Level 73 - Star Wars Episode 1: Racer - Let's Be Honest, It's Called Podracer

The fate of the Galaxy rests on
the outcome of a race.

The outcome of the race rests in
your hands.

Star Wars Episode 1 Racer out
now must have Nintendo 64's limited edition pack.
Welcome to Remember 64 where this week, Oh yes, we are pod
racing.

Or this is pod racing, depending
on how you want to intro things.

That's how I'm going with it
this week.

Hello everyone, welcome to the
show if you're a returning listener and welcome if you are
here for the first time.

Here on Remember 64 we play and
discuss the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between
on the Nintendo 64's library.

My name, of course is David
Ptrangelo.

And check out the size of these
engines, ladies.

Bang.
Oh shit, ignore the smoke.

I'll just get a couple of my
Droid buddies to fix it.

Ladies.
Anyone?

Ladies, are you there?
Hello.

Damn it.
Well, Jiggy's here.

Hey, Jiggy, look back.
What's going on, man?

Not too much, I just wanted to
correct you.

You said we were pod racing, but
we are just racing.

Oh yeah, that's right.
Yeah, no.

Pod to be had.
The only pod going on is.

In our this pod right here, I
guess there is a pod going on.

Oh man.
All right, we're podding and we're racing.
There you go.

Separate things about one thing.
Let's go.

Let's let's marry them together
and create a beautiful partnership with the three of
us.

Let's do this, this everyone
right, everyone 123 this.

Oh man, we are the coolest.
Of course we have a guest with us.
Ice.

Ice.
Yeah, I, I mean, I'm the coolest.
I know.

But you guys.
But I'm I'm pretty cool.

I feel we have.
We have a guest with us this time, Mike, from the Switch to
the Past.

Switch to the Past podcast.
That's a mouthful.

Easy for me to say this evening
back on the show of Remember 64.

I was also on your show a little
while ago.

Not only is Mike a fellow
Canadian from just down the street from me, but also one of
the the lovers of Yoshi's

Island, as we have discussed in
the past as well.

Mike, welcome.
How are you?

I'm doing great.
I'm doing great.

Dave, thanks for having me on.
And whoa, what's this?

Oh.
Yeah, quite a gin.

Yeah, Qui gon's there, you know,
he's racing.

He's actually he's the racer.
He's the racer, apparently.

Yeah, Anakin's the pod.
He's the racer.

Yeah, I have to make sure I
showed this off today 'cause my $100 went really far on this
one, obviously, Obviously.

But yeah, pride and joy right
here.

Show me I'm a true fan.
That's.

Awesome.
So if anyone hasn't, if anyone's just listening the actual on the
video feed, Mike just showed us a story.
I guess he called those dioramas dioramas.
Yeah, it's a Lego.

Star Wars diorama with a little
quote in the middle thing.

Oh yeah, what's the quote say?
Remember, concentrate on the moment, feel, don't think, use
your instincts, said by Kwi

Ranjan, of course to Anakin.
Which is why he's there. 10 year old boy and has no idea what's
going on so.

I'm sure that quote really
cleared everything up for a 10 year old.
Yeah, yeah, that's a really cool set.
I think that one's one of the new ish ones I think.
Yeah, it came out a year or two ago.
It was that and there was a couple others.
I also have the Dagabad diorama and behind me here, as well as
my adat and some other Star Wars memorabilia.
There you go, your Empire poster behind you and everything.
Look at.

That poster I didn't even have
to put any of this this up.

This is just my everyday.
Sure, sure.

Yeah, yeah, kind.
Of got my Obi Wan shirt on.

Hey, look at that stance.
Nice.

I'm ready, right guy for the
job.

If anyone hasn't heard about the
show, I, I was on it a couple months ago at this point when
you guys sort of first, I guess relaunched in a way.
Let's talk a little bit about the show before we jump into
into things.

Yeah.
So switch to the past.

We have gone through a couple
names, would take breaks, we come back.
We started off as the GameCube was cool, which Dave did appear
on from some episodes on that one as well.
We had a great time with him on some of those and we covered all
555 N American releases on the

GameCube.
Took us 2 1/2 years to do it, but we did it.
Then we took a break because we were exhausted from it.
Did a little thing called

Unlocking What was cool where we
just talked about all kinds of random games and pop culture
stuff.

Took a break from that and now
we're back again for Switch to the Past where we talk once
again about all things Nintendo.

Lots of nostalgia stuff going on
there.

We were of course lucky enough
to talk about the GameCube

Virtual Console games which just
came out recently.

For the Switch to had to do that
had so many messages.

Of course when the Virtual
Console got to or GameCube online service got launched,
that was a a big day for us.

And I've been playing Strikers
quite a bit since that was.

I know you guys have always
touted that game as being awesome.
It's still one of the one of the few Mario sports games I have
never played but but it looks great.
It looks so much fun.

Why?
So the original GameCube one, I played the Wii one.
I remember enjoying the Wii one as well.
Then I I got the one on the switch.
Wasn't a huge fan.

Nope.
Nope, same the.

Game on NSO and I'm like, I do
love this I'm like.

What's?
What's different about it?

I don't understand what like
fundamentally on paper the same.

Right.
And it's next level games, same developer actually who who did
the Switch one as well.

Funny enough, Yeah.
And they just just a miss on the

Switch.
I think.

I think my personal opinion bit
too much meddling from Nintendo on that one.
I feel like they wanted them to make a specific kind of game.
Those Mario sports games like

Aces and the G1, they're all
kind of the same ish and I think.
The G1 too is is one that like same thing where everyone's kind
of like pretty much all of them.

Then the switch one was very
middle ground as far as reception went and stuff.
Yeah.

Yeah, very mid, very mid.
But Strikers on NSL, yeah, Oh my

God, just so much fun.
It's such a great game.

I was really like dissecting it
because I was playing it.

And I'm like, because I remember
playing the Switch 1 and being like, Wow, I remember really
liking this.

Maybe I just grew up.
Maybe this is like, this was an old thing.
And then going back to him, I was like playing it.
I'm like.

No, this is great.
What happened?

I'm not crazy.
It's not me, it's them.

Yeah, yeah.
Let's, let's, let's, let's do that.
Yeah, that that works.

That happens, though, and it's
true.

And like same thing.
I just look up the Mario Mario golf game for switch.
Same developer.

I mean yes, it's 25 years later,
but things change.

But yeah, it could could be a
little bit too many cooks in the kitchen type of thing from from
Nintendo that that stuff happens.
I, if I ever get myself a switch to that's, you know, I, I want
to get the online subscription when, when that happens just so
I can play these game cube games that I or whatever is on it at
the time, because most of them I haven't played.
That's like, you know, why when, when I was listening to you guys
do do your podcast, going through all the games, most of
the stuff you talk about, the vast majority, that was the
first I was hearing of them.

That was when I was listening to
you guys talk about them and it was, it was a fun journey to go
on.

And it's like, I got to get my
hands on this thing, you know, maybe I'll get a console itself,
but then you got to buy the games.
And I'm just like, it's just, it's a huge investment, right?
So.

Check out your your podcast on
it because I am a big GameCube fan.
Yeah, you are.

That's it's all GameCube games
I.

See it it.
Looks amazing.

I see it.
I love it.

That's great.
I got.

I got mine downstairs always
ready to go.

Have my silver GameCube in the
corner over there button box from Japan.
That was a fun.

So I do have Japanese games that
I can actually play on my

Japanese GameCube.
It's nice.

Damn, is that library the same
size?

As far as we know?
Sometimes it's it's larger I think right?
Or for some it is larger.

Oh, it is for GameCube too.
Nice.

Yeah, there's a a bunch of
random GameCube games in Japan that never made it here.
Some obviously in PAL as well, like Dosh and the Giant.
That's the.

So I really hope that with the
online service we're going to get some of these PAL and Japan
Japanese only ones, because we've had that for GBA.
Yeah, let's do it for GameCube too.
I wanna play these weird ass games.
Especially the PAL ones 'cause it's just gonna be in English
anyway and they're, they're releasing most, not all the
subscriptions are obviously coming from North America or
English speakers.

But you know, the PAL games that
didn't work or weren't released or something like that.
Like this is the best way to experience them at this point.
Or at least potentially the easiest.
I think, listen, I know this is an N64 podcast, but what's your
favorite GameCube game?

Oh my God, that's like asking my
favorite child.

Oh, that's.
We all have it.

We do all have it.
I mean, so it's not a GameCube exclusive game, but my favorite
game to play on the GameCube is double O 7 Nightfire because
that's what me and my Co host

Neil grew up playing every day
together constantly all the time.
But favorite exclusive?

Honestly it it could be
strikers.

Someday it could be strikers.
Power Tennis also is one of my favorites.
Wind Waker though would probably be my actual answer to to answer
you honestly, I think Wind Waker is a almost perfect game and I
could play that on the game cube easily every day for the rest of
my life.

And now that's on the online
service I can play it again.

Sucks I don't have fast sailing
because the way you made me it, it spoiled me on that one.
So my, it's, I was like, oh right, this takes a while.
I also love Windbreaker, that's a good call.
Nice.

Thank you.
Do you have one Jiggy?

I feel like we've probably
talked about it.

I don't because I don't have
enough experience with it.

So that's.
Do I have one?

What?
Your your favorite game on the.

Console.
Oh, oh, I was like GameCube.

I was like, I got an extra 1
right there.

I was like.
I'll take it if I'll take it if you don't want it.
Like 3 at some point just because my dad like every time
he would try to get controllers for us because my brother was
just, he would just destroy my controllers.
So he's always like, I know your little brother breaks your
controller.

So anytime he went to like a
yard sale, he'd find a controller.
Well, this was like an era where every time he went to a yard
sale and they were selling the controller, they were selling it
with the console and like a bunch of games and so he'd just
buy it every time.

So we had like 3 game cubes at
one point.

And it was probably a reasonable
price.

So it wasn't crazy.
Yeah, that was.

Always like 20-30 bucks.
He's like, I just bought the whole box and it, it was
awesome, not gonna lie.

Damn.
Favorite game cube games?

Honestly, I think the first
Luigi's Mansion is fantastic.

Yeah.
I'm weird, I like Star Fox adventures just 'cause I love
war.

Although I will say the combat
was dated the last time I played it.
I was like, moves on to my memory is this amazing game.
Probably the most played game I have though is probably between
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and

Super Smash Bros Melee.
Yeah, like I I went back and forth a lot.
Like, yeah, yeah.

And you're a big Sonic guy too,
right?

So nice.
Maybe eventually one day I'll have my favorite, but I don't
know.

My default will be I don't know.
I don't know.

Yeah, most of the games you guys
just mentioned I've never played, so there you go.
The cool thing about the

GameCube is it's got all these
like really quirky like cartoon games.
Like he started mentioning all the like sport games, Mario
sports games.

That was the era where those
like really like they may have started on N64, but I feel like
they really flourished on

GameCube.
And then like even the solo adventures like Mario Sunshine,
like it's the weirdest Mario we have.
It's awesome.

It's so weird.
I, I, I, I have played it, but not that much.
I feel like if I sat down and played it, I'd really like it
because it's so strange.

By the way, you came on for the
Tom Clancy episode where we talked about Splinter Cell.
I was trying to remember which one.
That's right.

Oh my God.
And fun fact, Splinter Cell, those shadows and everything
that they were able to do in chaos, it was chaos theory that
came from Luigi's Mansion because Luigi's Mansion created,
they specifically for the

GameCube created the Shadow
Engine that allows you to like in allow Luigi's Mansion to
basically be playable as it is.

And so Chaos Theory for Splinter
Cell, they were able to actually take those same Shadow Engine
and use it specifically in the

GameCube version, which is why
the GameCube versions of Tom

Clancy games are always rated
higher, that is.

Super cool.
Nice.

And from like a different
developer and stuff too, which is kind of interesting, right.
So they're able to use that, that technology.
That's crazy.

From I think Ubisoft, No, yeah,
Ubisoft has Splinter Cell.

I think so.
Right.

Yeah, I think it was.
He was soft and Rhett Storm was the developer for.
For that.

OK, Yeah, yeah, nice.
Maybe one day I will play more

GameCube.
Maybe one day I will play more

GameCube.
OK, so I don't even think we even mentioned it yet, did we?
What game we're playing or have played?
Well, we sort of.

Sort of sort of sort of we're.
We're doing so how about how?

About that wind.
Maker.

I mean, this is the game that
everyone just calls Pod Racer or

Star Wars Pod Racing or
something, you know?

I honestly still forgot that it
wasn't called Episode 1 Pod

Racer.
Like I thought that that's what the full name was.
But of course, due to legal reasons, they could not use Pod
in the title for this game.

I think from I think it was from
a Nintendo perspective, maybe it was from LucasArts, but Star
Wars Episode 1 Racer, that's what we're sitting Star Wars
Episode 1 racer.

I guess it makes sense.
It's totally fine.

It says Star Wars, you get the
logo.

Literally everyone just calls it
pod racer.

I don't like or pod racing.
Like I've never heard it called 1 racer until I like actually
looked at it and I was like wait, this isn't actually called
pod racing?

What?
What's the what's the thing?

The Bernstein Bears effect, or
whatever it's called.

The Mandela Effect.
This might be a thing.

It's totally what it is.
I think that 100% 'cause I even like look at the box when I was,
you know, or.

It looks wrong.
It just, yeah, it does look wrong.
And I just, I, I just look at it and just think, oh, it's a Star
Wars pod racer.

Like the Episode 1 doesn't even
exist in my mind when I even read the fucking blog.
Dyslexia, yeah.

Well, yeah, there's that.
Damn it, I'm tired.

Like, so this is a game that I,
I think we all have a little bit of experience with at least up
until this point.

So just to get us started,
Jiggy, let's start with you, man.
What's, what's your history with?
We've talked about Star Wars stuff on and on and and off and
on here and there, but are you one, are you connected at all to
the prequels in any way?

Would that have affected your
time with this previously?

And did you play this game
leading up to this?

It's an excellent question.
My experience with Star Wars in general.
Ironically, one of the like few celebrities I've met was Mark
Hamill.

When I was like 8 years.
Old My dad was a huge Star Wars nerd.
Like literally.

I have the Rogue Squadrons on
GameCube because my dad just really liked Star Wars.
Nice.

And I didn't understand because
I didn't really watch Star Wars when Episode 1 came out, was
that was that 99 or two? 1009. 99 yeah, so I was really I
was really young I.

Was like just just around the
time this game came out, this is like, this was basically the tie
in game, Yeah.

I.
Had this game.

Yeah, I had this game.
Why I had this game, I did not ask for it.
So I'm assuming it's one that my dad was like, oh, this would be
great.

But I did play it.
I remember going through the.

I remember sucking at it too, by
the way.

Oh sure, I.
Remember being terrible at it?

Yeah, I remember like laughing
going through the menu and the guy's.
Like oh, Oh my God, it is the best.
It is the best.

These guys, they come into my
shop Honestly sounds like my dad's dad talking like he sounds
like a 94 year old Italian.

That's what he sounds like.
Hey, you come into my shop, you know?
Bye.

Why?
You know, Bye.

Yep.
That's a no good out here.

You come in and you recommend
stuff.

Why you do this?
Yeah.

Have us some pizza, you know?
Come on.

Stay out of the garden.
What are you doing?

You're going to ruin my tomato.
100% what I thought of the whole time.
Anyways.

Did you suck this time, Jiggy?
Yeah.

Yeah.
Yeah.

Yeah.
Yeah, high speed.

Maneuvers.
Yeah, me too, Smash.

Just like just straight into the
wall or the tiny little quarter that's sticking out on one of
the turns.

That happened to me a few times
too.

What are you gonna do, Mike?
What about you, man?

I know you've played this 'cause
I think we've talked about this on and on at some point to feel
like, or way back when you came on for the NWO episode a couple
years ago, this was like, oh, when you do, I think we probably
said, when you do Pod Racer, cue me up.
And I've always had that in the back of my mind.
So I'm happy that we made it work.
But let's let's talk about your sort of experience with the game
too.

Yeah, so, I mean, I have always
loved Star Wars since I was a little kid.
I had an uncle who didn't have any kids at the time 'cause he's
quite a bit younger than my mom.

So I was definitely his favorite
child that he didn't have.

And he'd take me around a lot.
And he was like kind of like the cool uncle.
And he had a whole basement full of Star Wars stuff.
It was All Star Wars he had.

I remember playing Star Wars
Monopoly with him and Star Wars risks and all that.
Yeah, it was, they're great, honestly.
And he got me into Star Wars.

And I saw episode one in
theaters.

That was probably the first
movie I ever saw in theaters with him, my dad and a couple
other friends.

And that was a pretty magical
experience.

I remember that really well.
I think it was 7-6 or seven and fell in love with Star Wars ever
since I've I've, I mean, I have the poster up here, right?
I got all the Lego.

It's I love Star Wars and the
prequels for me.

I didn't like Attack of the
clones when it came out, but I saw Revenge of the Sith with my
Co host Neil in 2005 and we saw it again this year to mark 20
years since we saw it together.

So that was pretty cool and.
Yeah, I did play pod racing famously, as I've talked on your
podcast and on my podcast.

I did not own an N64 growing up.
My friends would not buy an N64 for me.
I had to beg them to get a double dash and GameCube in
Christmas of 2003.

That was a big, big day for me.
But yeah, so I never had an N64, but I had lots of friends who
did, of course.

And I had a neighbor who did and
I played a lot of pod racing racer on his console, but where
I actually played pod racing the most.
Funny enough, this is a funny story.
True is at the orthodontist when

I was 10.
Yeah, I know right.

Did not expect that one.
Yes, I thought you were gonna say the arcade, 'cause I know
there was an arcade one eventually that I think was out
and about, at least in our area, 'cause we're sort of from the
same area.

I definitely ran into a couple
of those arcade machines anyways.
Orthodontist.

Platadium, I think there was at
Platadium.

It was at Platadium.
I had them at one of the movie theaters, too.
They had one, yeah.

So at the orthodontist, I was
about 10 or 11 years old at this point.
And so this is like, you know, the N64 had been not out for a
while now, like it was like firmly in the GameCube.
Eric moving on to we and I was getting my braces on and I would
have to go, I think every week or so or I, I had to go a lot at
first.

I remember that.
You go quite a bit, yeah.

You go quite a bit.
I don't remember all the stuff that was happening, but I went
quite a bit to these guys who definitely were very Watto esque
as well.

How are you doing?
How's your teeth?

I feel, are you, are you taking
the skin off your apple or whatever the shit that got stuck
in?

I can't.
I can't remember what the restrictions were.
All the stuff in your braces.

Yeah, but in the at the
orthodontist, there's a waiting room.
I remember it very clearly.

There's a waiting room.
And then there's like the area where they actually did all the
work and stuff.

There's this like circular area
that you would go into and it was where all the kids would go
when they had five little CRTTVS set up.
Five, Yeah, they were ready for kids.
And they had N64 say each one of them, which I was like, oh,
well, that's cool.

Like I like the N64 still.
So I mean, I'm gonna play these games.
Let's see what's on there.

And I forget.
I think they there's five different games.
They weren't all pod racer, but

I think the one that I would
always play was racer.

And so I constantly, every week,
would make sure my mom brought me early.
I'd be like, oh mom, you know, we should probably go early, you
know, get in there.

And I was like, like, it was
just like down the street from mom.
So it was like the those buildings across from Square 1.
Yeah, not too far away.

And I was, yeah.
I'm like, she's like, we're not going to be late, but whatever.
So we go.

We can walk there like with you.
We'd go at least 15 minutes early and they were always late
anyway, so I had at least 1/2 hour to play pod racing every
single.

Time we get a good, good amount
of races done in half an hour.

That's that's pretty good.
I got pretty good at that point, and there would be kids there
playing like, So what we would do is we'd unhook the N64
controllers because for whatever reason, each one only had one
controller, right?

So he would unhook the
controller from the other one, plug it in this one, Then we'd
play together, usually me and just some some random kid and I
just schooled them because I got so good.
I got here 15 minutes early, kid.
Oh yeah, because I pick Anakin.

I'm just waiting for them.
I was like, yeah, who are you going to pick?
Some Bulba?

Because I unlocked them already.
So sucker.

Yeah, that's where I got good at
the game.

We're at my friend's house was
just kind of us just like playing around and and just
crashing right as you do when you're a kid.
So that's that's the story.

That's sick.
That's great You guys got stories.
I don't.

Once again, my stories are
pretty boring.

Did I play it at a doctor's
office?

No.
Did I play it at home?

Occasionally because I rented
it, but it was mostly at a friend's house.
And honestly, you know, what's what's strange about this game
in particular was even though it was obviously is multiplayer or
can be multiplayer, we often played single player.
And I don't know if that's because we just wanted to unlock
stuff or we just wanted to sort of progress and get different
parts for our, you know, our machine or racers or whatever,
something like that.

But like, I don't know now.
Now I feel like if I played multiplayer, I would like get
dizzy 'cause there's just too much going on on the screen.
But maybe I just didn't know that at the time.
Maybe that's what was bugging us, but we often played and we
would just switch every race.

It wasn't like one of those, oh,
if you die, you have to pass it on.
It was like every race was was something different.
And eventually, you know, you could sort of both get a handle
handle of more difficult races as you go along.
So it's not like one person is saddled with the difficult ones
and the other ones, other person's got the easy ones
going.

But yeah, that's a lot of it.
One of my buddies owned it.

I rented it a decent amount
because for me, I'm a little bit older than you guys, but Star
Wars was introduced to me just a few years prior.
We're not introduced but like I watched them just a few years
prior to when episode 1 came out.
I watched them.

I believe the special editions
came out the year before episode 1 came out, or two years before.
98 is that VHS box set that had

Yeah.
Which I still own.

I still have it.
I doubt they even work anymore.

I'm sure they're like withered
away or something, but I still have those those VH s s, but I
watched the the original movies.

I I borrowed them from a friend
of mine's older brother probably a year or two before that.
And then I always borrowed them.

Always borrowed them, watched
them a bunch of times and stuff.

I vividly remember the first
time I watched Episode 4, which was not called the New Hope at
the time, just episode 4 when

Luke comes in and says, what is
this hunk of junk?

What is this piece of junk
referring to?

The Falcon?
And I yelled to my brother who was in the basement playing
probably N64 or Super Nintendo at the time going, Oh my God,
Luke just called it a piece of junk.
I knew who Luke was.

I knew what the Falcon was, but
I never watched the movies.

And this was like the first,
maybe second time I watched the movie.
So I've always been attached to

Star Wars.
I absolutely love it.

It's one of the favorite
franchises ever.

The prequels are hit and miss
for me, but I, I generally Star

Wars is great.
I love it.

So when this came along, it was
like a racing Star Wars game.

And it also ties into this new
cool looking movie.

Shit, yeah, I want to play this.
So for some reason, you know, growing up, I, I, I acquired
lots of Star Wars games.

The Jedi Knight games were big
for me on PCI.

Definitely love all the new
stuff that they've done.

I think in the last five or six
years, Star Wars games have just been incredible.
But yeah, this is for some reason, this console was in our
house all the time.

We had 4 controllers.
We played a bunch of games, just wasn't one of the ones that we
own.

But I, I played it quite a bit
and I remember really those first two, maybe 1 1/2 sets of
races in it 'cause when I read, you know, pick this back up
again a couple weeks ago, I was for the first time in years, I
was like, Oh yeah, no, I remember this one.
I remember what it looks like.

I remember the, the announcer.
I remember the, especially the first race.
I mean, you do that so many times, especially if it's like a
rental.

And, and it was just like, yeah,
this, this, this feels good.

I'm not good at it, but it feels
good.

I'm going to.
I didn't haven't pulled up the the video yet.
There we go everyone look at that video.
Yay.

And I want to see if it's not
too loud and obnoxious what it sounds like too, because it also
is a game with Star Wars sound, which Star Wars sound immune.
Look at that cinematography.

He's got nobody.
That's it?

Is that the intro?
That it?

That's the intro.
Yeah, it's so hype.

You know how long?
Like this is a key memory right here because I would just like
turn this game on.

Yeah.
And like, I just the amount of times that I would turn this
game on, just have it sitting there blasting this music
through the TV and I'm just like doing something else.
Yep, Yep.

It's not always intentionally,
it just did.

I don't.
Know you didn't know it as a kid, but you're John Williams
fan, man.

He just didn't know it.
I, I, I constantly have some

John Williams music going on in
this house like this, like just just sort of like a collection
of his music, just a bunch of different movies and stuff like
that.

But yeah, the sound in this is,
is pretty cool.

I, I, I have this when I, it's
so funny 'cause like you could go and put this music, this song
in the Jedi Survivor game, for example, and you can go and play
it in that.

And it would be, you know, a, a
newer, you know, cleaner version of it or whatever.
And for some reason it wouldn't feel the same.
Like there's something about the sort of low fidelity of not just
this this particular game, but games of this era from Star
Wars, the Jedi Knight ones are a perfect example.
And stuff that when I hear that quality of a Star Wars song or
the sound effects, I just go it.

It takes me back more than a lot
of other games do even more than for for some reason, even more
than than playing some of the rare games do.
I don't know what it is.

And maybe it's because it's just
it's just Star Wars.

Maybe that's that's what it is
or something about it.

But it hits differently.
And I love it.

I absolutely love it.
OK, Oh, I totally forgot that you could do this and walk
around and check your thing.

OK, so this is this is this is
just a racing game, right?

Like this is just go, you know,
do your laps and whatever.

But there's a little bit more
depth to it.

So before we get into some of
the details of that, do you guys have a favorite racer?
Who is the go to and was there, was it always the same or did
you guys cycle through it?

Mike, what about you?
I mean, I was basic.

It was always Anakin.
I had to be Anakin, OK?

When you're, when you're, when
you're young like that, you're just like always trying to fight
for Anakin.

And I feel like if I, if I
wasn't Anakin and if yeah, if

Sebulba was unlocked, I would
try and be him because obviously he's probably the biggest next
character in terms of the movie.

But I, I think Gazgano, is he
the one?

I think I would be him
sometimes.

I don't really remember.
But yeah, it's mostly Anakin

Sebulba unlocked than other
guys.

Is it, is it all, is it all
based on the look of it or just because it's part of the movie?
Is the look of it right?

Yeah, like the, I mean, his,
his, his craft looks pretty sweet.
Sebulba's is pretty iconic and intense.
I feel like it's it's pretty great.
I'm gonna find I got the the list of of it here.
I didn't know any of the names of the characters aside from
Anakin growing.

Up.
Hey, there you go.

There's the there's the the
ships.

Yeah, yeah, that's a little
small.

I tried to zoom it in but it
keeps doing that for some reason.
Yeah, I guess Gandos was like the smaller one I remember
having like that was what I would pick when I was forced to
pick, basically.

But yeah, look at Sebaldas.
How do you, how do you not pick that?
That thing is a monster.

It's so much.
Fun.

It's got a huge like X shape to
it, essentially like it's.

Like a lot to unlock his if I
remember correctly I think.

He had to.
I think so.

Because to unlock things in this
game, there's different ways, but I remember that a lot of it
was like credits based, right?

So you would have to go through
certain tournaments and championships and you would like
win money based on how you finish.
And then you kind of like accumulate these credits and
you'd eventually be able to unlock some all of that way.
Yeah, yeah.

I think that's that's what his
was.

But you have a good, good amount
on, you know, available to you from the start, which is great.
They all have slightly different stats and everything.
I think it's.

Is it like 8 roughly?
Somebody actually look at the stats?
I did this time.

I don't remember if I did as a
kid.

I I probably did.
But you didn't Jiggy.

So what?
What did you have a go to?

Did you just like go for the?
I was trying to say I didn't go by any of the names.
Yeah, so I just picked who I dubbed Platypus Face.
Was that the guy with like the the really like flat?
He has like a big beak looking thing.
Oh.

Beak like a.
Suit.

Yeah, it's really big.
I gotta I gotta find that, then

I'll try and figure out a cool.
Ship though I mean to be honest like all the all the pods are
pretty sweet.

Yeah, they're all unique
designs, right?

That's the thing with the
Prequels 2 is there's a lot of, you know, unique styles to a lot
of the stuff that was in them, like in the movies and all that.
And then this was just the same, right?
Like we got such a small glimpse of what pod racing is in the
first movie.

Never got it again.
There it is.

There's.
Smallness, look at that X.

It's so cool.
Yeah.

And then it sounds sick.
That's great.

That's the big thing is that it
sounds cool.

And then he has a unique thing
too, that I totally forgot about when I was looking up the
different racers and everything.

Is that like his?
He has like an afterburner thing or something, like if you double
tap the repair button, it's sort of like overheated his engine or
something and gave him like a boost and he's like the only one
that has that.

I never used that.
I didn't unlock him this time.

I just read it.
I just read it and maybe it's, maybe it's a lie, but there's a
repair button and that was a way to like manipulate it.
This time around I just kind of bounced around different ones.
I did actually play as the

Gazgano guy because that was
based on the stats.

Yeah, he's got a decent
acceleration.

I feel like I'm going to suck at
this game.

I'm going to pick someone that
will help me get back up to speed.
And and he didn't have very good handling.
So I was kind of whipping around a lot and that wasn't great.
But I I flipped between that.

I played a little bit of Anakin,
the Neva key one as well, which

I realized when I look up like
this, this chart here that I have pulled up is the only one
that doesn't have the cockpit separated from like the
entrance, which is kind of crazy.
I didn't, I didn't even realize that was like, I thought they
were all like that.

It's like built like an actual
spaceship instead.

Yeah.
Interesting.

Yeah, I had no idea that was a
thing.

I also asked a few people on I
asked on social media if anybody had any go TOS.
I wrote a couple down.

I want to make sure that I I
mention them 'cause Neva Key was by far the most popular answer
as far as people want.

Yeah.
So people respond on Blue Sky threads and YouTube and that
that name came up more than any others and it can came up once,
but this is just people that responded.
So it could be, you know.

Maybe it has the highest speed
or something.

Yeah, I'm gonna, I'll, I'll look
up some stats and stuff to see if what it is.
Yeah, let's see.

One person that wrote about Kat
Fox wrote that Neva Key was a choice because the design was
unique, which is I get maybe what I just, you know, just
mentioned how it doesn't look like the other ones.
It's not separated.

It is kind of cool looking like
it is sort of, you know, just like these two giant engines and
you almost can't see the character in it.
I don't know if that changes the handling at all because I know
that the handling can kind of be a little bit, you know, wave,
wave around and stuff feels like that.
Let's see.

Thrak, who's been on the show at
did our GBA chat a couple months ago and a friend of mine, Chris
Seizers, both said Savolba was their go to.
Gazgano was a couple picks, including Kelly Newell.
So I've talked to you every once in a while online as well,
Daniel Greenberg says Elon Mack or Elon Mack was their choice.
So he said.

So Elon Mack is.
Yes, the Elon Musk of Tatooine.

The Elon Oh God, no, let's not
do it.

I will say that this one down
here, this Aldar Bido 1 is a pretty cool looking.
Yeah, it is looking Padres.

Yeah, that one's sick.
I think that's that's unlockable though.
I remember that's not a starter.

Yeah, I know.
I think actually a few of these are not, but by the.
Way, that's the guy I'm talking about.
Which one?

Dud bolt.
Dud Bolt.

Oh, dud Bolt.
What a name.

What?
I mean, that's actually cool too.
How like the the nose of, it's kind of like, you know,
aerodynamic.

His his ship and I could be
wrong but I I believe it it had like the like a vertical flame
out of it.

Like.
The rest are like big like flames that came out of like the
thing but his was like a beat like AI just liked it I thought.
Yeah, that's true.

It is vertical.
Yeah, yeah.

The other one, cause usually the
engines are just circular, right?
And it kind of comes out as yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.
Yeah.

Actually, I might be the only
one.

The Audi mandrel one just looks
like a couple of BB eights put together.
That's what it looks like, the orange and white.
Yeah, I, I think at the time I was trying to figure out which
one was my favorite at the time, but I really can't remember back
in the day what it was.

It was probably one of the
starters 'cause I would just get used to them.
The Aylan Mack one seems familiar, but I don't actually
know what it was.

So what was I going to say?
I, I had a good time replaying this.
It took me a while to get a handle of how it feels, though.
I don't know if you guys felt the same way.
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, I feel like for me, I've been playing a
lot of F0 recently.

We just did that as well.
Yeah, F0 GX coming to GameCube

Online.
And plus I've also been playing

Fast Fusion, which is part of
the Fast Racing Neo franchise, which is a very similar kind of
kind of game to F0 and Wipeout.

So my mind was kind of already
in that world.

And then when I was playing
Racer again, I was like, Oh yeah, I get it.
Like I wasn't doing great by any means.
Like I don't do great in F0.

I'm not that good at that at
all.

But my mind was at least in that
world again.

Yeah, yeah, though though I
think this is, I mean intentionally not the same
tightness for how the how the the vehicles feel.
Did you feel that difference,

Jiggy, 'cause I know, I mean, at
this point, as as of sitting here, it was at least a few
weeks ago that we played F0X for, for this current stretch of
racing games that we're talking about here.
But I kind of felt that too, actually, now that you mentioned
F0, I was like, oh, this doesn't feel like F0X, no.
No, no, no, no, no, no.

It it's, it's a lot more slippy
sliding.

Yep.
Yeah, not as tight for sure.

It's.
Definitely the scientific term for it.
Yeah, Slippy.

Sliding.
But it's fun.

It's fun because the nature of
the pods.

Being like most of them are the
like cockpit like tethered to these like giant essentially
rocket engines.

And the rocket engines are like
you're, you're just trying to like steer them.
So like you're it, it almost feels, it feels more like how
they'd actually respond, like you're turning right.
And it's like they're kind of like, you know, it's like, it's
a pretty, pretty interesting feel.
It's definitely different than

F0 for sure.
Yeah, it's supposed to be for sure.
Like if it felt exactly the same.
You're right.

I actually think like it's, it's
interesting 'cause it is something that you almost have
to try and, and emulate that what that could feel like, which
might, might have been pretty hard to do with the technology
at this point.

But like I feel like having a
separated piece from your ship have weight to it, whereas and
the front of it also have weight to it.
That's gotta be hard to pull off.
And I feel like they did, even if it doesn't always feel great,
at least in my my experience, doesn't always feel awesome to
to drive it that sort of weightiness, but at least it
feels what I think it should feel like.
You know, at least, you know, I don't know how different the
stats matter.

We talked about the stats
before, but I did notice a couple of the characters that
had really low, like I think they just called steering.
We're just like sliding all over the place.
I just like I would, I would go like a little too fast in the
corner and then I'd be like, thank God, there's walls, you
know, keeping me like going straight.
But I was like, Oh my God, I can't do this.
Just what you wanted want to say when you have a racing game,
thank God there's walls.

I mean at times, at times,
sometimes there isn't.

Walls would would also save me
an F0.

Coincidently enough every once
in awhile.

I, I don't know if you guys, I,
I it some of the tougher racers, when I got into some of the
tougher tracks, they beat the shit out of me, man.
Like, Oh yeah, I suck.

It's terrible.
From the start or just tough races?
Well, I mean, I mean from the start, let's be right.
Here.

Well, it's.
Gonna go fast.

You gotta go fast and there's
like so much.

You also have to like manage
your engines too.

Like that's a whole other part
of this game, making sure your engines don't overheat.
Yeah, I, I like it though.

I like that extra sort of real
time, Yeah, management stuff.

It might feel like, Oh my God,
it's a SIM, an eraser or something.
But no, it, it is interesting because you do, it's almost like
trying to manage, you know, your boost or something in a game.
Yeah.

And then you also have the
damage as well, which you can repair on the go.
Those types of things.

I, I actually really like 'cause
it adds depth.

Otherwise you kind of are just
playing a racing game with, with

Star Wars in it in a, in a way.
Maybe that's, you know, a little too easy to say it that way, but
like, they have those extra things and I, I, I appreciate
that.

I, I like the way that, that
was, that's in there.

I don't know if I really
understood how to use the the repair 'cause sometimes I press
it and it didn't do anything.

I don't know if I was missing
something, I don't know.

Or maybe I wasn't damaged enough
because I'm so good.

Yeah, I think you're supposed
to.

You can only do it at certain
times, like when the engine was flashing.
I think is when you're supposed to be able to.
Do it.

I was like constantly pressing R
which is like repair nick the wall and be like save myself.
Thank.

God, there's walls repair.
Yeah, maybe that's exactly why I was doing it.
I I like so you know, like you mentioned that, but also the
tracks have a lot going on too.

Like most of these areas that we
see in this game, most of the planets and stuff don't even
exist in any other, probably in some older novels or something,
like maybe they're referenced or something.
But like we've never seen most of these places before and
there's a lot going on in these stages.
I don't know if you found, I found every once in a while it
to be a little bit too much.

I don't know if you felt the
same.

It can definitely be a lot I
feel, but.

I think again, it's kind of like
F0IN that way we're like in F0.

It seems like there's like a
lot.

Of lore in these cities.
You're like, where am I?

What happened here?
And it takes you, like, a couple of races to be like, OK, she's
gonna play the game.

I'll just race.
But I think for a Star Wars fan, you're absolutely right.
Like, there's a lot going on in these places.
You've never been.

You're just thrown into this
locale and this planet.

You're like, whoa, whoa, wait,
wait.

It's like, I want to know what
the history of this is like what's going on?
Like am I am I in the outer room?
It's just like croissant, like what?
What is this?

But pod racing was only in one
place, like, you know, like.

That's that's what I thought,
yeah, until I played this.

Game.
So I was like, oh shit, OK, yeah, the one.
I I recognized or not recognized but realized was kind of cool
was that you're on.

I don't remember the name of of
the stage, but you're where they do the they're mining spice,
which is really cool and you're kind of flying through like a
lava area and all these machines they're digging spice out of the
out of the ground and stuff.

And spice is this big thing
that, you know, becomes more and more prevalent in.
I was it in was it in Obi Wan?

Which one?
They were always trying to get the I think it was an Obi Wan,
right, or Boba Fett where it was like a big thing.
And then Boba Fett was I was in

Boba Fett.
That was like the.

Sort of like a big yeah.
They sort of did the the spice crime and things like that.
Anyways, I was like, this is cool.
You're going through a fucking volcano and there's machines
digging and stuff up.

This is awesome, but you don't
really get to see it 'cause you're literally speeding past.
Oh yeah, you're going.

Yeah, 600.
I don't even know if that's MPH

KMH.
I don't know what it's supposed to be.
It's it's supposed to be.

It's like their.
Own kilometer.

It's like their own measurement
I think.

If I remember correctly, instead
of English it's basic stuff like.
That, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, their own measures
no faster than. 25 miles an hour.
Yeah, that.

Turns out they're just super
slow.

I do.
These races are actually really.

Tiny.
It's a school zone, like over the speed camera that was.
One con maybe for me that I would have about this game is
that I don't love the HUD, that there's quite a bit going on.
Like I don't need to see my massive 370 mph, like right
beside my car at all times.

Like, that can be way less, I
feel.

I just, yeah, I feel like I
needed more room to see, especially when I'm going this
fast.

Get rid of the mini map.
Nobody is sitting there.

Analyzing that moving this fast.
Like the engines?

Thing sure, like on the top
corner you could literally get rid of the time and just keep
the lap in position like further up into the corner.
I I'm with you.

I just think, I think sometimes
things just get too busy with the big Hut and you it's just
distracting.

Like I want to just play the
game and I want to just look around at the environment and so
much.

I know there's some things you
need to manage, but yeah, I'm totally with you.
Yeah, I I think the mini map.

Is I thought at first I was
like, I don't know these stages, so this is good to have, but
you're just, you're kind of even if you've done this race a
couple of times or you're on the third lap, you're like, OK, I
remember this part.

I remember this part, which is
often when I remembered what I needed to do where took me a
couple laps and I barely survived because there's walls.
Yeah, right.

Right.
Because as well.

So it allowed me to keep going
straight.

It just eventually, yeah, it
didn't.

It didn't matter.
I thought at first it would be helpful, but you're just
reacting, I feel because you're going so fast.
Everything is a reaction here.

And you only have I think every
race is 3 laps.

I'm pretty sure it's just a
matter of how large each each race or stage is.
It doesn't help that the mini map and correct.
Me if I'm wrong it could like maybe you can zoom out or
something, but it doesn't help that the mini map only shows you
what's like 30 feet in front of you behind you.
You're like, how is that?

Helpful.
I'm seeing it in real.

Time as a as it's displayed on
the mini map.

So yeah, it's like maybe a.
Maybe a second in front of you like like it's it's not helping
anyone.

Like you said, yeah, you have to
have better.

Reaction time than than to.
You can't manage both.

And you're right, the time
completely unnecessary.

Like, I know they tell you that
you got a new lap record for the first time, you do every single
race.

But it it doesn't, who cares?
Just tell me at the end of the lap, you know, like it's totally
fine, the position fine, you know?
Yeah, just give me an option to turn like turn off the height.
Almost completely too like that would be a a great thing to have
especially and in the back or something and like whoop, it's
all gone yeah especially if you're.
Doing the sort of, I guess you could call it first person
perspective or cockpit perspective.
You, you don't, you know, you need, you need most of the
screen because you you really feel the speed in this view.
I find, which is why I didn't use it too.
I can't, I can't play this way.

This is This is.
This way either makes me nauseous.
Yeah.

If I had.
Some sort?

Of like controls for the N64
that were like throttles and stuff like that.
Like I would totally play it this way, like a like a big
steel battalion set.

Up like that game, like the
giant stumbling with a throttle where I can go.
That'd be so much fun.

Oh my God, could you?
Imagine in VR you you play this.

Like in VR And then when you
crash, you do the spin like they often do.
Oh my gosh.

Oh, you'd be, you'd be done.
You'd be done.

You need a bucket.
Beside you.

They wouldn't do that in VR
because they're not man.

Enough to do it they would.
They would pull you out and show.
You like you'd just be.

Watching it like spin out, like,
you know what, that's what they do.
They cut away.

You know what you might?
Be right because.

Recently, in my opinion, until
probably until Andor came along,

Star Wars doesn't have any balls
recently.

So it's just like I yeah, I
could see them.

Not just just listen out on that
would be like, hey, listen.

If I want to play AVR game about
pod racing, I want all the thrills of pod racing and
everything dying.

Yeah, let's do it.
I want it to blow up in my face.

I I'm, I would be.
Down with that, I think I would still get sick if whether I
crashed or not throwing up.

It ain't real pod racing.
If your life.

Is not threatened.
You are not pod racing if you're not betting gambling for a.
Slave boy then this is not real pod racing.
I think that's sort of my favorite meme like ever is.
I don't know if you guys have seen it, but it's just like Jedi
accountant say all right, let's see Qui gon X is expensing.
I'm sorry, one boy.

He said it's a, it's a write
off.

You just write it off.
You don't even know what a write off is, do you?
No.

No.
Yes.

Thank you, Mike.
I just I I saw that.

I think this is like.
Years ago someone like tweeted or something.
I just I every time I think of it, I just can't stop laughing.
That's that's amazing.

It's.
Expensive one Boy.

What I will say, I haven't
watched the most recent season, but I did enjoy the first two.
I think it is, but the Bad Batch actually has an episode where
they do sort of like AI don't know if it's actually like the
same sort of level of pod racing, but the crew, which are
clones from the Clone Wars and stuff, they're sort of like
experimental clones is kind of what their characters are.
They actually participate in a pod race in an episode, which is
kind of cool 'cause like the first time you actually see it
in quote UN quote, live action, so to speak, other than episode
1.

And I was like, oh, that's,
that's kind of interesting and

I, I should look back.
I wonder if any of those characters also exist in this
game 'cause they would be around just before this game would take
place.

Which is which is interesting or
no?

Sorry, just after.
Just after I believe, I think one of the biggest missed
opportunities.

Ever is an episode 8 where
they're at like that casino planet and they show like the
the there's like a race track basically looks like it's like
for horses or something.

I'm like, is this it?
Are we gonna see Pod?

Racing here, they just, I, I
don't remember.

What it was, it was, it was some
sort of stupid racing, but it wasn't it's it's some like
horse.

Adjacent creature they created?
Yeah, like you cowards.

How?
They look I I love that.

Movie I think that is that's my
favorite of those 3 movies, but the they had to put in the
animal rights type of message thing that that's why they
didn't that's that's what it was for at the end they save they
save them and they're like, oh, thank you.
You know that's why that's why they did it but you're right
that could have been that could have been epic.
Just you see it.

Even if the.
Yeah, Oh my God, you just see

Sebulba.
Just imagine.

Oh, I mean.
I he's like animatronic Sebulba now.
He's like Marth Mall coming back.
He's just like half, only half his body, Yeah.
And you wouldn't even have to reference it.
You just show the orange thing with a little sound effect.
Oh, my God.

Sibaba Junior.
Oh, my God.

So Junior.
I don't know.

They'd come up with a baby.
A little baby, baby, baby, baby, baby.
Yeah.

Can we talk about why Wato?
Is on the cover of the N641 like he's in like he's like the
shadow.

He looks like a like Sith Lord
motto is in the background.

I know he's like the the
narrator car, like the guy in the menu, but like, but that's
it really.

That's that's.
The character you want to.

You want to push on the
consumers because he's the only one that you remember.
From episode 1, obviously nothing.
Let's not put Jake Lloyd in his.

Goggles like this.
No, no, no.

Let's put, let's put, let's put
the water on there.

I like the.
I like the concept.

Of the cover how it's just black
it's just the logo like I that's cool, but yeah I don't I don't
understand why why why no no is on it you know like narrator no
no is on there.

I don't, I don't, doesn't make
any sense to me 'cause the PC version looks fine.
The PC version is like.

You know what you expect pod
racing to look like?

It's through the going through
the rocks.

It's Anakin's racer there.
Looks good.

I think if you look it up now
that's.

Pretty much like the first image
that pops up 'cause I think that's what they used for the re
release for Switch.

Yeah, I think they use that too.
And I think the.

PC, yeah, the PC1, like you
said, like that's that makes sense.
That totally makes sense to have that.
So yeah, you knew that they didn't use Wado. 25 years later,
well at the time.

He was 90 years old and he was
an immigrant from Italy, and now he's not around her anymore.
That's what happened.

That's why that's what happens.
Yeah, I, I think.

It's, it's an odd choice, I
agree, But we, we listen to a little bit of a performer sort
of making fun of his, his voice and stuff and, and, and all that
'cause he's just sort of a goofy character.
But I think the sound is pretty good in this.
I I found I found the sound to feel like that sort of authentic
Star Wars.

The only thing actually and
Jiggy you mentioned sort of just playing the menu music over.
I wish there was more music during the races.
I didn't.

I don't get that.
I mean, it's probably maybe it's a limitation, but like why is it
only faintly playing when you're in the last lap?
That's it Like it's just I don't know.
That's a good question.

I wonder if other versions?
You can like hear more Yeah, maybe PC or something would have
had.

That yeah, like if I hear if I
play the sound for this, which is like mid race.
I.

I heard a lot of that, but in
other languages.

Oh no.
That's also cool too, the the characters kind of chirp each
other when you bump into them and they have new dialogue too.
Like they recorded new dialogue for this game.
Oh, I didn't know that.

Yeah, it's with the the actual
actor.

What's Yeah, Jake Lloyd.
Yep, Jake Lloyd.

Oh, he has even.
He has different.

Audio too.
Oh shit, that's cool.

Oh, I guess that makes sense
'cause he didn't really.

It's only like what, 5 minutes
of the movie?

Like, yeah, really?
All he says is like, uh oh.

And now?
This is pod racing like.

This that would be something
that you would get like in like an SNES version of this game or
something or Genesis, where like every time you pass someone or
every time you went in first place, they would just say, now
this is pod raising.

And it'd be like the only voice
in the whole game.

Yeah.
And you're like switching positions back and forth.
This, this, this, this, this.

Yeah.
I didn't realize that.

That they.
I guess.

Yeah.
That that does make sense.

That's cool.
I mean, this this was the movie tie in game at the time.
And there were there were other ones, but this was like the main
seller, I think.

And I guess that makes sense
because this was could could arguably be the most exciting
part of the movie, especially for kids, right?
Like this is really cool to be able to see something we really
haven't seen before.

It's not a spaceship, it's not a
Jedi.

It's it's this that makes sense.
One of the only gripes I had with this or one of the couple
of gripes I had with this was as interesting as some of these
races and tracks were, some of them are way too long.
And I was like, why is this race 8 minutes?
This is way too like.

Why is each lap?
Taking me over 2 minutes and I'm not, and it's not 'cause I'm
crashing 6 times or whatever, it's just a, a really long,
like, I don't get it.

This is one of them.
I think.

I don't know if it's quite 8
minutes, but like this person's in the middle of the race in the
middle of like the second lap and they're hitting three
minutes.

So this is what's a 6 minute
rate like?

I don't know.
It doesn't sound long, but if it feels like a last game like
that, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.
And I think.

Sometimes a game, games like
Mario Kart or F0, those races sometimes feel too short.
They'll be like a minute and 1/2 or two minutes or something.
F0 had a lot of that.

F0X at least that maybe is too
short.

But this what had like the happy
medium towards the beginning.

And then the further you go,
things just get longer and longer and longer.
Like can I, can I just, you know, if I'm doing well, just
give me two laps, like that's all I need.
Yeah.

I mean, it's a big.
F but.

Did you guys, I don't know if
you I don't I don't know any names, but do you guys have any
like stand out locations or remember ones that were like
yeah, this is the one I I like the most, the Hoth one the it's
not.

Hoth, but it might as well be
Hoth, the ice one.

Oh yeah, there's a couple of
them.

Slippy.
Slippy, slidy and like you go off a ramp.
And you're like, you're like in the air.
I do.

Like when you go in the air.
And it's just totally out of control.
Yeah, sure.

There was one that was like big,
like almost like glass tunnels.

And I saw it on the gameplay
here.

I don't remember what it's
called, but I did like that one.

That one was pretty cool.
That might be the same 1 you guys are talking about because
it is one.

Of the snow ones, where you is
it a nice one?

I don't think it was the ice 10.
It's a different.

One different one.
Yeah, I think it's a different. 1 But they do, kind of.
Blend in because I will say they do a pretty good job of it, like
not just being like the one I'm talking about isn't just ice and
and snow like there are other parts of it.
They do do a pretty good job of like mixing it, like, like this
one right now.

Right.
Like now he's in there.

You go like so.
And but you're right, Dave, like, yeah, we're 534 in this.
Like, what the hell is going on, man?
Yeah, this is long, man.

Like it's cool.
It's cool to experience it, but then on your third lap, if if
you are in the earlier races, which are definitely easier to
win, and as you go along, things do get more difficult.
There's there's no reason for this race to be, you know, six
to seven minutes.

Like it's just, you know, it's
too much.

Oh, here's another snow one
later on, I think.

Yeah.
Oh yeah, this one's kind of cool.
I know.

Now I'm getting them mixed up.
I'm like, wait.

Are there how many snow ones are
there?

This this could be the one
honest.

Yeah, there's a couple different
different of.

Of each sort of Biome, I guess
you could call them yeah, but but but that that's one of the
advantages to this game in general is like even if you are
in snow, even if you are in you know a Tatooine like area and
stuff like it's still it's never the exact same race.
It always feel pretty similar or pretty different even if it does
have the same you know weather pattern.
I guess you could call it but there's a couple races where you
go back to the same place, but the layout of the race is
different.

I realize like you kind of go
off to the side 'cause it's whatever sectioned off or
something like that but that's

OK.
I'm I'm cool with that, like in a recognized part of the race,
but not the, not the second-half, you know, So that,
oh, actually I think this is one of them that does that like
tunnels and stuff.

For me, it was that spice, that
Spice 1, I think because of what is going on around you.
I thought that was really cool.

And then you go through an area
and you hear the lava bubbling and stuff like that.
I'm like, oh, this is that's, that's pretty sweet, 'cause I
think it's some of the best parts of this game are the
environments and some of the sound work with with that.
I just wish they were coupled with more music because Star
Wars is very much about music for me.
So I just wish there was a just a it's, it's gets John Williams
in there.

Yeah, come on.
Yeah.

John Williams.
Never hurt, never hurt.

Come on.
It's.

It's odd to see it like.
Because you don't think about it without music.
And at least for me, I wasn't thinking about it, that without
music and then watching this gameplay and you putting the
music on, I'm like, Oh yeah, like there is no music until the
last lap.

It's just kind of silence and
yeah.

And it's it's kind of industrial
sounds.

Like it doesn't it?
It sounds cool, but not really what you want to be hearing,
especially for a 5 minute long course.
I'd like to hear something else.

Yeah, I think that's that's
part.

Of it.
Oh yeah, this level I remember too.
You're on like a beach.

Like statues.
Yeah, this one was.

I remember this one.
I will.

I will say as much as I think
all three of us have said.

Yeah, Well, I don't know, Mike,
maybe you're you're pretty good at this.
But me and Jiggy stuck at this game, so I don't know if you
guys when I'm playing.

That was beautiful, that.
Was beautiful, I was just.

John Williams.
We have this pod for Racer.

That's all we need.
The I tried, so I think it's when I completed the first set
of races, which is a decent amount, like each sort of like
Grand Prix, I guess you could call them, has 8 to 10 races or
something.

There's quite a bit and each
one's different from the last.

So there's definitely some
variety.

They they you unlock another
set, which are like invitationals, they call them
those races.

I was like 10th place every
fucking time I was so bad.

And I think unless you know
where all the shortcuts are you, you lose.
That's it.

Immediately.
I like in the middle of the first lap, you're done.
That's it.

You can't catch up.
And I was like, shit, this game is not forgiving eventually and
this game is not for.

Children, yeah, I the
invitationals are what lost me.

I I could never do well those
'cause you're right.

That's a good point is that the
CPUs know exactly where every shortcut is and if you don't
know where to go, which is extremely hard to find these
things when you're going at like 500 mph.
You're just there's, there's no.

Way that you'll be able to do
this unless you're just doing these courses over and over and
over and over again and then you finally figure out like the best
way to get to get to the shortcut even then you may not
beat them so well even then you might not even like.
React in time to get to it, right?
Because yeah, you need to be going that speed to.
Kind of you.

Know yeah, there was I think it
was like the even maybe even just the very first one where
you're kind of going through like a city.
I don't know if it's supposed I don't know what where where it
was specifically, but like I'm not even done the first lap and
it says I'm in 11th place and there is no one near me not even
close.

Like I'm just like and I'm like,
oh I'm feel like I'm doing pretty good.
Oh, I found a shortcut.

Oh but I guess I missed the
other seven shortcuts before this and then I kept going on
the race and I never improved my position and I tried to get a
cut.

It was just that's it and I
don't think there's like rubber banding happening in this game
or anything when you're like in first place like I think it's
pretty level in that way.

But if you fall behind on
especially a race like that that for just start over.
No yeah, not happening.

I think most of the difficulty.
What's that?

No red shells here to help you
out.

No red shells, no spike shells.
No, no banana peels, none of that stuff.
Yeah.

Bullet bills.
Bullet Bills, Yeah.

There you go, this is.
The bullet Bill.

Everyone's in bullet.
Bill, your engine is literally.

A bullet bill.
You have two bullet bills in front of you?
Yeah, I think a lot of the difficulty comes from managing
like we've talked about the controls and your speed and
stuff, but the the the stages, the tracks are the difficulty.
I think it's not even necessarily the other racers.
It is like you mentioned Mike with them knowing shortcuts and
stuff.

But I think the biggest
difficulty spike for me was just when things got more complex and
I just don't have the reaction time I used to.
So or the patience.

That's true.
Or the patience.

Or the time.
To race the.

Same thing over and over again,
7 or 8 minutes, like it's just, it's not gonna happen.
The what was I gonna say?

Oh, this is one note I had to
write down, Jiggy, because you have to hear this for sure.
Star Wars Episode 1 Racer was nominated for the Blockbuster
Entertainment Award for favorite

Nintendo 64 game, but what game
won instead?

Any idea at this time for this
this is I think they probably awarded this in late 99 or early
2000 would be my guess, but any idea what would have won
instead?

Same time frame, Gosh in 99.
It I think, yeah, I'm going to see if.
It actually is specifically 99 this one.
Let's see the 6th Blockbuster

Entertainment Awards in May of
2000, which I think a lot of games were from 99.
OK, is it a Nintendo game?

It's.
Also a 64 game.

Like I, or I should say a
Nintendo published game.

Sorry, Yep, Yep, It's like a
Nintendo.

Nintendo published game.
Yep.

OK, DK.
It was Donkey Kong.

Yeah.
There you go.

I think of, I think of the year.
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, they.
They apparently this was a thing the Blockbuster Entertainment
Awards.

No, that was a thing.
Like for movies and stuff too.

Like when Blockbuster ruled the
world.

Yeah.
Adam Sandler wins for Big Daddy for comedy actor, followed by
Tim Allen in Galaxy Quest.

Oh classic.
What a year.

Unreal.
Never give up.

Never.
Surrender I let's see if there's

I'm going to look up the other
video game ones favorite video game like straight up best game
Super Smash brothers in 99 and why?
Awarded in 2000.

They gave it to it in that.
Yeah.

So that actually, yeah, that was
in 99, I think.

Yeah.
Was it?

Oh, yeah, it wasn't.
I was.

Thinking 98, but yeah, it was
90. 9 Yeah.

And then favorite favorite 64
game Donkey Kong Snap was in there.
Mario Party and Sarge's heroes apparently gotta get to those
gotta get to those army men games.
I don't know.

Apparently they're, they're hit
and miss, but we'll see.

They they are.
Something.

Those army men 64 games, they
are video games.

This is the level I was talking
about.

This one, yeah.
Things just speed by this one.

Yeah, this is cool.
This is 1 you you revisit to where you go to a couple
different times and it's slightly changed.
Yeah, it's a little bit desert, a little bit industrial.
Yeah.

It's hard to remember these
though like they do all blend.

In yeah, they do.
Last thing I want to mention is

I think the game looks pretty
good.

I think it it it has pretty good
animation.

I think the pod racers
themselves all look pretty cool.

I mean, obviously all unique
designs, but that's, you know, separate from necessarily how
the game looks specifically graphic wise.
But and then the environments for for the most part, I I find
to look pretty cool and pretty unique.
So I don't know, do you guys, do you guys think it looks good or
does it look like a little too muddy too fast, like things like
that?

Jakey's like it's it's pretty
clean for me.

I think the the actual.
Pods themselves look pretty good.
I think the environments look

OK, pretty typical N64.
I don't I don't know what to tell you.
Nothing that blows my mind, but nothing that makes me look at it
and go, you know, that's true.

Yeah.
It doesn't.

Doesn't.
Have that factor.

It's the colors.
For me, it's the colors.

Everything's really.
Muted and very like this realistic tone and whenever an
N64 game has it, it does look a little muddy.
It doesn't look bad.

It's just like very typical for
me that makes.

Everything feels secure on
Tatooine.

It it looks like that washed
out.

I feel like the graphics don't
make the game worse, if that makes sense.
Let's.

Put it on the box right?
Beside right.

Beside that that that Darth
Darth Wado it it doesn't look don't make the game worse.
Don't make the game worse because.
For.

A game.
Like this, like it, it does look fine, like it looks good, but
you're you don't necessarily need things to look
unbelievable.

Like it's coming so fast
anyways.

You're so focused on the actual
gameplay.

I think they did enough is kind
of what I'm getting at of like what they could do with the
system's hardware at the time.

I it would be really, really
interesting to see this like if we were able to get a start like
a a pod racing for GameCube in an alternate universe because of
what Amusement Vision was able to do when Sega were able to do
with F0 GX, which is one of the best looking games period on the
GameCube, just looks incredible and I feel like pod racing could
have had that that life if if it made.
It to that.

Console, but they were limited
by the NCC for hardware and I I think they made it work like
like Jackie said the the pods themselves look fantastic so
that's that's half the battle right there yeah it's.
I I think this is one of those games where we every once in a
while we bring it up.

It's like, oh, what if this was
remade?

Like they sort of you know, they
fancied it up a little bit with the Switch re release a few
years ago.

I've only seen it.
I haven't I haven't played it, but it looks you know, it looks
cleaner, but but it's it's the same game, right.
So it's I don't know that they really like drastically change
any mechanics.

I don't know that off hand, but
if they like just yeah, OK, so it's it's it's a ROM with new
textures.

So whatever, if they made a new
one, I think it would be pretty sick, honestly, I think they
they could really do something with this.
And it doesn't even have to be a huge game or doesn't have to be
this like big a lot like just if you were to make remake this or
make a new version of it and stuff, I think you could really
do something with it.

I I don't know that anyone's
going to care anymore, but but we would.
OK, Well, they, they sold at least two.
How about that two out of the three?
That's pretty good.

You know, that's pretty good.
That's pretty good.

Yeah.
I I.

Support it, but I.
Like, I'm fine.

Yeah, that, that's the thing.
Like it it's a good game.

It's a good game.
There's there's cool things here.
It it does have a lot of cool stuff going for it like we've
mentioned, but it's not going to be like the first racer that I
pick up.

If I'm going to play the 64 like
it's, it's I think I'd play this like if I'm playing solo, I feel
like I'd play this over Mario

Kart solo.
But you know, there's, there's a there's a lot of other ones like
F0 and Diddy Kong are probably the first ones that come to
mind, which I think are kind of obvious answers, But there's
lots of choice.

It doesn't have to be anything
that's that's along those lines.

So that's why we're in the
middle of covering a few racing games at once at this point.
When you hear this, you'll be hearing already our chat about
F0X and a couple more sort of around this episode too.
But yeah, Episode, Star Wars,

Episode 1 racer, check it out,
see if it's for you.

Give it, give it a couple tries,
couple races, couple different racers if you want.
And then I think if you got a handle of how you like it, feel
it, how it feels, keep going.

If if it doesn't work, it
doesn't work.

I think you can, you can miss
this and not and not be too upset, but I think you can have
some fun too if you get a handle on on how the physics work in
it.

I think largely is for me, the
biggest hurdle that I had at first.
So check it out.

And until that time, Jiggy,
where's what's happening lately, buddy?
Busy, busy summer.

Oh yeah, YouTube goes on and on
and on.

I just put in a actually really
fun video about collect a thon platformer level design.
Oh yeah, it was pretty cool.

It's been.
Really well received SO.

Definitely go check that video
out.

Nice, more stuff in the can.
You'll love this.

I've actually I started live
streaming perfect Dark attempting to beat it in perfect
agent mode.

I spent 4.
Hours and I only beat the 1st.

Level humbled.
Humbled right there.

Hard, but I am.
Enjoying the process.

It is great everyone's like
popping in be like, oh man, dude, you got to do this got to
do this and I'm like OK, like it's just a blast.
I've I'm having a lot of fun on stream.
Just it being the almost impossible task it seems to be.
It's crazy man.

That's you're.
You're a.

Machine buddy.
Like you're insane in all the best ways.
How about that?

Trying to become perfect, man.
Trying to be in the dark.

Trying to become dark.
Just dark.

Yeah.
Well, well, yeah, sure.

If I pass that one, no.
No, let's linger a little bit.

Mike, we we talked a little bit
before we hit record that you you have recorded a couple
episodes lately and stuff, but you guys have had some pretty
sweet episodes in the last little bits.
This episode specifically will be out sort of towards the tail
end of summer and stuff.

What's what's some stuff that
some people can check out for the Switch to the Past podcast?
Yeah, so we got.

Recently we've done Rocket
League, Epic Mickey, which was a really fun one that Neil and I
got to talk about.

He just platinum epic Mickey
rebrush, which is the the new version they put out last year
and nice such an interesting game.
I played that game when it came out for Wii.
I really like it.

It's really unique.
The story is unique and it just like something that you wouldn't
have expected Disney to put out and they probably will never put
out a game like that again, to be honest.
So I I enjoyed it and it was fun to talk about.
Really interesting going in the back story of like how it
happened and and crazy stories there.
Very interesting.

Go check that one out on switch
of the past.

And then I just recently
recorded the WWF No Mercy episode to talk some N64 here.
So that is going to be coming very soon.
Really, really fun.

And hopefully at some point Dave
is going to come on the show and talk about Space World 2000,
which came out well, which not came out, but space World, of
course, was an E3 type Nintendo event that they had back in the
day.

And space World 2000 is infamous
because that's where they showed off Dark link.
You know the the cool edgy link that they didn't get because we
got one maker instead, right?

The drastically.
Other direction, yeah, but I just kind of want to talk about
the conference and conferences.

In general and I feel like want
to have Dave on the the show to celebrate its 25th anniversary
at some point.

So yeah, that's that'll be at
some point, hopefully at the end of the summer as well once
things settle down for you.

Once I once I'm stopped in the
middle of a.

Move I'm going to be picking up
a lot more recordings and stuff too.
So no, it's, it's cool to because it's easy to go back and
replay games like we do here, like you guys do too and, and
all that.

But like to do something like,
oh, let's chat about a conference or let's chat about
sort of that time and what those sort of approaches were to the
industry and all that.

Like it's a, it's a very cool
idea to do something like that.

So when you mentioned that to me
a few weeks ago, I was like, Oh yes, let's do I, I, I probably
at the time vaguely, you know, remember that I was, you know, I
probably not even a yeah, I wasn't even a teenager yet.
So did did I really even have a way to watch it?
I doubt it.

I didn't have Internet in my
house until 2000 or 2001.

So and even then it was dial up
for like 6 years so IGN for as long as I can.
Remember, you did.

You did what?
I was tuned into IGN for as long as I can.
Remember.

Yeah.
I I don't think I could have.

Accessed.
IGN Even if I wanted to on the

Internet that I had 'cause I
was, I was, I was in a place where like dial up was the only
option.

There was no cable.
Same here.

There was no underground cable.
So.

I I didn't have cable.
TVI didn't have nothing.

Yeah, so that's why.
Like what's that my mom was an early adopter of?
Broadband.

They needed it for work.
And so we had a broadband.

Router.
It was awesome.

I never.
Really.

Like knew that other people
suffered as much, but yeah, I would suffer.
But it also depends where you live, like.
Like where where me and Mike are from, like some areas, if you
were like in a city, I mean, this is the same in the states
as well.

But if you're like in a city,
it's more likely you're going to have that option, whether it,
whether you have it or actually use it or not.
But I was like literally lived on a property that used to be a
horse farm.

So true, you know, like there
was nothing around.

Like there was I, I couldn't get
anything more than Bunny ears even if I wanted to growing up.
So up until I was in high school.
So that that was, that was my TV experience when I went to my
grandparents place, when I went to my cousin's place, that's
when I watched the cool TV.

You know, I could watch cartoons
and stuff, sure, but like, where did I watch Reboot?
I watched it at my grandparents place, you know, like that's
where I watched those shows.

But yeah, that's why I sat in
front of my 64 for many years 'cause I didn't need Internet to
enjoy it, right?

So, and then As for this show,
of course, this is part of it's probably going to end up being
just based on timing of of when the calendar hits.
I'm trying to name it as Vroom

Vroom month because I couldn't
come up with anything more clever for a bunch of racing
games that we're talking about.

But this will be the tail end of
Vroom Vroom month.

If you haven't heard any yet.
As of us sitting here right now, we're going to try and get a Hot
Wheels episode out there as well.
We also have F0X like I had mentioned, and we also have
other racing racing episodes that we've done.
Me and Jiggy earlier this year did Mickey Mickey Speedway
racing.

What's the full type?
Oh yeah, Speedway, US.

AUSA that was cool.
And and Mike, your Co host came on year 2 three years ago at
this point and we did Diddy Kong racing way back.
He lost that game.

Yeah, when this.
Actually and Mario.

Kart, I think we chatted.
We did Mario Kart for for both tap Neil as the as the racing
guy early on and before I knew what I was doing with the show.
That's that's how I how I structured things.
I guess I was let's just do a bunch of stuff at the beginning.
Go, go, go.

But remember 64 out there on all
your podcast feeds on YouTube as well, so you can see this
version of this podcast and all the things we're referencing and
Jiggy's Kitty and Mike's very cool Lego diorama sets and his
awesome posters.

And of course, also like and
subscribe everything and tell your friends and family And
remember 64 show across social media and on Patreon as well,
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Everybody, thank you so much for
joining us.

Jiggy Mike, thanks for being
here.

Go pod racing, everybody.
This is pod racing.

Goodbye.
Going to cut them in half.

Oh no.