Star Wars Galactic Racer Announced For Playstation 5, Windows And Xbox

Billed as a “run-based, high-stakes reinvention of racing” the new “Star Wars: Galactic Racer” game is coming to Playstation 5, Windows, and Xbox later this year, and I could not be more hyped up to play it. This isn’t your typical racing game, with realistic physics and crash models, this is an intergalactic space racing game that looks more like a mix of F-Zero and Mario Kart set in the familiar scenes of the Star Wars universe. Whether you’re racing ground transports, repulsorcraft, speederbikes, landspeeders, or frickin’ Pod Racers, the variety of visuals, conditions, and competitors appears to give you a good mix of brain-melting visuals. And that’s before you mention the variety of planets you’re racing on, whether in the civilized United Federation of Planets or the overgrown backwaters of the Outer Rim. What could be more fun than that?

Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll get to race Rey’s speeder. 

In development since 2023 by upstart Fuse Games, in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games and Secret Mode, the team behind this was previously involved in the “Need For Speed” and “Burnout” series, when they were senior developers at Criterion Games. They were also instrumental in the creation of “Star Wars Battlefront II,” so they’re familiar with the galaxy. Hopefully that bodes well, I really want this game to be great. 

Based on the gameplay seen in this trailer, Star Wars fans will get to race across the face of what appears to be Ando Prime (from the 1999 video game “Star Wars Episode I: Racer”), Jakku, Yavin, Tatooine, and a new planet created for this game called Sentinel One.

“When a team with such amazing racing chops like Fuse proposed a new expression of racing in a galaxy far, far away, it was a true no brainer decision,” GM of Lucasfilm Games Douglas Reilly said in an interview for starwars.com. “One of the great things about Star Wars is that it can be a perfect fit for many genres and audiences. We are always looking for new and creative ways to revisit genres fans have enjoyed in the past and find unique expressions in the future.” 

Speaking of revisiting things I enjoy as a fan, I couldn’t be more stoked to play a modern Podracing game. I was absolutely obsessed with Star Wars Episode I: Racer some 27 years ago, and I have wanted more of it all along. Podracing is the best part of the prequel series, and I want to prove I’ve got the midicholorians to make it to the finish in the Boonta Eve Classic! With the return of fan favorites Sebulba and Ben Quadinaros, it’s going to be a tight fight, to be sure. 

So what’s the game about? Aside from just being a radical racing game, starwars.com says you’ll be playing a new character named Shade, “a lone racer with a dream of glory and revenge.” Apparently you’re working with Darius Pax to take down the nefarious Kestar Bool who leads the league. Vehicle building is a major element, which sounds like a blast. 

Look, I was already going to be a homer for anything racing and Star Wars, so this game is aimed right at my underdeveloped prefrontal cortex. I wish this game were dropping tomorrow. Let’s frickin’ go!