Review: F1 2009, Codemasters are Go, Go, Go!

by Ken Barnes - November 25, 2009

Comments (0)

If you could trust any development team to make a solid and enjoyable racing game right now, that team would have to be Codemasters’ Racing Studio.

With the likes of the polished Race Driver: GRID and the two superb Colin McRae: DiRT titles under their belts, there’s not a team of coders in the world that can touch them when it comes to providing thrills for your money.

So, when the company announced last year that they had nabbed the licence for the Formula One World Championship, there wasn’t an unmoistened cummerbund in the house.

Then of course, the news hit that they would be bringing the title to the Wii and if you opened your windows and stuck your head out, you could hear a sharp intake of breath as a nation of gamers prepared to let out a collective sigh of dismay. This Wii version was surely the game that would put an end to the streak.

Only, it hasn’t really panned out that way. You see, whilst F1 2009 is indeed a game that may or may not be a port from the 360 and PS3 versions of the game, it makes a darned fine stab at keeping pace with the best that the HD generation has to offer in terms of racing action. A full career mode makes up the meat of the game, and sees you firstly trying to earn a spot on any F1 team that shows interest by beating a preset time on a flying lap – which is harder than it sounds – and then takes you into the full glory of three championship seasons.

If that doesn’t float your boat, you can step in to an individual race weekend or standard championship season without the career mode fanfare. And if that wasn’t enough, a devilish set of relatively bite-sized challenges have been provided that will test even the most adrenaline-fuelled wannabe F1 star.

On the track, there are some noticeable problems that prevent F1 2009 from being one of the true greats. Slowdown comes and goes in fits and starts, generally showing its unwanted face when driving past a grandstand or coming out of a double-apex bend, and whilst the action otherwise slips along as smoothly as butter, the graphical performance of the game as a whole isn’t going to blow you away.

It isn’t bad – considering its host and what is being asked of it – but it could have been a fair bit better with a little bit more spit and polish. For those of you utilising the handy “racing line” feature – which paints a speed-sensitive line on the track advising you of the best line to take – there’s the slight issue of the braking warnings coming far too late on one too many corners for it to be of any real use, too.

With those issues put to one side though, F1 2009 is a thoroughly enjoyable game that – should they allow themselves to become hooked – will keep F1 fans (and fans of all racing games) entertained during these cold winter nights. Thanks to the bounty that the official licence provides, you’ll be taking on the likes of Hockenheim, Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne, as well as all of the other tracks that played host to an F1 race during the 2009 season. On top of that, the official teams and drivers all make an appearance, much as you’d expect.

But, all of this is almost irrelevant, since once you get on the track and gain a seat in a car in that career mode, everything slips away and the entire thing becomes a simple battle of wits between the speed that your car is travelling at, and the speed of your reactions.

Like all great racing games, the opposition comes second whilst the track is your primary foe, and whilst a couple of methods of control are on offer, I found that the most accurate and engaging was the standard combination of Wii remote and nunchuk. With this configuration, your B and Z button controls your speed, whilst your thumbstick controls direction and the C button fires your car’s KERS.

KERS, if you weren’t aware, stands for Kinetic Energy Recovery System, and essentially stores energy from the car’s braking force and allows the driver to expend that energy under acceleration – therefore making the car zip along a bit quicker. That’s a very, very simple explanation of how the process works and there are rumblings that it will be outlawed in F1 come 2010, but for now it stays in.

Codemasters have decided to take my explanation and simplify it even more, by providing the player with a KERS store that simply refills every time you cross the finishing line to complete a lap. Firing your KERS provides a boost that truly makes a difference. If you’re battling for the lead on the final straight, it can be the difference between a podium position and a listing in the “also ran” section, whilst other players will prefer to use it to power away from tight and tricky corners, giving them a potential difference there.

The addition of KERS doesn’t sound like a revolutionary idea, given that a large percentage of racing games give you access to some sort of nitrous power. However, when you combine it with such a precision sport and for that matter, a precision control system that is incredibly challenging to learn and superbly rewarding when you do so, it really provides an extra level to a product that is already pretty solid.

F1 2009 is a really good attempt at bringing a sport that is loved by millions to Nintendo’s Wii. The console is clearly being pushed somewhat in terms of providing graphical finesse at such high speeds and this does sometimes impact on the gameplay at crucial points, such as when your timing is broken up as you come out of that super-sharp turn just before the home straight. Was it not for that kind of occurrence – and a lack of any really intelligent opposition AI – this would be as close to perfect as an F1 game on the Wii could be.

As it stands, F1 2009 is an interesting take that breathes new life into a sport that has been done to death, and whilst it may not be detailed enough for fans of hardcore racing simulations, it’ll certainly make them lick their lips in terms of the next-gen versions that are due next year.