movie. As might be expected from a pod with four engines, he's one of the fastest racers in the game, though not the most maneuverable. In this game, he also prefers to race at Inferno, the very last track of the Invitational Podracing Circuit.

-->'''Beed''': "It's a new lap record!"
* AscendedExtra: Most of the racers are taken straight from the podracing sequence of Phantom Menace, most of whom only got seconds of screentime at best.

* HailfirePeaks: Baroonda includes a [[PalmtreePanic palmtree beach]], a [[JungleJapes jungle]] [[BubblegloopSwamp swamp]], and [[LethalLavaLand volcanoes]] that are raced through.

* NintendoHard: Racing any of the later races without upgrading your podracer will turn the game into this--especially in the Invitation Circuit. Let's just say if you don't learn how to get a good head start, spam the boost, or avoid crashing even ''once'' later on, the other racers will ''mop the floor with you''.

* NoOSHACompliance: If the OSHA even existed in the Star Wars galaxy, it would have a fit if it saw some of the courses featured in the first game, and that's not counting how dangerous podracing is by itself. And the racing hazards vary by planet. Some of the organizers deliberately make the courses more dangerous to increase the entertainment value.

** Revenge has the optional side challenge of crashing your rival racers so you can earn extra truguts for Watto's junk shop. Demolishing one or two of them isn't particularly tough, but trying to destroy all of them in each three lap race in the game, even in the easier courses, will really push your skills to their limits.

->''"The current record holder for this track is..."''
-->-- '''Announcer [[MultipleHeadCase Fode]]''', before the start of every race

* NoOSHACompliance: If the OSHA even existed in the Star Wars galaxy, it would have a fit if it saw some of the courses featured in the first game, and that's not counting how dangerous the sport is by itself. And the racing hazards vary by planet. Some of the organizers deliberately make the courses more dangerous to increase the entertainment value.

** Aquilaris: The water tunnels on all three tracks have a set of security doors (presumably in case of flooding) that randomly open close at a moments notice, increasing the risk of crashes. ''Sunken City'' and ''Bumpy's Breakers'' have segments that take you into an abandoned city littered with giant pieces of debris to go around or crash into.

** Oovo IV: All of the tracks in this asteroid penal colony have you go through anti-gravity tubes littered with asteroids of varying size and can propel you to speeds of 1000 mph. Said rocks, by the way, were placed into those anti-gravity tubes just for the races. ''Vengeance'' has a part where racers go through the facility's reactor. ''Executioner'' has a part where you pass by the gaping mouth of a juvenile exogorth (note that this is merely a baby; the adults are big enough to swallow the ''Millennium Falcon'' whole). ''The Gauntlet'' is the only track on the moon that extends outside of the prison and onto the surface, which is frequently hit by meteor showers.

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/_-star-wars-episode-1-racer-n64-__7156.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:[[TagLine Two Engines. One Champion. No Limits.]]]]

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Ando Prime, or at least the area in which the podraces take place, bear much resemblance to Tibet, from the snowy mountains to the monks.

* ItsPronouncedTroPay: The "Prime" in Ando Prime is pronounced as "preem."

* NoOSHACompliance: If the OSHA even existed in the Star Wars galaxy, it would have a fit if it saw some of the courses featured in the first game, and that's not counting how dangerous the sport is by itself. And the racing hazards vary by planet.

** Oovo IV: All of the tracks in this asteroid penal colony have you go through anti-gravity tubes littered with asteroids of varying size and can propel you to speeds of 1000 mph. ''Vengeance'' has a part where racers go through the facility's reactor. ''Executioner'' has a part where you pass by the gaping mouth of a juvenile exogorth (note that this is merely a baby; the adults are big enough to swallow the ''Millennium Falcon'' whole). ''The Gauntlet'' is the only track on the moon that extends outside of the prison and onto the surface, which is frequently hit by meteor showers.
** Ord Ibanna: This planet's tracks take place on a series of abandoned Tibanna gas mining platforms. Ord Ibanna is a gas giant, and the platforms aren't all physically connected. So if you mishandle a jump, it's going to be a long fall until you die from asphyxiation in the not-so-breathable parts of the planet. The good news is that the platform is no longer used for mining Tibanna gas (which should be noted, is used in blasters), so no one has to worry about any crashes [[DisasterDominoes causing the platforms to blow up]].

* AdaptationExpansion: From a single scene in ''The Phantom Menace'' to a full intergalactic racing tournament.

* AdaptationalBadass: Ben Quadinaros, the guy with the four-engine pod that blew up at the beginning of the race in the movie. As might be expected from a pod with four engines, he's one of the fastest racers in the game, though not the most maneuverable.

* NoOSHACompliance: If the OSHA even existed in the Star Wars galaxy, it would have a fit if it saw some of the courses featured in the first game, and that's not counting how dangerous the sport is by itself. Among the most ludicrously dangerous of them are Baroonda's ''Fire Mountain Rally'' and ''The Inferno'', both of which have you fly inside of an active volcano!
** While ''Mon Gazza Speedway'' is relatively sane by the sport's standards, the other two tracks on that planet involve racing through spice mining sites and industrial waste sites, complete with active mining equipment (and one of those two tracks was apparently commissioned by Groff Zugga, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive the boss of the Galactic Spice Mining Guild]]).
** Oovo IV's tracks are quite dangerous too, all of them having you go through anti-gravity tubes littered with asteroids of varying size and can propel you to speeds of 1000 mph. ''Vengeance'' has a part where racers go through the facility's reactor. ''Executioner'' has a part where you pass by the gaping mouth of a juvenile exogorth (note that this is merely a baby; the adults are big enough to swallow the ''Millennium Falcon'' whole). ''The Gauntlet'' is the only track on the moon that extends outside of the prison and onto the surface, which is frequently hit by meteor showers.
** Ord Ibanna's tracks take place on a series of abandoned Tibanna gas mining platforms. Ord Ibanna is a gas giant, and the platforms aren't all physically connected. So if you mishandle a jump, it's going to be a long fall until you die from asphyxiation in the not-so-breathable parts of the planet. The good news is that the platform is no longer used for mining Tibanna gas (which should be noted, is used in blasters), so no one has to worry about any crashes [[DisasterDominoes causing the platforms to blow up]].

* NoOSHACompliance: If the OSHA even existed in the Star Wars galaxy, it would have a fit if it saw some of the courses featured in the first game. Among the most ludicrously dangerous of them are Baroonda's ''Fire Mountain Rally'' and ''The Inferno'', both of which have you fly inside of an active volcano! While ''Mon Gazza Speedway'' is relatively sane by the sport's standards, the other two tracks on that planet involve racing through spice mining sites and industrial waste sites, complete with active mining equipment (and one of those two tracks was apparently commissioned by Groff Zugga, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive the boss of the Galactic Spice Mining Guild]]). Oovo IV's ''Vengeance'' has a part where racers go through the facility's reactor.

** Knire Dark from ''Revenge'', meanwhile, is weirdly drifty in terms of handling and doesn't have the speed or endurance to make his campaign much fun.

* NoOSHACompliance: If the OSHA even existed in the Star Wars galaxy, it would have a fit if it saw some of the courses featured in the first game. Among the most ludicrously dangerous of them is ''Fire Mountain Rally'' and ''The Inferno'', both of which have you fly inside of an active volcano!

* StarfishAliens: Tzidik Wrantojo from ''Racer Revenge'' is one of the stranger-looking alien pilots in both games, basically being a nautilus that uses four of its tentacles as arms and legs.

* FrictionlessIce: Ando Prime has a frictionless frozen lake, which is doubly weird since pod racers use anti-gravity to float.

** Mars Guo: A large podracer with slow speed, but great handling and steering. Returns in ''Revenge'', though strangely with his stats inverted: he's got jaw-dropping speed right out of the box and can upgrade to one of the best top speeds in the game, but his steering is painfully bad.

* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Neva Kee's podracer, which has its cockpit mounted on the front of the engines, with no cables or energy binders.

* ShoutOut: ''Malastare 100'' and ''Dug Derby's'' track layouts look a bit too much like Sonoma Raceway and Laguna Seca.

''Star Wars: Episode I: Racer'' is a RacingGame created by Creator/LucasArts, released originally for the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} and later for [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]], UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh, UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor, UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast, UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, and UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, based on the Podracing scene from ''Film/ThePhantomMenace''.

* ContinuitySnarl: The first game's placement in the timeline is very confusing in the context of either the movies or the old expanded universe. Anakin sold his podracer after he won the Boonta Eve (which he took part in as a dangerous gambit to win his freedom), and he had never travelled offworld until leaving with Qui Gon to take part in the Battle of Naboo and then train as a Padawan (and per ''Legends'' material, Jedi do not allow podracing), making it utterly implausible that he would have been able to, much less be allowed to, take part in a full podracing tournament. However, it is possible that Anakin only participated in the Tatooine races, since the game randomly decides which racers (a maximum of 12 out of the 20+ characters available) appear in which race. Though it still raises the question of why Anakin would be the track favorite for a course on ''Baroonda'' of all places.

* TokenHuman: Anakin is the only playable human character in the game. Qui Gon Jinn does make the occasional, but very easy to miss cameo appearance, in Watto's shop now and then.

* BookEnds: In the first game, the first and final courses (that aren't on the Invitational Circuit, anyways) are set on Tattooine.

''Star Wars: Episode I: Racer'' is a RacingGame created by Creator/LucasArts, released originally for the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} and later for [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]], UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh, UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor and UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast, based on the Podracing scene from ''Film/ThePhantomMenace''.

A list of all the podracers appearing in ''Episode I'' and both the ''Racer'' games can be [[https://www.starwars.com/news/start-your-engines-star-wars-podracing-drivers-part-1 found]] [[https://www.starwars.com/news/start-your-engines-star-wars-podracer-drivers-part-2 here.]]

** Bozzie Baranta: Passable acceleration and handling, an all around average pod--ironic considering [[ThatOneLevel the very hard course you race to unlock him]].

** Darth Vader: Hidden racer in ''Revenge''. '''''ALL STATS MAXED OUT.'''''

* RoleReprisal: Jake Lloyd[[note]]Anakin Skywalker[[/note]], Andrew Secombe[[note]]Watto[[/note]], Lewis Macleod[[note]]Sebulba[[/note]], Greg Proops[[note]]Fode[[/note]], and Scott Capurro[[note]]Beed[[/note]] reprise their roles from [[Film/ThePhantomMenace the movie]].
** For ''Racer Revenge'', Lloyd, Secombe, and Macleod return once again, along with all the voice actors for the pilots returning from the original. Lloyd even records some new lines even though his character is purely an anachronistic secret unlockable! (Hayden Christensen doesn't voice the Clones-aged Anakin, though -- that's Scott Lawrence, Lucasarts' go-to Vader voice.)
* RuinsForRuinsSake: A good chunk of the Aquilaris tracks take you through a rotting, sunken city that has a makeshift racetrack built into it.

* SelfImposedChallenge: Beating the original game without upgrading your podracer at all. While it's definetely possible, it makes the game a ''lot'' more difficult, especially in the Invitation Circuit courses. Its also possible to combine this with a "No boosting" challenge, but only to a fault--and the games difficulty will really start pushing your skills to their limits from "Scrappers Run" and on, where even one foul up can cost you an entire race, and the Invitation Circuit races become downright unwinnable--the opponent racers just become too fast and relentless to keep up with by then.

* UselessUsefulSpell: Sebulba's WeaponizedExhaust works ''against'' you, but not against the other racers when you use it on them.'