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Star Wars may be stumbling in the cinema, but over the last few years we've been treated to some pretty good Star Wars games. I only just filed my last Star Wars game review, the X-COM-like Star Wars Zero Company, the other week. A couple of years ago we had Star Wars Outlaws, a game that launched with a few hiccups but is now rather good. Before that, we had the critically acclaimed Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and its sequel, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer continues that trend. When it comes to video games, it's a good time to be a Star Wars fan.
Ever since young Anakin Skywalker fired up his pod racer engines in The Phantom Menace, high-speed racing has been firmly etched into the Star Wars mythos. Star Wars creator George Lucas's childhood fascination with hot rods in Modesto, California, during the 1950s inspired the iconic podracing sequence. Galactic Racer builds on that legacy, letting players race across familiar environments in an arcade racer that feels right at home in the Star Wars universe.
The game comes with a number of different single-player modes, as well as online multiplayer. But it's the campaign that provides the narrative setting.
Galactic Racer is set in the New Republic Era, after the fall of the Galactic Empire. Enterprising former speeder mechanic Darius Pax has set up the Galactic Racing League, giving hot shots and pilots an outlet for the daredevil flying skills they learnt during the rebellion against the Empire. Players don the driving gloves as Shade, enrolled in the races by Darius Pax to take out the reigning champion Kestar Bool. With his family's wealth, Bool is threatening to take control of the League away from Pax.
The campaign is played through a Galactic Tour of events, with players choosing a branching path and selecting which activities to enter. These can be races, eliminators, field tests and mystery encounters that progress the story.
League Entry Tokens are required to enter a Tour, which you can collect on a run. Success rewards players with cash, perks and vehicle upgrades, whilst failure costs a token. If you run out of tokens, you return to the start of the tour. Credits and some of your progression are carried over to the new tour. This rogue-like gameplay (or "runs-based", as the developer would like you to call it) adds an extra layer of tension to what are already thrilling races.
The races are very reminiscent of the Burnout games, with participants able to take out fellow racers, resulting in spectacular crashes. As well as a standard afterburner to boost vehicles around the track, the ramjet provides tremendous added speed, but at a potential cost. Engage the ramjet for too long and it will explode, taking your speeder out. Cooler environments (that otherwise freeze your machine) allow for longer ramjet boosting, as do racer abilities. A careful mix of afterburner, ramjet, and daredevil cornering is needed to negotiate the challenging circuits.
There are a range of vehicle types to choose from. The land speeder, looking more like Han's from Solo than Luke's, can drift, allowing for cornering at breakneck speeds. Speeder bikes are slim, fast and agile, with a powerful kinetic burst using stored energy. Skim Speeders can turn on a penny by banking 90 degrees on a knife edge to gain an advantage when cornering. Lastly, we have pod racers with their huge engines offering an incredible speed advantage for those brave enough to race with them.
The game allows players to race on familiar and not so familiar planets across the outer rim. Jakku from The Force Awakens offers a spectacular racing setting amongst the ruined Star Destroyer hulks. The Rise of Skywalker's Crait invites players to race across the salt flat and among the rhodochrostle caverns. The oft mentioned, but barely seen ice world of Ando Prime is joined by the smugglers' hideout of Deven Acos, the mining world of Sentinel One and the lush forests of Lantaania. Finally, of course, we have the desert world of Tatooine with the opportunity to relive the thrills of the Boonta Eve Classic.
Similar to the third-person interludes in Star Wars Zero Company, Galactic Racer allows players to walk around the paddock areas between races. Here players can talk to fellow racers and buy vehicle parts.
Multiplayer adds a whole extra dimension to the game, pitting 12 players across PC, Xbox and PlayStation against each other in epic and highly competitive races. The leaderboard records each racer's form for gloating rights within your group. The race groups are drop-in/drop-out, making it easy to join, even if you may need to sit out a race that's already in progress.
Those wanting a little more meat on their online racing can opt to enter the multiplayer tour. 12 players (8 for pod racing) can race across six planets, upgrading their vehicles as they progress.
The OG Star Wars aesthetic – that lived-in sci-fi universe – is perfectly captured in the game. You'll recognise some of the ships in the background, the architecture, hardware and droids. There are also a few familiar characters thrown in for good measure.
Fuse Games have also done an amazing job with the visuals. The graphics on PC are breathtaking, with those on Xbox Series X not far behind. As your speeder is propelled into the air, huge vistas spread out in front. Navigating the impeccably detailed terrain at breakneck speeds is made all the better by the almost photorealistic circuits. It's a stunning-looking game.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer fits neatly into the rapidly expanding universe beyond the movies, offering a racing experience that not only respects the source material but also builds upon it. It's another Star Wars game that's a no-brainer for fans to snap up but should also appeal to fans of the racing genre as well.