Star Wars: Galactic Racer Review

2026 is a landmark year for Star Wars games. Not only did Star Wars: Zero Company review incredibly well, with many arguing that it’s one of the best Star Wars games in many years, but Star Wars: Galactic Racer does not fall short of it in quality either. Both games deliver unique Star Wars experiences, and with Star Wars: Galactic Racer, fans finally have a brand-new racing game set in a Galaxy Far, Far Away.

Of course, “racing game” is a broad term—developer Fuse Games defines Star Wars: Galactic Racer as a high-stakes, runs-based racing game. Roguelite is a word thrown around a lot due to its unique game modes and overall structure, but it makes sense to call Star Wars: Galactic Racer something other than a Roguelite. To its benefit, it’s a hard one to pin down. Perhaps the simplest comparison is that it is Burnout set in the Star Wars universe, complete with a destruction cam, where every race, victory, and loss is a constant balance of risk and reward. Whatever someone decides to call Star Wars: Galactic Racer, no one can call it a “bad racing game.”

At a glance, too, Star Wars: Galactic Racer is deceptively simple. It features four core game modes—Campaign, Scenarios, Arcade, and Multiplayer—and many would be forgiven for thinking this was a simple, quick-and-dirty racing game. They’ll be quickly taken by surprise by the amount of depth to each of these modes, as well as how the moment-to-moment gameplay sets up each one for success. Many racing games can be trivialized by a skilled player who understands the basics, but there is no coasting on the basics in Star Wars: Galactic Racer.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer’s Campaign is Its Centerpiece

Everything revolves around Star Wars: Galactic Racer‘s unique campaign structure. Players take on the role of Shade, joining the Galactic League to help its director and foil an old rival (and take satisfaction in doing it). There is some more depth to the campaign than that, but anyone looking for a major Star Wars space opera story won’t find one. There are new and familiar characters, a few returning faces, and plenty of Star Wars flavor, but the strongest story moments come from the simple, street-focused idea of watching an entitled rich kid get humbled.

The campaign is divided into Acts, each requiring players to retain a League Token while completing “Tours.” Players can hold multiple Tokens, but repeatedly wrecking a vehicle in a race or losing key events such as Elimination Races costs one. Losing a Token resets the Act, sending players back to its beginning with a plethora of new features unlocked (and some credits, for their scrapped vehicle). At every reset, players can better prepare for their next Tour:

Increasing the base level and core stats of three vehicles: Landspeeders, Speed Bikes, and Skim Speeders
Unlocking Racer Styles and their associated Scenarios
Unlocking parts and abilities for future tours
Equipping Favors earned during tours
And much more

Meanwhile, players have as many options to tweak during a tour when they transition between each planet in Star Wars: Galactic Racer. Between planets, players can upgrade parts and abilities, encounter Rivals, accept tasks from Backers who fund their progress, and much more. After that, though, it’s off to the races. Races award credits and upgrades based on performance, with some rewards carrying little risk and others offering bigger payouts at the cost of potentially ending a Tour. With so many interconnected systems, Star Wars: Galactic Racer can sometimes feel as much like a racing management game as a traditional racer.

Those systems would mean little without strong racing, but Star Wars: Galactic Racer delivers in spades. Handling is tight, acceleration feels responsive, and the impact of each build is noticeable on the track. The differences between the three vehicle types can sometimes feel minor, although the gap between standard vehicles and pod racers in Star Wars: Galactic Racer is much more substantial. Every second matters, and most races come down to the wire. Losing is always a genuine threat; at least twice, I reached the final leg of a Tour only for one bad crash or Takedown to end the entire run.

In that is the biggest risk and potential reward for Star Wars: Galactic Racer as well. Some fans are not going to like how much one mistake can derail an entire run. Losing an hour or more of progress because of a split-second mistake can be frustrating, especially with how many races fill each Act, but the same system makes Star Wars: Galactic Racer unusually tense for the genre. Few, if any, racing games make every decision feel this consequential, and those decisions range from which vehicle players choose for the Tour to the upgrades they pick to the reactionary, unconscious choice on the track. For example, I chose to equip a bunch of cheap, beaten-up Legendary Parts that have Faults (drawbacks) on one run with the belief I could fix them at my next planetary stop. Unfortunately, the faults were dangerous, and I constantly set my own vehicle on fire. I did not make it much further in that run.

Each planet also has unique status effects that players have to manage during a race. The number of systems is genuinely inspiring.

At the end of the day, Star Wars: Galactic Racer chooses to balance its risk-and-reward mechanics by believing players will not let one failure set them back. And in each failure, there is that familiar “just one more run” vibe of the roguelite genre.

A Note on Star Wars: Galactic Racer’s Maps

Star Wars is filled with beautiful vistas and iconic planets, and Star Wars: Galactic Racer makes pretty good use of them. Although moments to stop and smell the roses do not exist in this game, there is plenty of room for appreciation as players skirt across Crait’s surface and through its mines, battle in the heart of Jakku and travel through the remains of its wrecked ships, and explore the handful of players in-game by racing to the finish line. That said, players will absolutely see every track and location the game has to offer well before they finish the campaign. As far as criticism goes, wanting to see Fuse Games’ take on more Star Wars locations and racetracks speaks volumes to the quality taken in crafting them.

Scenarios, Arcade, and Multiplayer Complement the Campaign

If players do not want to delve too hard into the campaign during a session, there’s plenty more to enjoy. Multiplayer is essentially a Tour dedicated to players to complete their builds and face off in the greatest races in the Galaxy, while Arcade lets players hop into a simple race. It’s worth noting that Star Wars: Galactic Racer has numerous race types and environmental modifiers, from sprints to lapped circuit races to solo races, but the campaign makes the latter feel a little more relevant than Arcade. That said, Arcade’s weakest offering is still a fun time.

Meanwhile, Scenarios is another game mode where players step into a racer’s boots (other than Shade) and get to test a more curated build path in a short Tour. Not only is this a good way to get a break from the campaign after a particularly bad run, but in many ways, it’s a solid take on a fun “tutorial” so players can learn more builds. Plenty of scenarios are on offer, each with unique builds and challenges, while Arcade has plenty to do. By nature, Campaign and Multiplayer are going to take up players’ time, but those who want to check out all it has to offer have a strong content lineup.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer is A New Kind of Racing Game

Star Wars: Galactic Racer‘s unique racing game ambition is often lived up to throughout its runtime, but no game is perfect. The risk-and-reward style of gameplay is likely to be divisive, but it absolutely works for those who want the thrill and the challenge. Not every build (or part/ability/system) seems perfectly balanced, the camera can be a little goofy when not racing, and there are way too many “now this is podracing” references throughout the game. And yet most of these minor things contribute to its Star Wars identity, instead of detracting from it.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer is ultimately a hard game to pin down genre-wise or to put down gameplay-wise. It takes the best of the roguelite genre and fits it into a new format where there’s one-part racing, one-part loot-and-build chasing, and two-parts thrill ride. How or if players give this some unique name remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that Star Wars: Galactic Racer is a must-play (and a must-replay again and again).

Star Wars: Galactic Racer releases October 6 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Game Rant was provided with a PS5 code for the purposes of this review.