How Star Wars: Galactic Racer Turns Podracing into a Challenging Roguelite
Summary
- We go hands-on with the upcoming Star Wars: Galactic Racer and find a challenging racing experience with deep customization and replayability.
- The single-player campaign mode offers a classic Star Wars cinematic storytelling experience that we can’t wait to play more of.
- Star Wars: Galactic Racer launches October 6, 2026, for XBOX Series X|S and is available for pre-order today on the XBOX Store.
I was about halfway through my hands-on time with Star Wars: Galactic Racer when I realized I’m probably not that great at this – but boy was I having fun. What helped me look past my lack of racing ability was in part that I bleed Star Wars, and I’ve been looking forward to piloting these hyper speedy craft ever since the game’s announcement last year. Really, I should have expected this level of challenge going in – after all this is the Galactic League where only the finest and bravest racers in the galaxy dare to compete. I had my work cut out for me.
During my recent hands-on time with Galactic Racer at this past Summer Game Fest: Play Days, I was able to enjoy about an hour of gameplay across both the campaign and arcade modes and found not only an incredibly competent, fun, and challenging racer, but also one with tremendous depth and replayability that could give this title some real staying power.
Starting with the single-player campaign, I stepped into the shoes of the mysterious Shade, a seasoned racer who has some beef with one of the league’s current champions, Kestar Bool, and is looking to settle matters on the track. It’s a classic narrative setup with some Star Wars panache, but I wasn’t expecting this – most racing games hardly lift a finger to put a face to a name, much less give you cinematic storytelling like what’s on display here. The developers at Fuse Games understood the assignment to not only get you racing but drop you into the Star Wars universe even further and make you care about what’s happening both on and off track – now I understand the difference between an Ardennian and a Besalisk and I’m the better for it.
When you’re ready to get racing, you’ll have the choice of three chassis that influence your playstyle: landspeeder, speeder bike, and skim speeder and each feels distinct and incredibly fun to race in each their own way – the landspeeder has a real weight to it and specializes in drifting around corners; the speeder bike delivers great straight-line speed but harder to control around corners; and the skim speeder is essentially the TIE Fighter equivalent of a speeder, made for hard banking turns and one of the more difficult frames to control.
For most of my time with the game I was behind the controls of the landspeeder, electing to trade off topline speed for endurance as I would quickly find that racing also includes bumping your competition off the track – and this is a tactic that’s actively encouraged to increase your chances to win.
See, each speeder comes equipped with an Afterburner, giving you a brief boost that recharges during the race for you to use multiple times, but also comes equipped with a Ramjet – a special high-risk/high-reward component that gives you an incredible boost that helps with knocking your opponent off the track, but it comes at the cost of overheating. One time I pushed this as far as it could go just to see what would happen and the results were… catastrophic.
The campaign structure is built around a Galactic Tour spanning three acts which is randomized each time you start a tour; each tour takes you through a series of events across a range of planets, with progression secured by completing an escalating series of races. Galactic Racer categorizes this as a “runs-based solo campaign” meaning that you’ll have branching paths to consider during the tour – each route can yield different rewards that you can apply to your speeder. This variety is great, giving you multiple options each time you decide to undertake a Galactic Tour.
In between races, you can improve the base stats on your speeder to use in subsequent races during the Tour – the higher you finish, the more Upgrades you can apply. These impact elements like Afterburner, Battery, Cornering, and Ramjet, as well as the unique traits for each of the speeders – Drift (landspeeder), Kinetic Burst (speeder bike), and Knife Edge (skim speeder). I really like this variety of customization that can change race to race; do you opt to increase your Afterburner? Or should you invest in improved Cornering? It’s up to you.
This also touches on the challenge of the game. You need a League Entry Token to compete on a tour. Crash too many times or fail to place in the top 3 in a particular event, the Token is revoked and your journey is over, forcing you to begin anew to race qualifiers to earn a Token once again. Some items are retained, like Galactic Credits, but it’s a punch in the gut when you get knocked out. Especially in my case when I was so close to the end of the tour, only to get a little cocky (should’ve listened to Han) and was eliminated, forced to start over. This doesn’t affect the overall narrative as far as I could tell – you’re still out to get Kestar Bool, eventually. This is merely a setback.
Among the real stars of the show are the tracks themselves, which are all massive and intricately detailed, dotted with Star Wars bits that lend them both a feeling of familiar yet alien, like the battle scared landscape of Jakku, the tropical forests of Lantaana, or the frozen Ando Prime which make up some of the six distinct worlds you can race across. Couple that with a variety of tracks to race on each planet and you’ll quickly see there’s an incredible depth here to master should you want to come out on top against some of the galaxies’ finest racers. Beyond the track, I also appreciated the down time between races in the paddocks, areas where you could freely walk around and talk to other racers, upgrade your craft, and pick up unique parts from vendors, using Galactic Credits earned from your races.
On top of this, we also tried out the arcade mode that has curated events featuring speeders and locations across the league, putting you in the seat of some racers you might recognize, like the legendary Sebulba. For our one race in this mode, we sped across the famous Tatooine track featured in “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.” As far as we could tell, this felt like a 1:1 recreation with incredible audio and visual fidelity. That deep humming tick-tick-tick-tick sound of Sebubla’s split-x engines brought me back to watching him speed across the screen in the movie theater. Did I do well? Heck no. But I’m looking forward to my next go around the track.
There’s seemingly a lot to master under the hood of each of these unique speeders and game modes. And that’s not to mention the various upgrades you can apply that can give you an edge between races, the distinct tracks on each planet, and the competition from the variety of racers; with all that, you have an infinitely replayable and enjoyable racer on your hands. I’m not gonna say it… nope… ok, fine. Now this is podracing!
Star Wars: Galactic Racer launches October 6, 2026, for XBOX Series X|S and is available for pre-order today on the XBOX Store.
STAR WARS: Galactic Racer
Deluxe Edition
Secret Mode
• Exclusive Pre-Order Bonus Livery for your repulsorcraft
• Exclusive Pre-Order Bonus Player Banner for multiplayer modes
Note: Pre-Order Bonus content may be made available for purchase at a later date.
The STAR WARS: Galactic Racer Deluxe Edition contains three exclusive vehicles, a unique Livery, three Arcade Events, a deluxe Player Banner, and a Digital Art Book.
• Three exclusive vehicles: Become the envy of the paddock and pilot the Kor Sarun: Ciza T speeder bike, the Kor Sarun: Darc X landspeeder, and the Kor Sarun: Rak S skim speeder
• Unique Livery for pilots who need to race in style. Coat any of your speeders with an exclusive Livery inspired by the Naboo N-1 starfighter
• Three Arcade Events for the fearless racers. The Galactic League challenges you to three exclusive Arcade trials designed specifically for your Kor Sarun repulsorcraft
• Deluxe Player Banner containing an exclusive Insignia and Background for multiplayer modes
• Digital Art Book showcasing never-before-seen character, vehicle, and location artwork from the development of STAR WARS: Galactic Racer
STAR WARS: Galactic Racer is a high-stakes reinvention of racing born in the lawless Outer Rim of the STAR WARS galaxy.
The Empire’s grip on the galaxy has finally broken, and with its fall comes a new obsession: speed. As the New Republic struggles to rebuild, gambling, entertainment, and glory fuel a booming underground.
Out of this chaos, the Galactic League is born: an unsanctioned racing circuit where syndicates sponsor pilots, fortunes are won and lost in seconds, and only the bold survive.
No Force. No prophecy. Just skill, strategy, and the will to rise.
COMPETE IN HIGH-STAKES RACES
Slam, shunt, and takedown rivals across varied circuits as you pilot landspeeders, speeder bikes, skim speeders, and podracers. The greater the risk, the greater the reward.
SURVIVE A DANGEROUS UNDERGROUND SPORT
Join The Galactic League – an unsanctioned racing circuit born in the lawless Outer Rim. Become Shade, a lone racer chasing revenge and glory.
BUILD AND CUSTOMIZE YOUR CRAFT
Pilot different classes of repulsorcraft each with distinct physics and playstyles. Build a ride that showcases your style and gives you a competitive edge.
BATTLE RIVALS IN MULTIPLE GAME MODES
Ride solo through a story-driven campaign of shifting alliances or brave strategic PvP grudge matches where reputation rides with you.
CLIMB THE RANKS AND EARN REWARDS
Prove yourself through intense rivalries and escalating challenges. Every choice shapes your prospects as you build your status in The Galactic League.
STAR WARS: Galactic Racer
Secret Mode
• Exclusive Pre-Order Bonus Livery for your repulsorcraft
• Exclusive Pre-Order Bonus Player Banner for multiplayer modes
Note: Pre-Order Bonus content may be made available for purchase at a later date.
STAR WARS: Galactic Racer is a high-stakes reinvention of racing born in the lawless Outer Rim of the STAR WARS galaxy.
The Empire’s grip on the galaxy has finally broken, and with its fall comes a new obsession: speed. As the New Republic struggles to rebuild, gambling, entertainment, and glory fuel a booming underground.
Out of this chaos, the Galactic League is born: an unsanctioned racing circuit where syndicates sponsor pilots, fortunes are won and lost in seconds, and only the bold survive.
No Force. No prophecy. Just skill, strategy, and the will to rise.
COMPETE IN HIGH-STAKES RACES
Slam, shunt, and takedown rivals across varied circuits as you pilot landspeeders, speeder bikes, skim speeders, and podracers. The greater the risk, the greater the reward.
SURVIVE A DANGEROUS UNDERGROUND SPORT
Join The Galactic League – an unsanctioned racing circuit born in the lawless Outer Rim. Become Shade, a lone racer chasing revenge and glory.
BUILD AND CUSTOMIZE YOUR CRAFT
Pilot different classes of repulsorcraft each with distinct physics and playstyles. Build a ride that showcases your style and gives you a competitive edge.
BATTLE RIVALS IN MULTIPLE GAME MODES
Ride solo through a story-driven campaign of shifting alliances or brave strategic PvP grudge matches where reputation rides with you.
CLIMB THE RANKS AND EARN REWARDS
Prove yourself through intense rivalries and escalating challenges. Every choice shapes your prospects as you build your status in The Galactic League.
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