[Review] Star Wars: Galactic Racer Is A Thrilling New Hope For Arcade Racing

Would you believe me if I told you that it has been over 20 years since we last got a Star Wars game focused purely on the art of racing? Not since the twilight of the kart-racing era has this side of the sci-fi franchise been represented with high-speed thrills. At long last, though, that drought is finally over. Star Wars: Galactic Racer shines a light on the IP, devoid of galactic civil wars, lightsabers, and carbonite baths, and that alone makes for a refreshing experience.

But it’s the pedigree, influence, and execution of a push to evolve the racing genre that makes Galactic Racer feel so special, a feat developer Fuse Games has triumphantly pulled off with style, while also solving one of the genre’s biggest problems today. The end result isn’t just one of the best racing games of recent memory, but a nostalgic sprint down memory lane that innovates on a familiar formula to create a breathtaking experience.

With former Burnout and Need for Speed developers behind the wheel, Galactic Racer wastes no time introducing a new era of excitement for the war-weary citizens of the Star Wars cosmos. It takes the thrill of Episode 1: The Phantom Menace’s iconic pod-racing sequence and dials it up to 11, pitting you against all manner of racers across distant worlds. There’s your usual rags-to-riches story here as you face off against an aristocratic menace looking to seize control of the Galactic Racing League through underhanded methods, colorful characters, and plenty of Star Wars set dressing to soak up.

And that’s fine, but the real star of the show here is the actual racing. Split across various vehicle disciplines, Galactic Racer channels the spirit of classic Burnout and Wipeout in how each race feels, but it also addresses a lingering problem by throwing in roguelite elements. That problem? You’ve probably felt this in numerous racing games over the years: it’s only a matter of time before you improve your skills on the course, leave competitors in the dust, and cruise to victory, race after boring race.

But Galactic Racer’s roguelite structure keeps things interesting by constantly making you feel like a challenger, fighting tooth and nail to secure a podium finish. This is a game where the brake pedal gathers dust: you focus on speed with the pluck of a scrappy underdog, find your line, stick to it, and deal with all manner of planetary hazards. Underpinning it all is a run-based structure where you choose which upgrades will give you a fighting chance from race to race, which stat boosts you’ll take over others, and pray to your local Sith lord that you’ll unlock an upgrade that keeps you in the race.

If all of that sounds familiar, it’s because roguelite games have been doing it for years, from Hades to Slay the Spire – and buildcrafting adds a new layer of subtle complexity to each run. On top of that, you can choose between several vehicle types and racing styles to suit your specific flavor of velocity, fine-tuning your machine as you work your way to the top. That’s a lot to take in, but to its credit, Galactic Racer never feels overwhelming as you get to organically soak up all the nuances of the game, whether it be through the narrative campaign or its arcade mode.

Make no mistake, Galactic Racer isn’t easy when you first start off. There’s a high chance that you’ll be the subject of a highlight reel capturing your crash in slow-motion glory, or you’ll be on the receiving end of planetary hazards that’ll force you to furiously flip some switches on your landspeeder so that you can stay in the race. But when all the elements align, you find yourself on a hot streak, and you start getting the parts you need to keep up with the aces of the Star Wars galaxy? Galactic Racer feels brilliant at this point, with each victory feeling earned and leaving you breathless.

Multiplayer mode is also a massive treat, as this online portion of Galactic Racer condenses the entire game into a set number of races, amplifies things by allowing you to place high-risk, high-reward bets on your performance, and pushes the buildcrafting aspect to its extreme. In a gaming generation where racing games feel like they’ve reached a ceiling for what’s possible, Galactic Racer just hits different with its focus on the purity of racing, its clever implementation of ovel gameplay mechanics, and an eye for detail that’ll make any Star Wars fan happy.

It may not be the first racing game to pinch a few ideas from the roguelite genre – a new Carmageddon game with a similar approach came out earlier this year and is rather rubbish at it – but Star Wars: Galactic Racer is easily the standard-bearer for this fusion of ideas. What could have been a Frankensteined application of ideas haphazardly bolted onto an anti-gravity engine is instead an organic addition to a lean and mean racing machine.

Fuse Games has come out swinging with a fast and furious racing game, one that’s brimming with confidence, style, and is a force to be reckoned with.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer released on 6 October for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series consoles.