Fun facts about this game: - The boost actually charges if you are at max speed with the stick held forward for one second. - Pit Droids will restore one part per droid to max health after each race. Optimal Speedrun play is to buy a full set of droids and only upgrade 4 stat categories. - There is a power slide button that helps with turning (referred to in the video as drifting), which let's you sort of pre-turn on a corner. - Two of the 3 Malastare courses have been identified as having real life counterparts, one of which is Laguna Seca. - Runners of this game use Ben Quadinaros and Bullseye Navior for optimal play. Ben has the highest boost speed, while bullseye has the best maneuverability and speed combined. - Those "Steam Vents" on the boonta Classic are Tusken Raider shots. The same feature reappears at Gauntlet, this time as a meteor shower. - Abyss has a full lap skip that drags the World Record time down to a handful of seconds. - Some versions of the game run at an uncapped framerate, which messes with the physics because traction is calculated off of frame time instead of delta time. - Boosting on N64 is categorically harder as a result of the stick gate not allowing you to hit 100% forward. Nose down triggers at 71% forward, so the reduced window means you effectively have to be going straight for a full second to charge boost. - Sebulba is actually quite low on the tier list, which is hilarious for someone who "Always wins." - The speed units for this game are interesting. While the box art properly converts the units between mph and kph depending on region, the in game speedometer is unaltered. As a result, the Speedrun community for this game has taken to calling them "Arbitrary speed units." - You basically never stop accelerating in this game. You will continue to gain speed units, but much slower once you hit max speed. - At max upgrades, all characters have the same max speed, meaning boost thrust is the only differentiating factor
@@jordanowens6253 simple: The Speedrun community for this game is alive and well. Thriving, even! I've done a couple runs on my channel, but they're not that great. acE_Sr and DomiraeSSB are the two fastest players right now, check their channels for some of the speed tech in action. I think Dom even made a beginner's guide to the game. I should also mention that when I said Boost Thrust was the only determining factor, I meant for speed. Obviously turning and traction and such still play a part
Badass dude. I played this game so much as a kid trying to get all the racers and it was not easy. I remember getting Quadrinaros was grueling and one time I accidentally quit after pausing. I was pissed
@@liatrisblossomheart4013 a Full Lap Skip. Look up "Star Wars Racer Abyss Skips" on TH-cam, you'll find footage of people pulling it off. I don't recall if framerate is important for it, but it's like the easiest and most impactful Speedrun tech I know aside from how Beak Buster landing animation doesn't take fall damage. I'll leave written steps if you don't want to look up a vid. 1: Select Wan Sandage, and go to abyss 2: line up parallel with the edge of the caution stripes at the starting line and drive slowly into the right hand arena wall. 3: drive up the arena wall, holding nose down the whole way. Eventually you'll climb up the wall and launch off. 4: while in the air, hold nose up and pull slightly toward the tower to your left, then immediately hang right. Try to land in the arena. 5: cross the line. If performed correctly, the lap will count and you will have made the most difficult track for casual players into an absolute joke. Watching a video will explain it far better, plus you get to see the broken in action. This is only one of the game's many skips
The whole reason the twin controller stick setup was added was because that's how the arcade cabinet of this game played. You sat in a replica of Anikens pod racer and on each side of you was a throttle that controlled the separate engines just like how he does in the movie. It was actually super fun to play in the cabinet of this game!!! The controls were easier too than using two sticks since you were using your whole hand.
This game was on par with Diddy Kong as far as exploration-racing games go. Discovering all the cool shortcuts was a blast, controlling the car feels responsive, and the mileage they got out of each stage by changing it iteration to iteration worked surprisingly well for "recycled content".
My mom bought me the Star Wars N64 for Christmas when I was a kid. This was game came with it and was the first 64 game I ever played. I was absolutely blown away by the graphics. So was my mom. Lol. I remember she was screaming when I wrecked because at the time it looked so real. 🤣 Great times. Love you mom.
I'm disappointed he didn't show unlocking Sebulba and shooting fire at other racers. But this is for sure my favorite racing game on N64, I played it so much. Neva kee was the coolest because his engines were backwards.
I loved this game so much as a teen… I rented it for two days and fully completed it on my first rental… The difficulty balance is just perfect and the speed feeling is plain perfect!
I remember playing this game as a kid, During the holiday break I think I only put down the controller to eat and sleep. I was looking forward to this one. Just made my Friday! Keep up the amazing content thab
15:37 there was an arcade back then that controlled something like this, it's pretty cool, it's just a question of getting used to it but it's not better, it's just more immersive
@@stev39 they did and they didn't. See the game calculates traction based on frame rate because it's an old game, and Aspyr seems to have not noticed, so since their new ports run at 60 (or was it technically 59?) fps, the traction has been GREATLY increased from the game's original 24 fps. For some tracks and characters, this makes the game easier. For others... Have fun with that hairpin on Malastare 100
This series is incredibly fun and entertaining to watch. It's a blast watching you play the games I played when I was a kid, and it's super interesting seeing all the other games I never heard about! Keep up the good work!
this video inspired me to play the remaster on the PS4... no fog and higher resolution and framerate... it seems better and there's definitely some fun to be had there! :)
This is going to be quite an achievement when you complete it. Certainly Guinness book worthy. At this pace it looks like it is going to take you another 4 years, can't wait to see the end. I love how you saved mario 64 for last. imo you should run with that idea. Your channel will obviously grow over time and maybe even some gaming news sites will recognize the achievement when you get close to the end. It would be cool if the top 10-30 n64 were excluded from the normal list and saved to be randomly picked so they are the final games. Just my opinion, and I can't wait til you land on Goemon's Great Adventure game lol I have no idea how I found that game as a kid but it was fun.
Though I do like that he is saving Mario 64 for last, if he saves 30 of the best games, it's gonna be so much harder to get through knowing he doesn't even have a chance at one of the better games until the end. I think it'll be more fun to see them peppered through out, especially with all the racing and sports games he still has to plow through.
i find it a bit strange that he's including japan only games that don't even have an english translation. i think the achievement would still stand if he only did the games available in english.
@@Jack_80 I agree, but since he’s going for a “first ever to do it,” I bet he wanted to cover every corner of the map haha. But yeah, I wish he left out Japan Only games so we could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m sure he knows the Japan-Only games will be lower views, but when it’s all said and done, every cartridge ever created for the N64 will be defeated.
I love every single one of these, ive never watched any videos about games I dont care at all about...except these lol. You do a fantastic job of actually describing what the game is like with not a lot of fluff, BUT with a hint of awkward humour lol
I'm happy to see a bigger channel give this game another go through. The game deserves more attention and love than it receives. I'm biased as a speedrunner of the game, but I've never played a racing game with a better sense of speed and complexity behind what makes going fast actually fast. While I know you're just beating every game and not really going to try and optimize each and every game on the n64, I will say that it's undeniable that the difficulty of this game really only starts once you actually try to go fast with fully upgraded pods. We're still trying to dig up everything we can about it haha
It's unfortunate that you didn't seem to use most of the mechanics in the game that make it far more interesting but it's fine. Just hope you don't have a bad taste in your mouth for a game of so much depth and potential
You can play with any racer as long as that racer is Mars Guo. His pod never overheats and has the longest turbo of all pods. Once you get on front with him, no one can overtake you.
Discovered this series about a week ago and I’m fully caught up. Gutted I’ve got to wait weekly now! Thanks for doing what I wish I had the time and dedication to do. There are so many games I saw on the shelves at the rental store that I never got to try out, so it’s great to finally see what a lot of them were like. Pod racer was always one of my favs though. Great content!!
I played this a lot as a kid, but I didn't really remember the "It's a new lap record!!" thing. The thing that is burned into my brain is the "You break it, you buy it!" from the upgrade store. I remember hearing that over and over and over and over and over again. I still look forward to these every week, so keep the content coming! :D
My headcanon for this game is an alternate version of Episode 1. Instead of protecting Queen Amidala on her way to Coruscant, Qui-Gon Jinn becomes obsessed with the world of podracing and abandons his mission and the Jedi Order. He becomes an "owner" and you're actually playing as him in the non-racing sections. (You can actually see him in Wattoo's shop occasionally) From the start he has a team of podracers, including his new friend Anakin whom he sends all over the Galaxy to compete in races (this explains why you see Anakin on other planets). Whenever you unlock a new racer, it means Qui-Gon won a bet with them to join his team if his racer beats them on their track. That's why you see the new pod backing into what I'm calling Qui-Gon's personal hanger.
2:48 What the hell!? I've played this game many times throughout the years ever since it's been released and I had NO IDEA about this, this would've helped a lot back in the day hahah. I'm getting the urge to playing it again just to check this out for myself. Been loving the series, what a journey!
I loved this game as a kid, and I still remember many of it's features. I absolutely remember how hard was the jungle map, and I'm not even sure if I ever got first place on that one
This game is still playable online on windows if anyone is interested (up to 12 players). Look up the discord community for more information. My friends and I were gathering regularly online and it was great fun. The mod has every upgrade applied online and other QoL fixes. It's particularly great if you're like me, and enjoyed the game, but don't know any advanced tech or shortcuts. You get friends and learn it all together!
In some of these clips your engine is damaged, did you find the repair function at all? Would have made some of the track attempts easier to not be one hit away from blowing up
I feel kind of bad that I only tune into these when its a game I played when I was a kid. This series is bang on and I'm looking forward to discovering some new games with you as well, just subbed
Great play through! I didn't play this one as a kid, but compared to a lot of the racing games so far, I can understand why it's so beloved. A popular property executing a popular genre of game, great to see.
This was one of my favorite N64 games, second only to LoZ:OoT. The upgrade system and wide variety of tracks, plus the in depth look at pod racing which was only briefly mentioned in the movie but by far my favorite part, really played with my imagination as a kid!
I used to play the single player mode through trying to compete to finish the game with more money than the last time. If you buy all three pit droids at the very beginning you can buy all your stuff from the junkyard then have them fix the parts up. Try to always buy the next level of part and always get the most damaged part you can get. Then set it to winner takes all (you can always restart a race you aren't gonna win). The last time I ended up playing through the game, I ended up getting a fully upgraded pod by the end of the first circuit and ended up with like $147k extra trugets at the end of the game.
The game was also released on Dreamcast and PC, and it's those versions that actually do have a couple different race themes playing the entire time instead of just the final lap, as well as rendered introductory cutscenes for each race. I definitely do recommend the Steam or GOG re-release if you want to revisit the game nowadays, the last time I played it you still had to install the original version and then three different official updates and community patches as well as manually replace files in a certain order for it to even launch.
This game is sick. I was one of the few who watched all three parts of the thabplays channel and actually commented. Tried to give pointers like a dummy not realizing even those are behind and not posted the day of lol. Love you thab
Once I got used to it, the 2 controller play style became my go to. It was kind of like operating a R/C with the same layout, just two controller's instead of 1 remote control.
I loved this game back in the day. There was actually an arcade game of Racer around this time with cool controls, but it was shockingly easy compared to the N64 version for some reason.
I played this game so much as a kid, and I never knew about the winnings manipulation or the repair between races system!? No wonder I never made it to the end of the tournament mode!
This was the most competitive game in my house growing up. My older brother and I still play the remaster on the switch on occasion. They did a really good job fixing up the framerate problems in the remaster! I highly recommend it. Your explanation of the junkyard was mostly correct but there is a strategy to optimize it so you end the game as upgraded as possible but its not straightforward. There are explanations on gamefaqs of course :P. Also on the music, they fixed that in the remaster so it plays the epic music through the whole race and not just the last lap haha
My dad got this game for me. I remember it being pretty hard because the speed of the podracer. I played as odie until sebulba. Glad you enjoyed the game.
Other than the repair function you missed, this game featured an amazing 'cheat' which would enable the debug menu allowing you to adjust much of the gameplay. It allowed you to make an indestructible pod with instant full acceleration and speeds that could exceed 10,000. You could also mess with the gravity and such. Really fun as a kid, though you had to adjust the settings each race
This game was also released for PC the same day as N64. The graphics are vastly superior on the PC version, and of course the controls are easier on keyboard. The most cumbersome thing about the N64 version is using the joystick to steer while also holding forward (UP) to charge the speed boost. So you're basically constantly weaving your thumb back and forth between diagonals, and sometimes don't get the turns as hard as you wanted. If anyone is watching Beast play this, and thinks this looks fun for you, definitely try to track down the PC version. Very fun racing game.
For some reason I played dozens of hours in Racer but never beat it as I was a kid that couldn't grasp braking in a racing game but I bought it on the Switch last year and beat it in like 2 hours. Still a fun game.
Fun fact #1: Despite being the last racer that you'll unlock, Sebulba is actually one of the worst in the game, mostly because his stats spread is focused on top speed, but you will max everyone's top speed anyway with the upgrades, making him overshoot for nothing and being left with mediocre stats where you'd need those. So much for the one who "always wins". Though they did give him 3 tracks to beat to obtain him. But at least, I'd say that Sebulba is worth praising LucasArts for one thing: he is a bragging rights reward that wouldn't have been needed to beat the game, as well as a racer that you'd definitely want to use for the sake of going through the challenge of winning every race as him. Fun fact #2: you can use the boost as every pod racer, while in the movie only Anakin could do that. Fun fact #3: the last pod racer whom you unlock in the game, Ben Quadinaros, is amusingly the only guy in the movie who didn't even get past the starting line as his pod racer has blown up in an hilarious way. PS: Thab, I don't know if you did it during your gameplay, but you can REPAIR by double tapping R. You can only know it if you read the game's manual IIRC.
Love your series, man. Just subscribed. I can't wait until you run into one of the Zeldas... or GoldenEye! I am HOPING that you will decide that you need to beat ALL the levels of Golden eye... which includes going through the missions in Double Agent (good luck :) ) Also, StarFox 64! Maybe you'll get all the medals and beat it on hardmode? :)
Absolutely loved this game as a kid!!! I'd sit in a big cardboard box I made to look like a pod racer and would wear my swim goggles and would play for hours! Ahh this brings back great memories! 😀
I used to, then my editor was like hey you say the exact same thing every time, we should just reuse one. I recently rerecorded it with my newer mic though
Tell me you have never seen Star Wars without telling me you have never seen Star Wars. Love the video series, man, good stuff all around. Take some time to catch up on a galaxy far, far away! There is also an arcade version with differential steering, like a zero turn lawn mower and a fiber glass pod to sit in!
It is both painful and hilarious that you haven’t seen all the Star Wars movies. “Some guy with a really annoying voice” already knew who it was going to be haha
I thought you were joking about not knowing "the guy with the cool voice" until you said you have not watched the movie. "AYYYYYYY ANNNIEEE!", "AHHH, NUBIAN!" gotta love Watto
Love this game. I also had a Gameboy pod racer game and played the crap out of that as well. In the Gameboy game, when you finally beat Sebulba, you can play as him. However, if you lose as him, a message comes up saying, "YOU ARE NOT WORTHY" and removes him as an option. Afterwards, when I unlocked Sebulba in the N64 game, I refused to play as him for fear of the same thing happening. I'll never forget that shit. Also played with my dad and that was nice.
I remember getting this as a kid for my computer at the time and it was the Anankin Skywalker edition of the game because the PC has 2 different box arts depending on the edition
I remember playing a demo of this game somewhere and being utterly perplexed why I couldn't use items or weapons. It was completely beyond my young mind the concept of having a nonstandard racing game with no ability to attack or boost in some way. I suppose I just expected anything arcade-y to be a Mario Kart and anything with realistic cars to be a racing sim.
Fun facts about this game:
- The boost actually charges if you are at max speed with the stick held forward for one second.
- Pit Droids will restore one part per droid to max health after each race. Optimal Speedrun play is to buy a full set of droids and only upgrade 4 stat categories.
- There is a power slide button that helps with turning (referred to in the video as drifting), which let's you sort of pre-turn on a corner.
- Two of the 3 Malastare courses have been identified as having real life counterparts, one of which is Laguna Seca.
- Runners of this game use Ben Quadinaros and Bullseye Navior for optimal play. Ben has the highest boost speed, while bullseye has the best maneuverability and speed combined.
- Those "Steam Vents" on the boonta Classic are Tusken Raider shots. The same feature reappears at Gauntlet, this time as a meteor shower.
- Abyss has a full lap skip that drags the World Record time down to a handful of seconds.
- Some versions of the game run at an uncapped framerate, which messes with the physics because traction is calculated off of frame time instead of delta time.
- Boosting on N64 is categorically harder as a result of the stick gate not allowing you to hit 100% forward. Nose down triggers at 71% forward, so the reduced window means you effectively have to be going straight for a full second to charge boost.
- Sebulba is actually quite low on the tier list, which is hilarious for someone who "Always wins."
- The speed units for this game are interesting. While the box art properly converts the units between mph and kph depending on region, the in game speedometer is unaltered. As a result, the Speedrun community for this game has taken to calling them "Arbitrary speed units."
- You basically never stop accelerating in this game. You will continue to gain speed units, but much slower once you hit max speed.
- At max upgrades, all characters have the same max speed, meaning boost thrust is the only differentiating factor
How... do you know all this?
@@jordanowens6253 simple: The Speedrun community for this game is alive and well. Thriving, even! I've done a couple runs on my channel, but they're not that great. acE_Sr and DomiraeSSB are the two fastest players right now, check their channels for some of the speed tech in action. I think Dom even made a beginner's guide to the game. I should also mention that when I said Boost Thrust was the only determining factor, I meant for speed. Obviously turning and traction and such still play a part
Badass dude. I played this game so much as a kid trying to get all the racers and it was not easy. I remember getting Quadrinaros was grueling and one time I accidentally quit after pausing. I was pissed
abyss has a WHAT
@@liatrisblossomheart4013 a Full Lap Skip. Look up "Star Wars Racer Abyss Skips" on TH-cam, you'll find footage of people pulling it off. I don't recall if framerate is important for it, but it's like the easiest and most impactful Speedrun tech I know aside from how Beak Buster landing animation doesn't take fall damage. I'll leave written steps if you don't want to look up a vid.
1: Select Wan Sandage, and go to abyss
2: line up parallel with the edge of the caution stripes at the starting line and drive slowly into the right hand arena wall.
3: drive up the arena wall, holding nose down the whole way. Eventually you'll climb up the wall and launch off.
4: while in the air, hold nose up and pull slightly toward the tower to your left, then immediately hang right. Try to land in the arena.
5: cross the line. If performed correctly, the lap will count and you will have made the most difficult track for casual players into an absolute joke.
Watching a video will explain it far better, plus you get to see the broken in action. This is only one of the game's many skips
The whole reason the twin controller stick setup was added was because that's how the arcade cabinet of this game played. You sat in a replica of Anikens pod racer and on each side of you was a throttle that controlled the separate engines just like how he does in the movie. It was actually super fun to play in the cabinet of this game!!! The controls were easier too than using two sticks since you were using your whole hand.
I absolutely loved it, thing was cool as heck.
Think there was a way to make it "normal" tho.
I'm not very into arcade cabinets but the pod racer one is definitely one I would love to have at home.
*Anakin
In terms of early game graphics this is probably one of the best racing games for the in 64
Between this, FZero X, and Xtreme G N64 racing was soooo good!
This game was on par with Diddy Kong as far as exploration-racing games go. Discovering all the cool shortcuts was a blast, controlling the car feels responsive, and the mileage they got out of each stage by changing it iteration to iteration worked surprisingly well for "recycled content".
Exploration-racing game sounds so cool. Never heard anyone use that term before
Car? Pod**
Beetle adventure racing had good exploration
My mom bought me the Star Wars N64 for Christmas when I was a kid. This was game came with it and was the first 64 game I ever played. I was absolutely blown away by the graphics. So was my mom. Lol. I remember she was screaming when I wrecked because at the time it looked so real. 🤣 Great times. Love you mom.
Same, I was 8 years old! Best Christmas ever. This and 1080 snowboarding were my first games.
@@jarrettbellboyanother absolute gem from the n64
I'm disappointed he didn't show unlocking Sebulba and shooting fire at other racers. But this is for sure my favorite racing game on N64, I played it so much. Neva kee was the coolest because his engines were backwards.
I was thinking about Sebulba the entire time, so much fun unlocking him back in the day
He probably didnt know. Ive seen his other star wars videos. He is not into star wars.
An interesting fact about that: apparently against the AI the flame jet doesn't actually do anything. Disappointing, I know
Road Rash 64 and F-Zero are good too.
@@MrZillas road rash rules
I loved this game so much as a teen… I rented it for two days and fully completed it on my first rental… The difficulty balance is just perfect and the speed feeling is plain perfect!
I remember playing this game as a kid, During the holiday break I think I only put down the controller to eat and sleep. I was looking forward to this one. Just made my Friday! Keep up the amazing content thab
We had this one as a kid, it was a lot of fun but we never beat all the leagues. And yeah, the "it's a new lap record!!!" is burned into my mind ahaha
15:37 there was an arcade back then that controlled something like this, it's pretty cool, it's just a question of getting used to it
but it's not better, it's just more immersive
This was one of my favorite games growing up and till this day I NEVER knew you could change how the winnings were distributed
Same lol
Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and savior?
@@JuicyJenitals hell no lol, not to be offensive I totally accept if you have but not for me
@@JuicyJenitals I have accepted Jesus as my gay lover.
I remember some of the later stages in this game being darn near impossible
So true i never passed it as a kid but bought it for the switch and thought it was pretty easy idk if they made it easier
@@stev39 they did and they didn't. See the game calculates traction based on frame rate because it's an old game, and Aspyr seems to have not noticed, so since their new ports run at 60 (or was it technically 59?) fps, the traction has been GREATLY increased from the game's original 24 fps. For some tracks and characters, this makes the game easier. For others... Have fun with that hairpin on Malastare 100
'dude with a creepy voice sells you parts' THIS GUY HASN'T SEEN EPISODE ONE
This series is incredibly fun and entertaining to watch. It's a blast watching you play the games I played when I was a kid, and it's super interesting seeing all the other games I never heard about! Keep up the good work!
this video inspired me to play the remaster on the PS4... no fog and higher resolution and framerate... it seems better and there's definitely some fun to be had there! :)
This is going to be quite an achievement when you complete it. Certainly Guinness book worthy. At this pace it looks like it is going to take you another 4 years, can't wait to see the end. I love how you saved mario 64 for last. imo you should run with that idea.
Your channel will obviously grow over time and maybe even some gaming news sites will recognize the achievement when you get close to the end. It would be cool if the top 10-30 n64 were excluded from the normal list and saved to be randomly picked so they are the final games. Just my opinion, and I can't wait til you land on Goemon's Great Adventure game lol I have no idea how I found that game as a kid but it was fun.
Though I do like that he is saving Mario 64 for last, if he saves 30 of the best games, it's gonna be so much harder to get through knowing he doesn't even have a chance at one of the better games until the end. I think it'll be more fun to see them peppered through out, especially with all the racing and sports games he still has to plow through.
i find it a bit strange that he's including japan only games that don't even have an english translation. i think the achievement would still stand if he only did the games available in english.
@@Jack_80 I agree, but since he’s going for a “first ever to do it,” I bet he wanted to cover every corner of the map haha. But yeah, I wish he left out Japan Only games so we could see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I’m sure he knows the Japan-Only games will be lower views, but when it’s all said and done, every cartridge ever created for the N64 will be defeated.
@@uneedamuracle he's not actually buying all of the cartridges is he? like every console, i'd imagine there are some rare, expensive games.
Considering Star Wars Racer is one of the top 10 N64 games, too late.
It's crazy thinking he beat this game without repairing.
Yes!
This, and Jet Force Gemini are my two most anticipated episodes
I love every single one of these, ive never watched any videos about games I dont care at all about...except these lol. You do a fantastic job of actually describing what the game is like with not a lot of fluff, BUT with a hint of awkward humour lol
How obvious is it that Thab never watched star wars😆 "it took place at this bar".. Mos eisley. "This guy with a weird voice"..watto
It's endearing. We know he's not lying.
@@marctoad I agree, no malice intended from me
Pretty sure I could out race all those pod thingies
I'm happy to see a bigger channel give this game another go through. The game deserves more attention and love than it receives. I'm biased as a speedrunner of the game, but I've never played a racing game with a better sense of speed and complexity behind what makes going fast actually fast. While I know you're just beating every game and not really going to try and optimize each and every game on the n64, I will say that it's undeniable that the difficulty of this game really only starts once you actually try to go fast with fully upgraded pods. We're still trying to dig up everything we can about it haha
It's unfortunate that you didn't seem to use most of the mechanics in the game that make it far more interesting but it's fine. Just hope you don't have a bad taste in your mouth for a game of so much depth and potential
@@domiraessb what are some of the mechanics he missed?
Really impressive how this game has 25 unique tracks. They are fairly long and in depth as well. Even Mario Kart 64 only has 16.
You can play with any racer as long as that racer is Mars Guo. His pod never overheats and has the longest turbo of all pods. Once you get on front with him, no one can overtake you.
I always use Mars Guo as soon as I unlock him but switch to Bullseye Navior at Grabvine Gateway because he's the best turner.
I think the dual controller mode was an attempt to replicate the big arcade machine that was at your favorite putt putt game zone.
Discovered this series about a week ago and I’m fully caught up. Gutted I’ve got to wait weekly now! Thanks for doing what I wish I had the time and dedication to do. There are so many games I saw on the shelves at the rental store that I never got to try out, so it’s great to finally see what a lot of them were like. Pod racer was always one of my favs though. Great content!!
Almost glad I’m just finding it this week. I’m binging fast so I’m sure I will catch up by the weekend.
This is what I look forward to most on Fridays now. Thanks for the great vids!
Been enjoying the series and this was a favorite game of mine back in the day!
I played this a lot as a kid, but I didn't really remember the "It's a new lap record!!" thing. The thing that is burned into my brain is the "You break it, you buy it!" from the upgrade store. I remember hearing that over and over and over and over and over again. I still look forward to these every week, so keep the content coming! :D
"They come in, they look around, they no buy. Why nobody buy?
Glad I found this channel, super chill and relaxing to watch. ill be part of the journey. 🐸👍 racing games feelsgoodman
Yeah agreed. Thab is easy to like.
My headcanon for this game is an alternate version of Episode 1. Instead of protecting Queen Amidala on her way to Coruscant, Qui-Gon Jinn becomes obsessed with the world of podracing and abandons his mission and the Jedi Order. He becomes an "owner" and you're actually playing as him in the non-racing sections. (You can actually see him in Wattoo's shop occasionally)
From the start he has a team of podracers, including his new friend Anakin whom he sends all over the Galaxy to compete in races (this explains why you see Anakin on other planets). Whenever you unlock a new racer, it means Qui-Gon won a bet with them to join his team if his racer beats them on their track. That's why you see the new pod backing into what I'm calling Qui-Gon's personal hanger.
2:48 What the hell!? I've played this game many times throughout the years ever since it's been released and I had NO IDEA about this, this would've helped a lot back in the day hahah. I'm getting the urge to playing it again just to check this out for myself.
Been loving the series, what a journey!
I loved this game as a kid, and I still remember many of it's features. I absolutely remember how hard was the jungle map, and I'm not even sure if I ever got first place on that one
This game is still playable online on windows if anyone is interested (up to 12 players). Look up the discord community for more information.
My friends and I were gathering regularly online and it was great fun.
The mod has every upgrade applied online and other QoL fixes.
It's particularly great if you're like me, and enjoyed the game, but don't know any advanced tech or shortcuts. You get friends and learn it all together!
In some of these clips your engine is damaged, did you find the repair function at all? Would have made some of the track attempts easier to not be one hit away from blowing up
Looks like he found it right at the end as he uses it in the last race
I feel kind of bad that I only tune into these when its a game I played when I was a kid. This series is bang on and I'm looking forward to discovering some new games with you as well, just subbed
YESSSSSSSSSSS I LEFT THE SUGGESTION! I grew with this one, love it, I pity a lot that this game isn't talked about as other SW games
12:05 - Rogue Squadron takes place on Taloran, while the races are on Ord Ibanna. Still gas giants though.
Nice one Thab!! This series has been such a source of comfort for me these past couple weeks, I swear ive watched every episode at least twice haha
I spent hours on this game when it came out. I believe you can repair your pod racer mid race by holding the R button or something.
Shocked be got through without knowing he could repair. I was very aggressive with the boost as a child so my engines were often on fire
@@MelodicTurtleMetal only way to do it 🙌🏼
This was also available on a PC, and it looked pretty much the same. I vividly remember playing this and having a lot of fun. :)
One of the games I played the most as a kid. Loved this!
I played this one so much as a kid! Such good nostalgia to see you finish it haha. Nice video bro.
Beast: Robots
Me: (screaming internally) Droid! 🤣
You've played a lot of Star Wars games in this challenge and even more racing games. You're finally ready to beat this.
Great play through! I didn't play this one as a kid, but compared to a lot of the racing games so far, I can understand why it's so beloved. A popular property executing a popular genre of game, great to see.
This was one of my favorite N64 games, second only to LoZ:OoT. The upgrade system and wide variety of tracks, plus the in depth look at pod racing which was only briefly mentioned in the movie but by far my favorite part, really played with my imagination as a kid!
I'm addicted to this series dude, nice job! It's a new lap record!
Started binge watching all your N64 video's. You are doing something incredible!
Dude… did you beat this game without ever touching the repair button?!
Ya lol. Crazy, that's what happens when you don't read the manual in a blanket fort with a flashlight.
Love pod racer, wish for a new one.
I used to play the single player mode through trying to compete to finish the game with more money than the last time. If you buy all three pit droids at the very beginning you can buy all your stuff from the junkyard then have them fix the parts up. Try to always buy the next level of part and always get the most damaged part you can get. Then set it to winner takes all (you can always restart a race you aren't gonna win). The last time I ended up playing through the game, I ended up getting a fully upgraded pod by the end of the first circuit and ended up with like $147k extra trugets at the end of the game.
YES. Spent a lot of my childhood playing this game.
The game was also released on Dreamcast and PC, and it's those versions that actually do have a couple different race themes playing the entire time instead of just the final lap, as well as rendered introductory cutscenes for each race. I definitely do recommend the Steam or GOG re-release if you want to revisit the game nowadays, the last time I played it you still had to install the original version and then three different official updates and community patches as well as manually replace files in a certain order for it to even launch.
I am so happy that you got to do this one! Such a big part of my child hood and I still play this all the time!
This game is sick. I was one of the few who watched all three parts of the thabplays channel and actually commented. Tried to give pointers like a dummy not realizing even those are behind and not posted the day of lol. Love you thab
You have to hold up on the joystick to get the boost to charge lol
I played this game so much as a kid. I still remember my preferred racer: Neeva Kee.
Once the game gets hard I go with Bullseye Navior and never look back.
Once I got used to it, the 2 controller play style became my go to. It was kind of like operating a R/C with the same layout, just two controller's instead of 1 remote control.
I loved this game back in the day. There was actually an arcade game of Racer around this time with cool controls, but it was shockingly easy compared to the N64 version for some reason.
I played this game so much as a kid, and I never knew about the winnings manipulation or the repair between races system!? No wonder I never made it to the end of the tournament mode!
This was such a good game. Picked up the re-release the Switch and was not disappointed
This was the most competitive game in my house growing up. My older brother and I still play the remaster on the switch on occasion. They did a really good job fixing up the framerate problems in the remaster! I highly recommend it. Your explanation of the junkyard was mostly correct but there is a strategy to optimize it so you end the game as upgraded as possible but its not straightforward. There are explanations on gamefaqs of course :P. Also on the music, they fixed that in the remaster so it plays the epic music through the whole race and not just the last lap haha
weird trivia fact, one of the main programmers of this game is a direct decendent of adolf hitler
that's crazy, considering he had no children
Mad respect for beating this game without ever repairing your engines mid race
this was one of the better head 2 head games on n64, lots of fun racing friends here
Just got home from work and needed this to relax
Amazing game!!! I remember living the character Nova Key. Maybe I’m remembering this incorrectly, but he was the bomb.
Those steam vents that cause your engine to catch fire are actually Tusken Raiders shooting at you. It's something that happens in the movie.
My dad got this game for me. I remember it being pretty hard because the speed of the podracer. I played as odie until sebulba. Glad you enjoyed the game.
Other than the repair function you missed, this game featured an amazing 'cheat' which would enable the debug menu allowing you to adjust much of the gameplay. It allowed you to make an indestructible pod with instant full acceleration and speeds that could exceed 10,000. You could also mess with the gravity and such. Really fun as a kid, though you had to adjust the settings each race
*Its a new lap record!*
This game was also released for PC the same day as N64. The graphics are vastly superior on the PC version, and of course the controls are easier on keyboard.
The most cumbersome thing about the N64 version is using the joystick to steer while also holding forward (UP) to charge the speed boost. So you're basically constantly weaving your thumb back and forth between diagonals, and sometimes don't get the turns as hard as you wanted.
If anyone is watching Beast play this, and thinks this looks fun for you, definitely try to track down the PC version. Very fun racing game.
Love this series!! Wishing a nice day for you and all your followers.
Congrats on the clear looking forward to the next one!
The creepy dude is Watto. He is a legend of creepiness. Love this game!
so excited for this one. I got this game for my birthday one year and played it so much.
Im hyped for this one. Thank you Thab for the conent. Love you!
I could never entirely beat it as a child, recently bought it on PS4 for a second attempt. Some INSANELY hard courses
For some reason I played dozens of hours in Racer but never beat it as I was a kid that couldn't grasp braking in a racing game but I bought it on the Switch last year and beat it in like 2 hours. Still a fun game.
Good stuff as always my brother. Keep up the good work.
I choose to believe he is ironically calling Watto, "the guy with a creepy voice, who can upgrade your podracer"
my word choice of, "choose" could be replaced with 'hope"
Best part of my week! Thanks THAB!
Fun fact #1: Despite being the last racer that you'll unlock, Sebulba is actually one of the worst in the game, mostly because his stats spread is focused on top speed, but you will max everyone's top speed anyway with the upgrades, making him overshoot for nothing and being left with mediocre stats where you'd need those. So much for the one who "always wins". Though they did give him 3 tracks to beat to obtain him.
But at least, I'd say that Sebulba is worth praising LucasArts for one thing: he is a bragging rights reward that wouldn't have been needed to beat the game, as well as a racer that you'd definitely want to use for the sake of going through the challenge of winning every race as him.
Fun fact #2: you can use the boost as every pod racer, while in the movie only Anakin could do that.
Fun fact #3: the last pod racer whom you unlock in the game, Ben Quadinaros, is amusingly the only guy in the movie who didn't even get past the starting line as his pod racer has blown up in an hilarious way.
PS: Thab, I don't know if you did it during your gameplay, but you can REPAIR by double tapping R. You can only know it if you read the game's manual IIRC.
Love your series, man. Just subscribed. I can't wait until you run into one of the Zeldas... or GoldenEye! I am HOPING that you will decide that you need to beat ALL the levels of Golden eye... which includes going through the missions in Double Agent (good luck :) )
Also, StarFox 64! Maybe you'll get all the medals and beat it on hardmode? :)
Absolutely loved this game as a kid!!! I'd sit in a big cardboard box I made to look like a pod racer and would wear my swim goggles and would play for hours! Ahh this brings back great memories! 😀
My dad bought me this on my 14th birthday in 99. Played it all night and beat it. Like these videos, trip down memory lane
silly question: do you record the intro every time or you just reuse the same recording?
I used to, then my editor was like hey you say the exact same thing every time, we should just reuse one. I recently rerecorded it with my newer mic though
@@Thabeast721 thanks!
Tell me you have never seen Star Wars without telling me you have never seen Star Wars. Love the video series, man, good stuff all around. Take some time to catch up on a galaxy far, far away! There is also an arcade version with differential steering, like a zero turn lawn mower and a fiber glass pod to sit in!
“Elon Musk” is my main in this game 🤙
It is both painful and hilarious that you haven’t seen all the Star Wars movies. “Some guy with a really annoying voice” already knew who it was going to be haha
Played this game endlessly back in the day, still could probably name off all the aliens lol
I thought you were joking about not knowing "the guy with the cool voice" until you said you have not watched the movie. "AYYYYYYY ANNNIEEE!", "AHHH, NUBIAN!" gotta love Watto
I found your channel about a week ago, been addicted ever since.
Love this game. I also had a Gameboy pod racer game and played the crap out of that as well. In the Gameboy game, when you finally beat Sebulba, you can play as him. However, if you lose as him, a message comes up saying, "YOU ARE NOT WORTHY" and removes him as an option.
Afterwards, when I unlocked Sebulba in the N64 game, I refused to play as him for fear of the same thing happening.
I'll never forget that shit. Also played with my dad and that was nice.
I remember getting this as a kid for my computer at the time and it was the Anankin Skywalker edition of the game because the PC has 2 different box arts depending on the edition
I remember playing a demo of this game somewhere and being utterly perplexed why I couldn't use items or weapons. It was completely beyond my young mind the concept of having a nonstandard racing game with no ability to attack or boost in some way. I suppose I just expected anything arcade-y to be a Mario Kart and anything with realistic cars to be a racing sim.
7:22 if Bullseye Navior doesn't become someone's pogchamp emote I'm quitting twitch forever
One of my favorite back in the N64 Days
the arcade version was amazing. controls actually a pod racer with individual engine controls.
Single best thing to come out of the Star Wars prequels.