Star Racer isn’t shy about what it wants to be. Its sprite-based vehicles, floating tracks, and Takaya Imamura-inspired character designs all scream F-Zero. It even throws in a sprinkling of Star Fox now and then for good measure. It wasn’t hard to look at Star Racer and know that I am, in fact, the target audience. While its strongest inspiration is clearly the original Super Nintendo F-Zero game, Star Racer draws from the entire series. From the main menu you’ll be able to select from grand prix, death race, and specifically designed challenges, all of which are familiar from one F-Zero title or another. But once you’re out on the track, it's clear that Star Racer does also bring along a few ideas of its own.

Star Racer blends a Mode 7 inspired look with fully 3D level geometry. For the most part it manages to keep its actual 3D design simple enough to mix well with the sprite-based racers. That being said, when it comes to actual gameplay feel, I do think Star Racer is at its best when it's sticking a bit closer to that flat Super Nintendo racing style. Racing around the flatter tracks feels great. But the more 3D the stage, the more issues I found I was running into. There is something about the collision between your racer and the 3D geometry that doesn’t always behave quite the way I expected it to. You can almost feel your car glancing off of every low poly edge as you go over rounded segments of courses.

Most races are lap-based, with a few point-to-point races as well. After the first lap of a race you’ll be able to use your boost. This consumes health which can be refilled by driving through dedicated recharge strips. You can also pick up separate charges that allow you to make use of a spin attack. Some stages have aerial segments that constantly consume energy, and your spin attack charges can be used to fire a laser that can also be charged and locked on. The oddity here is that your accelerate button suddenly becomes your fire button, meaning it's very easy to waste one of your attack charges when switching into flight mode.

To some degree, I think Star Racer bites off a bit more than it can chew. The more complexity a given stage adds, the less polished it tends to feel. As such it can be hard to convince yourself to go back enough times to unlock everything Star Racer has to unlock (and there is a lot). When it works it works well, and the course creator opens up some possibilities for post launch longevity. That said, as it is now, Star Racer is largely inoffensive, but you may find it a little too rough around the edges to stick with long term.