First, Galactic Racer is a pretty darn good arcade racing game. It’s an easy recommendation if you’ve ever enjoyed a game like F-Zero or Wipeout , or of course the original Episode 1 Racer from way back in the 90s.
What happened
Star Wars: Galactic Racer is not a podracing game. But it is a game about podracing… and a lot more. Perhaps more than the developers actually intended. If you’ll indulge me a little, I’ll unpack this.
Where the sources line up
It’s got a decent roguelike singleplayer mode, competitive multiplayer, lots of customization options, some very pretty graphics, and most essentially, an incredible feeling of speed.
Practical impact for readers
I especially like the little sci-fi touches that make this game more than just a set of cars and tracks. Before each race you can do a little quick-time button-tapping event to warm up your hovercar’s parts. It feels very intentionally like the pre-launch checks of a spaceship, or indeed, a futuristic racer. Your dangerous “ramjet” speed boost can overheat and explode, but on an ice planet it can go much longer. Very cool.
Who should pay attention now
But what’s engaged me most is the story mode. And that’s surprising, because the story itself isn’t very good. Not that I’m disappointed — you don’t buy racing games to get enthralled by a narrative. On the surface it’s an extremely simple little tale. You’re a pilot who’s just out of prison on a trumped-up charge, some investors rope you into a racing league of questionable legitimacy, and there’s a rich guy asshole who’s doing rich guy asshole things. Your motivation is to knock him off his high speeder bike.
What is still unclear
There’s a lot of fodder for the Star Wars fans. The story takes place at a very particular point in the sprawling Star Wars timeline, just after Return of the Jedi , when the Empire is freshly fallen and there’s a big power vacuum with a lot of jockeying to fill it. Apparently at some point after The Phantom Menace — the movie that put the pulse-pounding sci-fi update to Ben Hur’s chariot race in the cultural zeitgeist — the Empire outlawed the sport of podracing. So at the start of Galactic Racer , you very pointedly do not engage in podracing. Instead you get car-style landspeeders, bike-style speeder bikes, and “skim speeders. ” This third and entirely new category is tougher and slower than a bike, but faster and more maneuverable than a car.
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