We didn’t expect a Star Wars racing game to be the franchise’s best-reviewed release in more than two decades. Yet here we are.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer launched October 6 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, and critics are thrilled.
The scores
- Metacritic: 88. Dark Horizons notes that’s the best for a Star Wars game since Knights of the Old Republic scored 94 in 2003.
- VGC: 5/5
- TheSixthAxis: 9/10
- Game Informer: 8.5/10
Why it works: Burnout DNA
Developer Fuse Games is staffed by many veterans of the Burnout series, and it shows. Game Informer’s Wesley LeBlanc compared its speed and tension to Burnout and said it’s a strong racer whatever you think of Star Wars.
The Star Wars trappings are there, but the racing is the star. VGC called it a throwback to arcade racing’s peak.
A roguelite campaign that’s hard to put down
The campaign is run-based. Fail a race objective and you lose your league entry token, which sends you back to the start.
Critics say it moves briskly, and Game Informer called the story better than most racing games. Arcade, Scenario and multiplayer modes add plenty of replay value, and TheSixthAxis singled out the progression system and world-building.
The complaints
- Repeat planets. Both VGC and CGMagazine pointed out the campaign leans on a small set of planets, and revisiting them gets tedious over long sessions.
- Thin presentation. CGMagazine felt the story was held back by few cutscenes and a lack of polish.
- No splitscreen. Couch racers, take note.
Pixelgamer verdict
If you’ve missed arcade racers since Burnout went quiet, this is the one, Star Wars fan or not.
Just pace yourself on the campaign: the planet rotation is the main thing that can wear thin.
Sources
- Game Informer — Galactic Racer review
- VGC — Galactic Racer review
- Dark Horizons — “Galactic Racer” gets great reviews
- OpenCritic — Star Wars: Galactic Racer
Header image: STAR WARS: Galactic Racer © Lucasfilm / Secret Mode
