“This is podracing!” Anakin Skywalker proclaimed nearly 30 years ago. Star Wars: Galactic Racer aims to bring back the glitz and glamour of those days. And our first gameplay review gives it the green light.
How is Star Wars: Galactic Racer even possible? An unofficial sequel to the ancient Episode 1 Racer and its follow-up, Racer Revenge—after nearly 30 years? A racing game set in the Star Wars universe after such a long drought? I always thought times had changed: When the first Episode 1 Racer came out, LucasArts was still doling out Star Wars games like rum-and-Coke cups at the village dive bar. We’re talking about an era when Star Wars: The Gungan Frontier got the green light.
These days, with a lot of luck, we might even get a single Star Wars game a year. And in 2026, there will be two: Zero Company and Galactic Racer!
I got to play Star Wars: Galactic Racer extensively live at Summer Game Fest a few weeks ago, and now I can finally talk about it. I got to play through the campaign, raced in pod races as Sebulba, and discovered completely new aspects of the racing game. For example, Galactic Racer is a roguelite. Who would’ve thought?
How does Star Wars: Galactic Racer work?
Galactic Racer consists of three main areas:
- In thestory campaignyou play as the main character Shade—who can be either male or female—and compete in the Grand Galactic League after Episode 6 to knock the evil adversary Kestar Bool out of the race. Ideally, don’t take the story too seriously for even a second. I had to chuckle into my fist while playing because the dialogue is so over-the-top. But hey, it’s a racing game—it all works out.
- In thearcade scenarios and challengesthe game puts you in a specific cockpit—for example, Sebulba’s Pod Racer—and has you chase targets.
- Inmultiplayer—and now hold on to your hats—you play against other people. Unfortunately, there’s no local co-op, so you’ll have to race online.
I mainly tried out the campaign with its… very unconventional structure.
Galactic Racer is actually a roguelite: As Shade, you start on the desert planet Jakku and have to climb the career ladder race by race. I often decide for myself which event to choose: Would I rather race against the clock or compete against other drivers on a simple circuit?
Once you’ve completed enough events, you eventually move on to the next planet to climb the ladder there as well. I can already confirm a handful of planets: If you want more desert after Jakku, head to Tatooine. Kantaana has lava and jungles, Ando Prime has ice, and you can also visit the headquarters of the Galactic League—Derven Acos. I’ve also raced on another very famous Star Wars planet, but I can’t tell you which one for spoiler reasons. Take that!
You don’t necessarily have to win a race to move up in rank. You’ll just get fewer rewards, which you can then invest in upgrades—like extra drift precision, acceleration, and so on. But if your race car gets smashed into 1,000 pieces because some random guy rams you off a cliff, it’s game over.
As is typical for roguelites, some upgrades can be kept permanently, but aside from that, you’ll have to start all over again. Logically, I can’t yet say whether this results in a motivating loop, but at least I find the idea of a roguelite racer pretty interesting.
So, how does it actually play?
But all that stuff doesn’t really matter in the end if the races themselves aren’t fun to drive, so let’s talk about the gameplay!
Galactic Racer doesn’t want to be just Episode 1 Racer 2.0, so you’ll actually spend relatively little time in the famous Pod Racers. Instead, the game gives you three new vehicle classes:
- TheLandspeederis familiar to you from numerous movies—it’s the Star Wars equivalent of our cars: heavy, hovering vehicles that, in Galactic Racer, can drift around corners as a special ability.
- The opposite of these areSpeeder Bikes, small, agile jet-powered motorcycles (without wheels) that let you take every turn with incredible precision by shifting your weight.
- The newSkim Speedersfall somewhere between a Landspeeder and a Speeder Bike and seem most like a technical evolution of the old Pod Racers. When they lean into a turn, the front end stands vertical and you’re essentially zooming along on a knife’s edge.
No matter which vehicle class you choose, Galactic Racer (much like the Episode 1 Racer back in the day) handles incredibly well. You’ll race across the hot desert sands of Jakku with your power drive, weave through mountain gorges, small caves, and jumps, and—just like in the classic—decide in a split second: Should I take the fast but dangerous route, or go the safe way around the outside?
If I crash into the wall, the game isn’t automatically over, but my vehicle keeps taking damage until it eventually explodes.
To prevent that from happening, I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve—aside from my driving skills—that I can freely swap out and customize: With my ram horn boost, I can plow through the crowd with even greater precision on top of my regular turbo. Alternatively, I can unleash certain shield abilities, and Sebulba even has built-in flamethrowers in his pod racer—that old scoundrel.
Speaking of Sebulba: The pod race on Tatooine is an event separate from the campaign, but it gives me such goosebumps to finally be participating in the Boonta Eve Classic again. Sure, the shooting Tusken Raiders are missing, but aside from that, I still know every turn by heart. I’m afraid, though, that these occasional pod races outside the campaign will remain more of a gimmick for fans—hopefully the game will prove me wrong.
A Fly in the Ointment
For successful races in the campaign, you’ll also get upgrade stuff to improve your drift or boost, for example. So far, it sounds like a very well-rounded package, but there’s a small issue with these upgrades that I’m currently still having to sort out with Galactic Racer.
So far, the game feels extremely “gamey.”
And while that’s very subjective and ultimately a matter of taste, what I particularly liked about the old Episode 1 Racer was how tactile the whole experience felt. At Watto’s, I buy scrap parts that my little workshop droids install in the speeder; during the race, just like Anakin, I have to constantly keep an eye on my temperatures and hull integrity, because repairs cost valuable time. Even the gauges looked exactly like they did in the movie. The illusion of a podracer pilot cobbling together his speeder in the scrap yards of Tatooine was conveyed in an extremely tangible way.
Galactic Racer has all of that 26 years later as well, but in a much more abstract way. My upgrades are just some perk cards, and all the special abilities (aside from the ram horn) feel in-match exactly like what they are: special abilities in a video game. And because the AI—at least in the demo—is constantly cheating, I still lack a tangible sense of speed.
All the drivers are so preoccupied with boosts and special abilities—and some of them zoom away at speeds I can’t even fathom, only to slow down to a snail’s pace a turn later—that I don’t even get to properly learn how to actually drive: When is the best time to accelerate out of a turn? How do jumps affect my speed? How do I even drive… well?
Don’t get me wrong:a senseofspeed doesn’t mean a senseofspeed, because the latter is totally fine. The races fly by incredibly fast and are a lot of fun; I just wish the game would sometimes ease up a bit on the special ability perk card upgrade overload and let me simply enjoy exciting tracks and learn how to drive. But maybe that’s just the old man in me speaking.
Planet Diversity Behind the Barrier
I also see a potential pitfall in the campaign’s roguelite structure, because Galactic Racer has to keep its true diversity hidden: You work your way through one planet after another, so you end up racing half a dozen Jakku tracks before finally moving on to the second planet, which you then also race through first.
Sure, different track layouts and event types await me on each planet, but Jakku’s desert is just… a desert. I’m afraid this will get repetitive pretty quickly, especially since I have to start over from the beginning after every Game Over.
The old Episode 1 Racer also reused planets, but rarely twice in a row. In the first cup, I visited a new planet in every race, which was incredibly exciting.
Maybe the roguelite structure makes up for this by letting me unlock new starting planets or jump from A to B faster once I have a few permanent upgrades—I can’t judge that after just an hour, but at least that’s what I’m hoping for.
A New Hope
But one thing I can already say with cautious optimism: Galactic Racer won’t be a total flop. Yes, I have my concerns and criticisms here and there, but a) these can theoretically still be fixed via patches before release, and b) we’re not talking about any red alert sirens here.
The actual gameplay is already incredibly fun, partly because the concept remains unique: racing through the coolest locations in the Star Wars universe is simply an incredibly cool fantasy. And I’m overjoyed that, so many years after Episode 1, we can get back on the track with Racer. Next up: the green light for Super Bombad Racing 2.
Editor’s Verdict
I wouldn’t have needed a campaign at all. What I want from Star Wars: Galactic Racer is simple: a few varied cups on different planets, a colorful cast of drivers, and a bit of tinkering with upgrades between events. So… basically Episode 1 Racer, just with new graphics.
But what I actually get in the game goes in a different direction: There won’t be an arcade mode with different drivers; instead, the focus is entirely on the campaign centered around the main character, Shade. This time, I climb a real career ladder, unlock new planets in Roguelite mode, and freely interact with all the characters between races. That could be really interesting, but it could also fall flat if I have to keep retracing the same tracks and planets over and over again.
But where Galactic Racer really hits the mark: the races are just awesome to drive. Whether on a Speeder Bike, Landspeeder, or Skim Dingens—the sense of speed is spot-on, the hair on the back of my neck stands on end as I race, and I constantly have to make interesting decisions in a fraction of a second. Now all the other elements just need to fall into place, and Galactic Racer will be a great revival for racing fans.