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Nintendo: Wii Reviews

PES 2010 ^WII

LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues ^WII

Review

F1 2009

75%

Format Nintendo Wii

Developer Sumo Digital

Publisher Codemasters

Genre Racing / Driving

20-Nov-2009 Sick of the lack of Wii racers? Put a Button on it!

15 Comments

Despite the popularity of Formula 1 racing, there hasn't actually been a decent F1 game on a Nintendo system since the excellent F1 World Grand Prix II was released on the N64 a decade ago. An exclusivity contract with Sony meant that F1 games were strictly limited to its consoles for the last few years, but when that licence ran out Codemasters swooped in to win the F1 rights. And so here we are, with an all-new F1 game on a Nintendo system.

As this is an official F1 game, everything's completely licensed and all the tracks, teams and drivers are present and accounted for. Although the 2009 season is now over, all the stats and drivers in F1 2009 are as they were at the start of the season. This means Hamilton is the world champion and Button hasn't won anything yet. It also means that the drivers who dropped out of the season (including Massa, Piquet Jr and Bourdais) are in the roster again, and the ones who later replaced them (Badoer, Liuzzi, Grosjean etc) aren't there at all. It seems odd then that the game would be released at this time, because it's already instantly out of date. It'd be like EA delaying FIFA 10 and releasing it next June, just as the transfer window opens and players move all over the place.

Formula Fun?
Still, we're just thankful there's actually an F1 game on the Wii now, and despite its out-of-date stats there's still a lot to play through here. You can choose to play either a quick race or a full F1 weekend (two practice rounds, two qualifying sessions, race) on any of the tracks, or take part in a full F1 season incorporating all 17 tracks. You can also create your own driver and start a Career mode, where you start off by taking time trial tests in order to get offered a contract from a racing team, then work your way up the ranks to become world champion. Disappointingly though, Career mode only lasts three seasons before it ends. We're fairly sure Schumacher's career was longer than that.

Once you actually get onto the track things are a bit of a mixed bag. There are plenty of car tuning options and all sorts of guides and assistance you can turn on or off to completely customise your experience. If you want a mental arcade-type game with easy opponents you can just barge off the track, then you'll want to turn off all damage, set the AI to easy and set each race to three laps. You can also turn on braking assistance (which starts to slow the car down before you start properly braking) as well as a racing line, which is a line on the track that shows the best way to take each corner and when to brake.

If you want the full F1 experience however, you can do that too. You can turn on damage (which includes occasional parts failure), variable weather conditions (you'll need to go into the pits and change your tyres if it starts raining, for example) and manual transmission, as well as turning off all the assists and racing lines to make it just as difficult as it is for Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and the rest of the gang in real life.

Turn, Turn, Turn
The controls differ greatly depending on what control method you use. For some reason we really didn't like playing with the Remote and Nunchuk because the analogue stick is far too sensitive and moving it slightly to the left or right results in the car turning wildly. This means turns are more a case of quickly tapping the stick left and right instead of making a fluid turn in that direction. Turn the Remote on its side and whack it in a Wii Wheel however, and the difference is night and day.

The handling is perfect and if you switch to the in-car cockpit view this is one of the most immersive racing experiences on the Wii.
The only thing that detracts from this unfortunately is the game's dismal graphics. We know the Wii's not the most powerful gaming system out there but when you're dealing with tracks that are for the most part grass, barriers and grandstands, there's no reason why the textures should be so ugly and the frame rate drop so badly at times.

It should go without saying that fans of Formula 1 and fans of racing in general will get a kick out of F1 2009, but the numerous niggles are too great to ignore. It's a full season out-of-date, visually it's a dog's dinner and the career mode is too short. It's enjoyable enough to keep F1-addicted gamers content until the inevitable update arrives next year, but still, this frequently reeks of shoddy workmanship.

Simon Bramble