[0:00] If you ask me, Disney's been pretty
[0:02] smart in recent years about its Star
[0:04] Wars video games. Instead of relying
[0:07] solely on its small group of internal
[0:10] development teams, as it did a long time
[0:12] ago in a gaming galaxy far, far away, or
[0:16] signing an exclusivity deal with one
[0:18] single publisher, as it did last decade
[0:20] with EA, The Mouse now hands its
[0:23] licenses, Star Wars included, to
[0:25] absolutely anyone with a great pitch.
[0:28] And we've already had one game of the
[0:30] year caliber masterpiece come out of
[0:32] this strategy. That would be 2024's
[0:35] Indiana Jones and the Great Circle from
[0:37] the Riddic and Wolfenstein veterans at
[0:39] Machine Games. And so when Lucasfilm
[0:42] first announced Star Wars Galactic Racer
[0:45] earlier this year as a collaboration
[0:47] with developer Fuse Games, who counts a
[0:49] number of Burnout alumni in its ranks,
[0:52] my optimism immediately skyrocketed. A
[0:55] Star Wars racing game made by people who
[0:58] have some of the best arcade racers ever
[1:01] made under their belts. Yes, please. And
[1:04] now that I've finally had the chance to
[1:06] play Galactic Racer, I don't need to
[1:08] search my feelings because I already
[1:11] know it to be true. This high-speed
[1:13] rogike, more on that in a bit, racer is
[1:16] an absolute blast. Welcome to Derven
[1:20] Akos, where champions are born and
[1:24] losers annihilated.
[1:27] The setup is simple. Your shade, a
[1:30] semi-willing participant in the galaxy's
[1:33] renegade racing circuit, out amongst the
[1:35] outer rim, where rules and laws are more
[1:38] like requests and polite suggestions. I
[1:41] say semi-willing because Shade would
[1:44] rather lay low and avoid Kestar Bool, a
[1:47] powerful enemy who has both the means
[1:49] and enough pettiness in his bones to
[1:52] make your life difficult if you get in
[1:54] his way. But that eventually leads you
[1:57] to in turn want to knock Bool off his
[2:00] comfy perch. And so you'll race speeder
[2:03] bikes, skim speeders, land speededers,
[2:06] and yes, pod racers in a series of
[2:09] events in order to advance up the ranks
[2:11] and through the entire circuit to get to
[2:13] the top spot. Galactic Racer builds this
[2:16] in a rog light loop that, if I'm being
[2:19] honest, I was extremely skeptical about
[2:22] prior to playing it for myself. My first
[2:24] thought was, don't we have enough rogue
[2:26] lights out there already? The answer is
[2:29] still probably yes. But to Fuse's
[2:31] credit, how they've wrapped the Rogue
[2:34] Light template around Galactic Racer
[2:36] makes a ton of sense. You customize your
[2:39] character, make your vehicle your own
[2:41] through earned cosmetic unlocks, and
[2:44] most importantly, build your ride to
[2:46] your preference with the gameplay
[2:48] affecting abilities that you earn
[2:50] through winning races. But the Outer Rim
[2:52] is a ruthless place, and this circuit
[2:55] isn't one for second chances. So, you
[2:57] can only race by earning a league token.
[3:00] If you lose it in one of the eliminator
[3:02] races, you'll inevitably come upon
[3:04] during your run. And yes, they operate
[3:07] exactly the same as Burnout's eliminator
[3:09] races in which the last place driver is
[3:12] disqualified from the competition at the
[3:13] end of each lap. You'll have to start
[3:15] the run all over again. But in classic
[3:18] Rogue Light fashion, you'll be able to
[3:20] bring anything you've previously
[3:22] unlocked to the table as you have
[3:24] another go at it. And the eliminators
[3:26] are no joke, I should add. In my
[3:28] 45minute hands-on time, I did the first
[3:31] race or two in my run after customizing
[3:34] my character and then jumping right in,
[3:36] but then immediately hit my first
[3:38] eliminator. I got too aggressive, going
[3:41] for a takedown in one early race turn
[3:44] and ended up putting myself into the
[3:46] wall near the end of a lap without
[3:48] enough time to get back out of last
[3:50] place before I got eliminated. Oh, and
[3:53] the takedowns, by the way, are exactly
[3:56] as you remember them from Burnout, right
[3:58] down to using a nearly identical camera
[4:01] angle when you see the slow motion
[4:03] wreck.
[4:07] >> Did everyone see that?
[4:10] >> Anyway, I had to start the run again
[4:13] from scratch. I quickly learned that the
[4:16] CPU racer AI means business in Galactic
[4:19] Racer. I was stunned to have been
[4:21] bounced from the tournament so quickly,
[4:23] but honestly kind of impressed. It made
[4:26] me steal myself for the next run where I
[4:28] did a heck of a lot better.
[4:30] >> Put up a fight next time.
[4:33] >> But I'm getting a little ahead of
[4:34] myself, though. There's plenty more to
[4:36] say about the racing portion of Galactic
[4:39] Racer. Obviously, I want to give props
[4:41] to the onfoot sections that you'll
[4:43] experience between races. In them, you
[4:46] roam around each planet's paddic. Think
[4:49] of these kind of like the infield areas
[4:51] of a NASCAR race and can talk to fellow
[4:54] racers, upgrade your ship with Hei the
[4:56] Monkeylike mechanic, tweak your
[4:58] characters or vehicles appearance, or
[5:00] chat with the organizer of this whole
[5:02] thing, Darius Pax, a big voice, big
[5:06] personality creature who sounds a bit
[5:08] like he's channeling Danny DeVito's
[5:10] Penguin from Batman Returns.
[5:13] >> Of course. Of course. AND YOUR TIMING IS
[5:16] IMPECCABLE AS ALWAYS.
[5:19] >> When you're ready to hit the track, you
[5:21] have a couple of interactive moments
[5:22] that can give you an initial gameplay
[5:24] advantage. The first is your ignition
[5:27] sequence. Regardless of what vehicle
[5:29] type you're piloting, if you
[5:31] successfully hit the prompted button
[5:33] sequence in the brief window of time
[5:35] allotted, you'll begin the race with a
[5:37] bonus, like your afterburner being
[5:40] primed and or your shield being fully
[5:42] charged up and ready to deploy right at
[5:44] the starting line. I'll note that the
[5:46] sequence was the exact same in every
[5:48] single one of my races, so hopefully
[5:51] they're all randomized in the final
[5:53] October 6th release just to keep me on
[5:55] my toes a bit more. And the second
[5:57] pre-race opportunity is to surge out of
[6:00] the starting gates, Mario Kart style, by
[6:02] keeping your throttle in the middle of
[6:04] the three zones of the onscreen meter as
[6:07] the green flag figuratively drops. In
[6:10] these high-speed races that can be won
[6:13] or lost in a second or two, that initial
[6:15] moment matters more than you might
[6:17] guess.
[6:24] Okay. Yes. Properly nailing your
[6:26] ignition sequence is important, but what
[6:28] really makes or breaks your race is how
[6:31] frequently and effectively you use your
[6:33] abilities. I only saw a couple of them
[6:36] during my hands-on time, but there are
[6:38] plenty of them to unlock, and they'll
[6:40] allow you to craft a pretty bespoke
[6:42] build for your vehicle. Take the
[6:44] affforementioned shield for instance. If
[6:47] you're bunched up tight in a cluster of
[6:49] fellow racers, you can be sure that at
[6:51] least one of them will try to shunt you
[6:54] into the nearest wall. Nailing the
[6:56] timing on your shield ability so that
[6:58] it's active when that takedown attempt
[7:00] comes and before running out of juice
[7:02] and needing to recharge via cooldown
[7:04] timer can save you from a fate of having
[7:07] to be blotted off the tracks walls with
[7:09] handy wipes. The other one I used
[7:11] extensively during my hands-on session
[7:13] was Ramjet, which sadly I don't have
[7:16] footage of here. It's functionally the
[7:18] same as an afterburner with the key
[7:21] difference being that you can keep the
[7:23] extra push of speed going past its
[7:25] cooldown point at the risk of pushing it
[7:28] too far and having your craft explode. I
[7:31] earned some modifiers for this as I
[7:33] played, including one that would reduce
[7:35] ramjet consumption by 50% while in
[7:38] midair, meaning on a jump, since, of
[7:40] course, all of these Star Wars racing
[7:42] vehicles are technically in midair all
[7:44] the time. The tracks, meanwhile, vary
[7:47] from short to long and from hot to cold
[7:50] depending on which planet they're
[7:52] located. Jaku doesn't have any
[7:54] temperature concerns, but Lantana has
[7:56] patches of magma on track that will
[7:58] overheat your vehicle if you're not
[8:00] careful. While Ando Prime is an ice
[8:03] world where you'll need to zip through
[8:05] conveniently placed heating tunnels in
[8:07] order to not get fully frozen over and
[8:10] thus slowed down. on all of them.
[8:12] Knowing when to drift is crucial,
[8:15] particularly on tracks that have
[8:17] shortcuts accessed by hitting those
[8:19] borderline hairpin turns just right. As
[8:22] is making sure you are never sitting on
[8:25] a full reserve of Afterburner. Between
[8:27] constantly boosting, drifting, avoiding
[8:30] environmental hazards, finding
[8:32] shortcuts, taking down rivals, and
[8:34] avoiding them taking you down, there's
[8:37] plenty in this arcade racer to keep you
[8:39] on your toes at all times.
[8:41] >> Now, this is Pod Racing.
[8:44] >> The developers purposely allotted me
[8:46] time to experience Pod Racing at the end
[8:49] of my demo in an arcade mode outside of
[8:52] the regular Rogue Light Circuit. I'm
[8:54] glad they let me get my sea legs under
[8:56] me first because the pod racers prove to
[8:59] be a much more difficult spacehorse to
[9:02] tame. They're much faster than the other
[9:04] vehicles while also being a heck of a
[9:07] lot more fragile. Not to mention that
[9:09] the track I pod raced on was Tatooine,
[9:12] which included a particularly harrowing
[9:14] narrow canyon run, where one wrong move
[9:18] would turn me into a stain on the canyon
[9:20] walls.
[9:27] Once I get more comfortable with pod
[9:29] racing in the full game, I definitely
[9:31] want to play around with the camera
[9:33] angles. There's a cockpit view that
[9:35] looks especially cool on the pod racer,
[9:38] but requires your reflexes to be even
[9:40] quicker. All in all, not only were my
[9:44] fears of the rog light loop unfounded,
[9:46] but the burnout roots baked into
[9:48] developer Fuse Games' DNA was joyously
[9:52] evident in every moment that I spent on
[9:55] the track with Star Wars Galactic Racer.
[9:57] And the times that I wasn't going
[9:59] hundreds of miles per hour when I was on
[10:02] foot did a great job of further Star
[10:04] Warsifying my experience. I'm incredibly
[10:08] optimistic about what I've seen from
[10:10] this long overdue spiritual successor to
[10:13] Episode One Pod Racer, and I can't wait
[10:16] to play more of it.
[10:21] For more previews of the biggest
[10:23] upcoming games, don't miss our recent
[10:25] hands-on looks at Tomb Raider: Legacy of
[10:27] Atlantis and Fable. And for everything
[10:29] else in the world of video games, ramjet
[10:32] on over to IGN.