Freeplay

Freeplay is great for a quick race or to practice a track that you haven't quite mastered yet. This option allows you to select any course that you've already unlocked in tournament mode. You can select your tournament racer (complete with any upgrades) or simply select "Practice" to pick from one of the starting racers and pods.

From the Track Details screen, you can alter the number of laps in a given race (from one to five - remember that all tournament races are three laps). You can also change the number of racers on the course (2, 4, 8 or 12) and the speed of the AI drivers (slow, average or fast). Simply move your control stick up/down to select the item to alter, and move the stick left/right to cycle through the possible values.

Time Attack

Time Attack gives you a chance to shoot for track speed records (single lap and whole race). As in Freeplay, you can select your tournament racer or select the Practice option to select a temporary racer.

In a Time Attack, it's only you against the clock (no other racers will be on the track), so this is a great place to go to hone your skills on a given track once you've unlocked it.

General Flow of Tournament

The Tournament mode is the heart and soul of this game. You'll race through four tournaments (Amateur, Semipro and Galactic each have seven races while the Invitational has four races) for a total of 25 races. Each of the first three tournaments will get progressively harder, culminating in the Boonta Eve Classic (the pod race from the movie in which Anakin wins his freedom).

All of the races take place around some focal point on their particular planet. You'll soon discover that different races on the same planet may share some portions of the course, which will make navigating those portions much easier, since you'll already have them memorized.

You must place in the top four spots of any given race to unlock the next race in the tournament. The last race in each of the tournaments is the "money race" - your place here will be shown dramatically via a victory cinematic. Place in the top three (on the podium) in the last race of each of the three main tournaments, and you'll unlock the next race in the invitational tournament. Also, if you place in the top three of the last race of a tournament, you'll be treated to a podium cinematic.

It should be noted that you can tackle the tournaments in any order, but the difficulty levels rise as you move up in the circuits, and you'll definitely need an upgraded pod racer to stand any chance of victory in the galactic tournament.

When you begin a tournament as a new player, you only have six racers to chose from. As you do well in the tournament races, you'll unlock access to other racers. You can switch to these different racers from the Main Menu before a tournament race. Simply select the Change Vehicle option to view all currently available racers.

If you fall behind to last place in a race, you'll notice that you're always able to catch up with the racers in the tenth and eleventh spot. These drivers are programmed so that they will always hang around your position if you fall too far back (to give you the sense, albeit false, of competition).

Setting Up the Payment

Pod racing is a high-stakes sport, and the successful drivers are well-rewarded with cash prizes (in truguts) for stellar performances. These winnings aren't for you to sock away for a rainy day (with the risk-level of this sport, a driver probably won't survive 'til a rainy day anyway), but to spend on making your pod racer even more competitive. If you have already looked over the price of the high-end parts, you can see that they are quite steep - it'll take a lot of winning to make your pod racer the best it can be.

After you select your tournament race, you'll be provided with the Track Details Screen. This screen shows you a map of the course, the favored racer and the current records for the total race time and the best lap time. If this is your first time competing in the race (meaning that you haven't already placed in the top four for this race), you'll also see a "Winnings" display on the lower left of the screen. This display will show you how the truguts are paid out for winning. By moving the control stick left/right, you can change the prize structure for any given race. The Fair prize structure splits the winnings most evenly. The Skilled structure rewards those who place higher and the Winner Takes All structure only rewards the first place pod racer.

See the table below for an overview of the possible winnings:

Amateur Pod Racing Circuit

Semipro Pod Racing Circuit

Galactic (Pro) Pod Racing Circuit

Invitational Pod Racing Circuit

Note: Once you select a payment scale and place in the top four a race (or in the top three for the invitational circuit), you can go back and try again later for a better position, but you can't alter the payment.

Amateur Pod Racing Circuit

Semipro Pod Racing Circuit

 Galactic Pod Racing Circuit

Invitational Pod Racing Circuit

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