Two of my favorite games of all time are Star Wars: Episode I – Racer and Burnout 3. They both represent exactly what I love in a racing game: ludicrous speeds, a tough learning curve, and the ability to dispose of the competition with extreme prejudice whenever I feel like behaving like a demented gorilla on the track. Imagine my surprise, then, when a team comprised of former Burnout developers announced a new game inspired by that series’ legacy, while also taking cues from the seminal 1999 Phantom Menace tie-in racer. The end result is Star Wars: Galactic Racer, a game I had incredibly high expectations for, yet somehow still managed to surpass them with ease.

Motion blur is inevitable, considering how fast your speeder is moving.

What is Galactic Racer all about, anyway? In short, it’s an arcade racer with an unbelievably brutal learning curve, where you can control different kinds of speeders in a series of races across the universe. It is not a literal sequel to the podracing games; podracing is included in it, it is awesome, I love it, but it’s just one part of a much larger selection of crafts and modes. What all these modes have in common is that they are all set in planetary surface courses, are incredibly fast, and share the Burnout mentality of crashing onto other races in order to total their vehicles, whilst earning more juice for your boosters in the process.

Out of the many modes available to you right from the get-go, Star Wars: Galactic Racer clearly wants you to spend most of your time with its solo campaign. In it, you play as Shade, a mysterious helmeted figure who enters the titular championship to exact revenge on the snobbish criminal Kestar Bool, with whom he has some unpleasant history. Bool is the reigning champion, so you can’t exactly challenge him right away. You first need to prove your worth by taking part in a series of qualifying tours, testing your skills against a veritable army of Glup Shittos created specifically for the game.

The salt planet from The Last Jedi looks better in this game than in the movie.

The interesting thing about these tours is that they are all randomly generated. Yep, to my surprise, Galactic Racer‘s main campaign mode is a roguelite. You start off with a simple speeder, earn credits after each event, and then spend them in upgrades at a store in between planetary changes. You can also acquire certain upgrades after each race, as well as premium currency which allows you to permanently upgrade your ship’s stats for the next tour you start on. What makes this roguelike loop so interesting is how well the developers were able to convey an actually believable plot within this never ending tour schedule.

Everything just acts as a season. An entire run is just a mere tour in the galactic racing circuit. You’ll be able to interact with racers in between rounds, negotiate parts with shady dealers, and so on. All shockingly tied to the game’s actually interesting plot, considering the fact it’s modern Star Wars we are talking about. The end of each run is usually centered around a story-driven final race in a derelict asteroid. You need to beat the boss in that race in order for your run to be considered a success, and for the plot to actually move forward. The game is separated into a handful of arcs, each one introducing a few modes, planets, and, on occasion, vehicle types.

The GOAT. Well, after Ben Quadinaros, that is. Who is also in this game.

It wouldn’t be an interesting roguelite loop if the gameplay wasn’t equally as good. We are talking about a Star Wars racing game heavily inspired by Burnout, but one which heavily borrows elements from the older podracing games: incredibly tight corners, shortcuts, multiple track layouts inside the same planet, and a “risk and reward” system tied to your afterburners: you may use these boosters to help you out during a race, but use them too much and your machine will overheat, and you’ll explode. The difference between Galactic Racer and its sources of inspiration, in this regard, is that you don’t have infinite lives per race. You can only crash a handful of times during a race before you’re disqualified, leading to the end of your run. 

I won’t deny it: Star Wars: Galactic Racer has a truly brutal learning curve. I wouldn’t exactly call its physics “realistic,” but they’re nowhere near as loose as Episode I – Racer. If you simply hold down the accelerator without a care in the world, you WILL crash. If you don’t plan your cornering or aerial drifting ahead of time, you’ll crash as well. Everything moves around you at such ridiculous speeds that you barely have time to think ahead. You need to read the track, react almost instinctively, and learn from your mistakes. Your reflexes will be tested in ways very few racing games dare to attempt.

They were able to make some of the boring planets from the sequel trilogy really fun to drive around.

When you get a hold of the controls and the game’s many mechanics, then oh boy, it feels rewarding as hell. There will be races you won’t crash once; you might just tackle other speeders and have THEM crash. You’ll perform tight turns, properly manage your heating system, and finish a race earning extra credits by completing side objectives handed over by your sponsors. When everything clicks, Galactic Racer becomes something that is unlike any other racing game out there. The kind of futuristic racing experience I haven’t had since F-Zero GX for the GameCube.

Now, what about podracing? If that’s all you want out of Galactic Racer, you might initially feel a bit disappointed. The arcade mode only features a handful of podracing scenarios at first, while pods themselves aren’t unlocked in the main campaign until you’ve completed a few chapters. But once they finally show up, nostalgia will hit you like a freight train.

A race set in a planet full of acid. Safety first!

I’m talking about revisiting planets and courses straight from the 1999 game, while the entire roster of podracers is comprised of veterans from back in the day. I’m not sure if the developers somehow managed to track down the same voice actors to reprise their Huttese banter; if they did, that’s amazing. If not, they hired some truly convincing soundalikes. The HUD is designed to resemble the one from Episode I – Racer. More importantly, the podracing itself feels appropriately distinct. The controls are noticeably looser, and the pods are somehow even faster than the already blisteringly fast vehicles you start the game with.

It all culminates in a surprisingly impressive finale, especially when you consider that this is, at its core, a roguelite racer. You know a game is doing something right when you simply don’t want it to end. Galactic Racer managed to captivate me with both its plot and gameplay loop to the point where I’d frequently lose track of time. I’ll admit, I haven’t exactly slept well over the past few days. Every time I told myself I’d play just one more race, another hour would magically disappear.

Honey, wake up! They brought podracing back!

To top things off, there are countless additional, nonrandomized scenarios you can tackle from the main menu. You can play as the entire aforementioned roster of Glup Shittos, each with their own distinct loadouts, speeder types, and accessories. One might favor a more defensive approach, while another could revolve around abusing boosters as much as possible without overheating. There’s even a fella with a flamethrower strapped to his speeder. These scenarios are shorter and don’t unlock many goodies, but they’re a neat distraction from the main campaign. More importantly, there are dozens of them at your disposal. The sheer amount of content packed into Galactic Racer is insane.

Finally, I’d like to praise Star Wars: Galactic Racer’s overall presentation. When I first noticed the size of the development team, as well as the game’s asking price, I assumed this would be a smaller production, with a more modest budget and cheaper assets. Boy, was I wrong. Maybe Lucasfilm helped them out with the music, possibly freeing up more of the budget for the technical side of things? I honestly have no idea. Whatever wizardry happened behind the scenes, the end result is seriously impressive, especially when you consider the notoriously troublesome engine they were working with.

Some planets might feature hazards such as engine-freezing temperatures, or a scorching sun that accelerates your overheating meter.

Unreal Engine 5 is put to some seriously good use here. The game isn’t trying to showcase ray tracing or other GPU intensive effects, and the lighting itself is comparatively simple, but this is still one of the most visually impressive Star Wars games out there. Tatooine, Jakku, the icy world of Ando Prime, and many others are packed with detail, sometimes looking even better than some of the CGI heavy planets seen in more recent Star Wars movies and shows.

As you’d expect (and hope) from a racer this absurdly fast, the framerate is sublime. It doesn’t matter if three ships are exploding in front of you, rain is pouring onto the track, and you’re hurtling along at nearly 600 kilometers per hour. The game sticks to its 60fps target without breaking a sweat, and even slows down in style when you destroy a ship, reverting back to its absurdist speeds a few seconds later. As a result, controls feel incredibly precise and responsive.

I’ve waited for this moment for the past two and a half decades.

I honestly have little to complain about. This is exactly the kind of racing game I’ve been salivating for the past decade or two. Star Wars: Galactic Racer manages to convey the feel of the classic Episode I: Racer game, as well as Burnout, with improved physics, a somewhat engaging story, a ludicrous amount of content, brutal but rewarding difficulty curve, and a roguelite campaign which won me over in an instant. More than just a game for fans, or an admittedly nostaglic trip down memory lane, this is a must-have for racing enthusiasts, and one of the most pleasant surprises of the year.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Reviewed on PS5.

A copy of Star Wars: Galactic Racer was provided by the publisher.