F1 Pole Position
Reviewed by Slimu
Hey! It's the first formula 1 racer for the Nintendo 64! I
would say I liked it. I did not love it. I did not hate it.
I liked it. F1 Pole Position (with a 64) is also the first
simulation racer for the Nintendo 64. Actually the first
simulation. So this game is a lot of firsts. However, the
game didn't exactly fascinate me like how the other racers
I reviewed has. Everything's OK...except the graphics and
controls and sound.
The graphics has lots of bugs. Such as when you are driving
in a populated area. You may not notice this, but buildings
are popping up all around you! And because of the heavy fog
effects, you can't see much and have to keep a real close
eye on the road. And because you have to keep a close eye
on the road, you won't notice the buildings popping up. But
when you do, you ma regret it, for when I did, I paid too
much attention on the buildings and missed lots of turns.
It's like the course is being drawn as you get to the area.
How strange. Silly even. And even after more than the
average time for this game to be converted from the
Japanese game to the English game.
Oh wait...the game allows you to have I think three
languages! It's... English...French...and I think Italy or
Spanish. So I suppose this was the reason for the long
translations. I would say this was a good thing.
But one thing I did like about the graphics were that it
was all polygonal. It allows for smoother graphics and just
make the game better. I'm not sure exactly how the
frame-rate is, but I suppose it's good enough for racing.
It's not even bad! So the graphics has it's ups and downs.
I could live with that. Only sometimes theirs too much ups
and downs. Kind of like traveling in a car in Yosemite
National Park. Up and down, up and down, up and down, and
then...*splat* Hmm...maybe not a very good comparison...
Music in the game is jus great! It should be somewhere
around 4th place in the rank of music for this year. You
know how Tetrisphere uses some opera like stuff and voice
sounding things in it's music? I thought that made the
music in the game the best. This game too has the use of
the voice-like music. Very interesting. But, if I recall
correctly, the music is off when you race. But even if it
is off during racing, the menus stuff has the most neatest
music! An A+ for music!
Sound effects in the game isn't monotonous, but it's not
the right kind either. Kind of boring. Like when you hits a
whole, it sounds like plastic hitting plastic. Plastic
cups! You know, Dixie cups type things. So pretty boring
sound. The motor was kind of different from real F1 cars.
Oh now I remember something about the sound! I remembered
the voices! Eeeekk!!!! Nintendo is overdoing on voices! It
has a staticky voice and it's very annoying! And also too
staticky to understand, making the no use of the voices
other than to annoy you. Strange how much different music
can be from the sound...
The Controls are averagely hard. It's super realistic and
handling a racer with realistic controls isn't so easy.
However, the game has lots of difficulty settings for
controls, like loose or grippy tires. That helped a lot. So
the game controls in this game is pretty decent. I like
that. But even after putting the controls on the most
grippiest, it's still almost impossible to stay on course
through the whole race track. So I guess the controls
aren't so good anyway.
Challenging... Very challenge. The game's courses are tough
yet decent and manageable. You have 21 other cars your up
against, which adds to the challenge. There's 3 different
weather settings which is good and adds more to the
challenge. And since it's also the first sim for the n64,
it should be something.
Replay Value of the game isn't so good. Controls are
awkward, which isn't so good. The graphics aren't so good
because of pop-ups so that isn't good either. The sound
effects are terrible and I don't believe you have an option
of turning off your sound effects >:(. Racing 21 cars isn't
exactly a thrill either. Oh, and because the graphics
aren't real good, I don't think I would ever expect a good
decent ending from this game. Not a very replayable game if
you ask me. Kind of need to have some tea nearby to keep
yourself awake.
Overall, the game is average which also in my language is
good. Good enough for me. And simulation fans should like
this game too. But remember that I warned you about the
terrible sound and the awkward controls and strange
pop-ups. A good buy for simulation fans, a bad buy for
die-hard racing fans. Me, I'm the die-hard racing fan. I
don't think this game is the type for me.
Graphics 6.9
Music 9.3
Sound 6.0
Control 6.4
Challenge 6.9
Replay 6.3
Overall 7