// KOTAKU — GAMING
Star Wars: Galactic Racer Looks And Feels Awesome
Racing games, like fighting games, used to be generation-defining releases. They were flashy console sellers showcasing groundbreaking graphics and impressive new gameplay engines. They used to be aimed at anyone who might want to pick up a controller, not just existing enthusiasts. Daytona USA and Wipeout had to be great games, period, not just great racing games. The spirit of that ambition lives on in what I recently played of Star Wars: Galactic Racer. It was fun. It was neat. And not just “for a racing game.”
I went hands-on with Fuse Games’ debut release, which many are hoping ends up being the second coming of the cult classic Star Wars Episode I: Racer, for roughly 60 minutes at Summer Game Fest this month. It was the only demo there that I could have easily played for another hour. Yes, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, with its simple, adrenaline-filled gameplay loop of high-speed crashes and narrow escapes, is by its very nature primed to make a great impression in this exact sort of setting. Immediate gratification combined with Star Wars nostalgia is destined to be an easy crowd-pleaser. But what I played left me impressed with more than just the moment-to-moment spectacle; I came away hopeful that Star Wars: Galactic Racer has the systems in place to not stall out after just a few hours in.
First, the backstory, of which there is a surprising amount. The game takes place in the years after the fall of the Galactic Empire. You play as Shade, a mysterious scoundrel who enrolls in an unsanctioned new racing scene called the Galactic League. Known for its unsafe speeds and dangerous antics, it’s a place where veterans from the war can utilize their skills, settle old scores, and make names for themselves among the ruins of the old imperial order. Shade’s main rival is an aristocratic Caskadag named Kestar Bool, with hints of a messy history that goes way back.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer is investing a surprising amount in the trappings of its single-player campaign mode. In between races, you can walk around a small camp on the local planet to fiddle with your speeder, talk to some NPCs, and watch small vignettes play out between the various characters. The voice performances and writing are surprisingly good, making Galactic Racer almost feel like an RPG in which the battles just happen to be races. I don’t know just how far Fuse Games is planning to take this story, but the bits I saw made it feel more in the vein of a classic racing movie like Days of Thunder than your standard throwaway racing game fare.
The Galactic League itself is structured around a Slay the Spire-like map of cascading nodes. Each randomized node will have different racing parameters and rewards, giving players some agency over how they attempt to make it through the League. Progress takes them from the sandy wastes of Jakku to the tropical forests of Lantaana, the frozen vonium mines of Ando Prime, and beyond. As players make their way through various Races, Eliminators, Field Tests, and Mystery Encounters, they obtain new resources for outfitting their vehicles. Lose a race and it’ll cost you a League Token. Once you’re out, you go back to the beginning. The roguelike structure means being able to build into different racing styles and discover new events across the three-act campaign, even if you’ve already completed it.
You probably want to hear about the races themselves. They are fast and unforgiving. The hover-feel as you glide over the surface of different biomes is superb. The crashes when you drift too aggressively before the course cuts into a narrow canyon are glorious. Crash too many times and you automatically forfeit, providing an extra layer of stakes to the risk-reward analysis of every overly aggressive maneuver. Play it safe and you might be able to finish third but at least you won’t crash out completely. Try to ram those last two opponents off the course, and you might be able to earn extra rewards to give you a much-needed