F1 RACE STARS Demo

F1 RACE STARS is a racing game with cartoon elements inspired by the F1 championship with real pilots and teams, developed and published by Codemasters.

Codemasters is now the owner of the F1 license, and they are making whatever they want with their rights, including a silly F1 game with characters that have oversized heads and cars that look like karts. It might seem like a strange choice, but Codemasters is actually following a very simple recipe that has proven to be extremely successful in the past.

In the case of F1 RACE STARS, the idea is to have some sort of race while poking fun at the stars in the real F1 championship. Getting them really big head is part of the deal, and the entire experience is a good break from all the seriousness that we’ve gotten accustomed from this studio.

The players get to race with all the pilots in the F1 championship around some imaginary tracks that are silly and sometimes even intersect with traffic. From place to place, some special powers are provided, like shields, bubbles that trap other players, and boots. These are all very important for the economy of the race because you won’t be able to complete the game without them.

Pit stops are also available from place to place because the cars do get damaged, at least slightly, and they need to be repaired. This is pretty much the extent of the game, which feels a little like Mario Kart, but with much better graphics and gameplay.

The only significant problem with F1 RACE STARS is that control scheme, which is bounded by default to the WASD keys. The Ctrl key is used to look behind and Space to activate the power-ups. It requires a little bit of adaptation, but it also doesn’t feel natural.

F1 RACE STARS is built on the EGO Engine, which is also used for Codemasters’ regular F1 games, so it’s nice to see that it has such a wide range of possibilities. The game itself doesn’t have high system requirements, but that was to be expected.