Star Wars Racer and Commando Combo

Genre: Compilation / Futuristic Racing / First-Person Shooter

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Splitscreen)

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Review:

(Note: There are multiple Star Wars bundles on Nintendo Switch. If you want a breakdown of which bundles contain which games, please check this page.)

Star Wars Racer and Commando Combo is a Compilation of two visually-improved ports of classic Star Wars games – Star Wars Episode I Racer, a Futuristic Racing game first released in 1999 on the Nintendo 64 and PC and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2020, and Star Wars: Republic Commando, a First-Person Shooter first released on PC and the original Xbox in 2005 and ported to Nintendo Switch In 2021.

Here’s what I thought of the games in this Compilation:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Grade
Star Wars Episode I Racer	Futuristic Racing	1-2 Competitive (Local Splitscreen)	C+
tl;dr Star Wars Episode I Racer is a port (not a remake) of the classic N64 podracing game, although taking off the nostalgia goggles reveals a racing game that’s visually ugly by today’s standards and doesn’t have too much going on in the gameplay department to set it apart. It’s decent, but not the great racing game many remember.
Star Wars: Republic Commando	First-Person Shooter	1	C+
tl;dr Star Wars: Republic Commando is still a decent First-Person Shooter even 15 years after its original release, but not an especially noteworthy one. While the game has aged reasonably well, it doesn’t do anything all that noteworthy for the genre. It’s still a decent entry in the genre, but without its license there wouldn’t be much here to recommend it over other more modern First-Person Shooters.

In short, both of these are decent games that haven’t aged especially poorly, but neither one of these games would stand out in its respective genre if released today. While these games have had some visual improvement to the framerate and resolution, they are otherwise untouched from their original versions (save for the multiplayer being stripped out of Republic Commando). This means that they look dated by today’s standards, and without the visual flair they released with, these two games can only fall back on their decent but unspectacular gameplay.

Still, there’s plenty of nostalgic appeal in these two games, so for many the question here is whether this package provides value. Both of the included games here normally retails for $15 on the Nintendo Switch eShop, and this Compilation is being sold for… $30. So really, there’s no reason to buy these games as a Compilation unless you want to get the physical cartridge release. To that end, the physical release does include both games on the one cartridge, so those who value getting their games in physical form will at least have that to look forward to here.

In the end, whether Star Wars Racer and Commando Combo is worthwhile to you really comes down to how much nostalgia you have for the original games and how much love you have for the Star Wars franchise. Both of these games are decent but unspectacular, with dated visuals and gameplay that still works well enough but doesn’t stand out in any way save for the good use of the Star Wars license. Is that enough for you? Then you might want to give this Compilation a try.

tl;dr – Star Wars Racer and Commando Combo is a Compilation of Star Wars Episode I Racer, a Futuristic Racing game, and Star Wars: Republic Commando, a First-Person Shooter. Both of these games are decent but unspectacular, with dated visuals, and the overall package costs the same as buying the games separately. How much value this Compilation has will really depend on your nostalgia for the original games, your love for the Star Wars franchise, and how important it is to get both of these games in physical form.

Grade: C+

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