F1 Race Stars

It's exactly what a karting game should be, using the F1 license to appeal a wider audience. It's not the best karting game out there, but showing no weaknesses is a great reason to give it a try.

Wickedly enjoyable. [Jan 2013, p.71]

If you're looking for a family-friendly kart racer, this is it. It's super-slick, charmingly funny and exciting to play. Its appeal is universal in the best sense of the word, never being too dumbed down for the hardcore or too complex for the casual.

There's not exactly a slew of karting games on consoles these days, so F1 Race Stars is a welcome addition to the genre and a wonderfully crafted little racing game in its own right. As a 4-player party game, F1 Race Stars is pretty much indispensable. And it's the perfect Holiday gift for little Billy too.

Owning the exclusive F1 license offered Codemasters the opportunity to make a game that would be fun for adults and kids to play together. Unfortunately, Codemasters took a different direction and built a game only suitable for kids who don't have a Nintendo console.

A solid arcade karting game, with an original and catchy point of view on the Formula One circus. Both kids and grown-up F1 fans will find it entertaining and funny.

Definitely better than Little Big Planet Karting, the game is nice arcade racing with a cool track design and an interesting career mode.

In the end, F1 Race Stars is a decent kart racing title. The genre basics are here, with some good track design and a goofy vibe. The presentation is cheery enough, and the effort put forth into making a standard kart racer a bit more technical and involving is commendable. However, the lack of track variety hurts, as does the bland weapon payload, and there isn't much to make the experience memorable. If you're an F1 fan who wants something more accessible, this is a good start. If you're a kart racing fan, however, there are a few other titles you could play instead.

F1 Race Stars is simple, charming, looks great (particularly thanks to a silky smooth frame rate) and has some clever nods to the real life sport without getting technical. Its simplicity makes it better suited to families or more inexperienced players, and it could be great fun in local multiplayer.

There's just enough F1 style though to make it stand on its own. Yes, it perhaps should have been an XBLA game, and yes it's not really the type of game that sets the world ablaze with innovative audacity, but like most of the lineage it nods to, F1 Race Stars is just good, clean fun. What else was it ever going to be?

Codemasters has produced a remarkably upbeat karting title that puts the feel-good into a license that is often bogged down by its own intricacy. Throw in a few friends and an evening of online multiplayer, you might just have yourself a starting grid worth gearing up for.

A title that feels like it's gripped by identity crisis, unable to let go of its F1 origins to the degree required to be a great karting game. Instead, we get a curious hybrid that's fun, but not essential for either end of the market.

With its funny re-imagination of the F1 circuit, F1 Race Stars succeeds in offering an entertaining racer with a good packet of gameplay modes, especially in multiplayer. It's a pity that the core mechanics are a little too chaotic and shallow.

The competitive nature featured online creates an environment that successfully utilizes creative and strategic approaches against rivals.

F1 Race Stars isn't a bad game. In fact I had a lot of fun playing it, especially offline with friends. The problems arise from its lack of creativity in power-ups, and the bland career mode. There just seems to be so much filler for a game that should shine through simplicity. When it gets that core concept right, it excels. The rest of the time you are left wondering why they made the decisions they did. Fans of F1 looking for a solid kart racer (imagine how small that window is) will be pleased, but there are better options for everyone else looking for a solid title in this genre.

F1 Race Stars was a bit of a gamble for Codemasters and although they may not have completely pulled it off, it's an admirable attempt that should be appreciated for what it is – A much less serious excursion for the F1 license and a much needed injection of fun into a notoriously po-faced series.

An average game that won't hold your attention for too long in a genre in which there are plenty of better options available.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing is easily the better game. [Issue#93, p.80]

It might not be good enough to compete with the best games in the genre, but F1 Race Stars is an entertaining cart racer that has many great ideas but only fully realizes some of them.

The game features online multiplayer and some other standard features, as well as being able to log your progress with Codemasters' online service, Racenet. However, it's still not Mario Kart, no matter how charming the presentation and attitude.

F1 Race Stars isn't a bad game and those who stick at it will get a decent experience, it just isn't an outstanding game.

F1 Race Stars had the potential to be a great kart racer; sadly, some of the gameplay tilts towards the real life sport and hinders the experience. Along with the AI, it becomes something that no kart racer should ever be – a chore to play.

F1 Race Stars doesn't capitalize on its boasted official F1 license and turns out to be a very generic arcade racer, too generic for its own good.

F1 Race Stars strives to be an alternative to Mario Kart. But the weapons systems are unbalanced, the AI relies more on cheating itself to the top spot than battling it out on the track. With all the good ideas and the nice visuals Codemasters forgot to put the most important part into this fun racer: fun!

The F1 license ultimately adds little value to a style-over-substance kiddie racer where luck often trumps driving skill.

In an attempt to merge the best of two worlds, F1 Race Stars eliminates its chances at a successful classification. Without being able to drift or it offering an alternative that works well makes this 'funracer' inaccessible and unchallenging in the long term. Its charming appearance and the interesting game modes only redeem this game for the more youthful players.

Mario Kart is a great karting game, Sonic & Sega All-Star also. F1 Race Stars is, however, a insipid game which takes advantage of licenses. 12 drivers and only 11 circuits for a career already well known.

Once you see past the charming bobble-headed drivers and nods to F1, there's little here to hold your attention for long.

It's a failed caricature – its cute and charming appearance totally undermined by its frustrating and frequently bland gameplay.

Simply put, F1 Race Stars is the kart racing equivalent of a self-help seminar, or of a powerpoint on learning real estate sales. Like those sorts of intellectual death marches, it frequently made me yawn while playing and the whole thing has a painful sense of inevitability to it-which at least draws a further comparison with the sport on which it places primary focus.

F1 Race Stars provides small doses of enjoyment alongside larger doses of frustration and injustice, thanks to its stubborn insistence of remaining both an F1 and karting game.