Parent's Guide: F1 Race Stars - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

Taking the drama of F1 and giving it a Mario Kart style makeover, F1 Race Stars is about as far away from the reality of Formula 1 as it would be possible to be. Featuring the real life teams and stylised drivers, it's a high octane race around courses that have been based more heavily around the countries the real life F1 tracks are based in that the tracks themselves. Whizzing through a castle in Germany, spinning through an underwater tunnel in Australia, before careering around the Ferrari roller coaster in Abu Dhabi, the courses are as over the top as you'd expect.

Moving away from the realism of the previous F1 games, Race Stars tries to inject a bit of personality into the proceedings. With weapons (bubbles you throw at other racers, and a teleport that whisks you the front, amongst others), distinctly kart style cars, and big-headed racers, it's probably best to think of the game as Mario Kart with an F1 makeover. With full support for four player co-op, and the ability to play through every mode in the game in split-screen with up to four people playing together, it's certainly a lot more social than previous F1 games have been.

However, it's not quite as easy to pick up and play as you may expect. Younger players may struggle to figure out how to use the KERS boost strips (you have to let go, and then hold the trigger several times to charge your boost battery), but also may fall foul of the way your cars can take damage. Being hit by weapons, or other environmental hazards can cause your car to take damage and slow down quite dramatically until you find the nearest pit, having the effect of making the game most difficult for the least experienced players. Luckily, several of the weapons have been designed as catch-up power-ups, and boost you into the middle of the pack if you've fallen behind - but it can still be a bit off-putting for younger players. The difficulty level, which saw even the experienced players at Everybody Plays alternating between first and sixth place may also put off younger players who may not appreciate not being able to rank well on the easiest difficulties. On the whole, it's not too much of a problem, as you don't need to rank in a specific place to unlock the next set of races - but it may bother younger children.

In all, if you've got an F1 mad child, or a fan of Mario Kart, SEGA All Stars Racing, or Little Big Planet Karting, F1 Race Stars is likely to go down rather well - just so long as your child has the patience to tame the intermittent difficult spikes.

As a cartoon kart-style racing game, F1 Race Stars contains nothing in the way of questionable content - there's no bad language, blood, gore, or violence of any kind. From a content perspective, it's thoroughly family friendly.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Xbox 360