Star Wars: Galactic Racer Review - The Runs-Based Racer Of Your Dreams

It’s Not A Trap, Star Wars: Galactic Racer Really Is As Good As It Looks Fuse Games Published Oct 2, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT Josh Coulson is an editor at TheGamer covering breaking news on everything from colorful platformers to the latest Lego sets. Primarily a news writer since 2018, Josh has covered just about every major game from the past decade. Now an editor, their focus has shifted to being the leading affiliate expert at the site, building relationships between TheGamer and global brands including Mattel, Funko, and The Pokemon Company. The surprise reveal during the 2025 Game Awards that we were getting a spiritual successor to Star Wars Episode 1 Racer wound up being one of the most popular announcements on the show. That was before we found out it’s being made by a new studio of developers who worked on Burnout and Need for Speed. Now Star Wars: Galactic Racer is nearly upon us, and having spent tens of hours racing at breakneck speeds around courses in a galaxy far, far away, I can assure you, this Star Wars racing game is everything you’re hoping it’s going to be. Galactic Racer could have been little more than a racing game with a Star Wars backdrop, but it is so much more than that. Like all good things Star Wars, Fuse Games has ensured it has been carefully woven into the massive tapestry that is the franchise’s sprawling universe. Not just by making it very clear when exactly Galactic Racer takes place on the timeline - shortly after the fall of The Empire - but by taking the time and attention to strike a balance between easter eggs and references, and new characters and lore drops that are interesting and add to the Star Wars universe The Type Of Storytelling You Don’t Expect From A Racing Game Fuse Games All of the new characters introduced are great, but the standouts are Hibi, your scouse mechanic, and Kestar Bool, Galactic Racer’s antagonist. It would have been very easy for the creators of this game to have given us too much Hibi, adding them to both video game and Star Wars history’s long list of annoying companions. That’s not the case here. You get just enough and, like any good Star Wars sidekick, they provide effective moments of comedy and levity in what is a surprisingly dark story. That darkness is down to the aforementioned Kestar Bool. I won’t reveal here why the new addition to Star Wars’ rogues’ gallery is quite so inherently evil, as I don’t want to give away how Galactic Racer’s story unfolds. I’ll just say that Bool is a lot more than the stuck-up rival whose skin you get under to kick off the campaign. Said campaign is where Galactic Racer really shines, because it does something no other racing game has done before, at least no racing game I’ve ever played - it’s a runs-based game. Split into three acts, to make it out of act one, you need to make it through qualifying by racing across various planets and eventually going head-to-head with a legendary podracer. Lose that race, or crash out in any of the events that pave your way there, and you lose your league token, sending you right back to the start. Don’t Be Afraid Of Galactic Racer’s Runs-Based Racing Fuse Games Those here simply for the racing that might be a little turned off by the runs-based elements, it’s not as grindy or repetitive as it sounds. As is the point in any good runs-based game, you’re supposed to lose a few times and then come back stronger. You unlock new parts and abilities, and can better equip your speeder for your next run. That next run will also be entirely different than the last. You progress along a tree, of sorts, with different paths and events to choose from. Not everything is just a straightforward race - there are encounters with various characters, trials where your token isn’t on the line but you can unlock a new part to beef up your speeder, and eliminators, which are effectively Galactic Racer’s take on Mario Kart World’s Knockout Tour. Losing your league tokens doesn’t necessarily send you all the way back to the start of the campaign, just the start of whatever act you are currently in. From there, you start over, but with access to more upgrades and abilities. A souped-up speeder comes with its own set of challenges, though. As well as parts, you can also equip new abilities and various perks that might give you the edge on the track. The more of those abilities you have, the more frantic the actual racing in Galactic Racer becomes, as there’s so much stuff you need to keep an eye on. Hit the afterburner, fire an ion bolt at the racer ahead of you, activate your ramjet at just the right time, quickly open the vent before it overheats, and look out, you’re about to hit a- damn, you exploded. At first, all of those elements to keep track of through a UI which isn’t always clear frustrated me. However, it quickly dawned on me that that’s kind of the point. It all lends itself to making you feel like you’re racing a speeder or a podracer. It’s also when that racing game DNA from the devs at Fuse Games really shines through, particularly when it all goes wrong, and you cinematically crash out, à la Burnout Those cinematic moments are, naturally, even better when you get them by inflicting a crash out on someone else. Things Really Start To Ramp Up Online Fuse Games Galactic Racer’s high-octane feeling is really amplified when you take things online. While there’s a quick race option so you can jump in and compete right away, the main multiplayer mode, Multiplayer Tour, carries the campaign’s upgrades and perk system over. It sees you compete in a six-race series against other people, upgrading and tweaking your speeder or podracer as you go until you, hopefully, have the perfect build for the championship race at the end. To try and keep things balanced throughout the tour, there are ways you can get an edge on your opponents and improve your build without winning races. Betting on where you’ll finish, challenging others to head-to-heads, and completing bounties for brokers will earn you extra credits and parts even if you don’t place highly in the races themselves. Much like the campaign, even though the multiplayer tours are the same thing over and over, the individual elements change each time so it doesn’t start to feel repetitive. Naturally, the tracks are changed up each time here, but you can also unlock new characters with different racing styles and abilities. Combine that with the different build you’ll piece together each time, and so far no two tours have felt the same for me, and I’ve played a lot of them. Custom Races And Multiplayer Splitscreen Sadly Aren’t Here Fuse Games There are a couple of things missing from Galactic Racer that, although this is a first outing for Fuse Games, feel like pretty big oversights considering the racing game prowess at the studio. While there is an arcade mode, it’s just a list of challenges for you to complete to unlock various cosmetics. There is, as far as I can tell, no way to hop into a custom offline race where you dictate the vehicle, character, track, and ruleset. There’s also no split-screen option, as multiplayer is a strictly online feature. Hopping into Galactic Racer with your friends is actually pretty tricky even when playing online. While cross-platform play is supported, playing in a party with friends on other platforms feels unnecessarily complex. I played on PS5 and could easily start a party with others on the same platform. However, playing with friends on other platforms means going through a somewhat arduous process that requires you all to have an Epic Games account, link it to your chosen platforms, and then carry out a few more steps beyond that. This Is Every Bit The Star Wars Racing Game You Want It To Be Fuse Games Missing modes and multiplayer mishaps aside, I, again, cannot stress just how much Galactic Racer is the exact game Star Wars fans have hoped it would be. Not only does the racing game pedigree of the team behind it shine through, but its breakneck pace that demands every ounce of your attention gives it a level of energy that I’ve never experienced in a racing game before. Galactic Racer is a lot more than just a racing game set in the Star Wars universe. Fuse Games has been bold enough to put itself out there on its first outing in a game using an IP that has fans who are incredibly quick to criticize if something doesn’t feel right. From its runs-based racing and compelling new characters to a multiplayer mode that will keep you playing long after you’re done with the campaign, Galactic Racer is another example of a studio taking some well-educated risks with the Star Wars IP to create something truly special. Released October 6, 2026 Developer(s) Fuse Games Publisher(s) Secret Mode Multiplayer Online Multiplayer Cross-Platform Play Full Genre(s) Racing, Adventure, Action Pros & Cons Runs-based racing executed perfectly. Complex yet easy to understand upgrade and build system. Abundantly clear this was made by Burnout developers. Missing custom race options and splitscreen modes. Complicated cross-platform party process.