---
title: 'Star Wars: Galactic Racer Fuses Episode 1: Racer and Burnout Into a Compelling Roguelite'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=aU1qooe6pgU'
video_id: 'aU1qooe6pgU'
date: 2026-06-23
duration_sec: 0
---

# Star Wars: Galactic Racer Fuses Episode 1: Racer and Burnout Into a Compelling Roguelite

> Source: [Star Wars: Galactic Racer Fuses Episode 1: Racer and Burnout Into a Compelling Roguelite](https://youtube.com/watch?v=aU1qooe6pgU)

## Summary

Star Wars Galactic Racer is a high-speed arcade racer that combines the roguelite loop with Burnout-style takedowns and vehicular combat. Developed by Fuse Games, it features pod racers, speeder bikes, and other Star Wars vehicles across various planets, with a focus on customization and risk-reward abilities.

### Key Points

- **Disney's smart licensing strategy** [0:02] — Disney now hands Star Wars licenses to any developer with a great pitch, resulting in hits like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
- **Announcement and developer pedigree** [0:42] — Lucasfilm announced Star Wars Galactic Racer as a collaboration with Fuse Games, which includes Burnout alumni, raising optimism.
- **Setup and premise** [1:27] — Players control Shade, a semi-willing participant in the renegade racing circuit, aiming to defeat Kestar Bool.
- **Roguelite loop integration** [2:16] — The roguelite loop lets players customize characters and vehicles, earning abilities through wins, but losing a league token in eliminator races forces a restart.
- **Eliminator races difficulty** [3:26] — Eliminators are tough; the author got eliminated in the first eliminator due to overaggressive takedown attempts.
- **On-foot sections** [4:36] — Between races, players explore paddocks, upgrade ships, customize appearance, and interact with characters like Darius Pax (voiced like Penguin from Batman Returns).
- **Pre-race mechanics** [5:21] — Ignition sequence (button press for bonus) and Mario Kart-style boost start are crucial for early advantage.
- **Abilities and customization** [6:24] — Abilities like shield and Ramjet (overheat risk) allow bespoke builds. Modifiers reduce Ramjet consumption midair.
- **Track variety** [7:47] — Tracks vary by planet: Jakku (neutral), Lantana (magma overheating), Ando Prime (ice with heating tunnels). Drifting and shortcuts are key.
- **Pod racing experience** [8:44] — Pod racers are faster and more fragile; cockpit view adds challenge. The Tatooine canyon run is especially harrowing.
- **Overall impression** [9:57] — The roguelite loop exceeded expectations, Burnout roots are evident, and on-foot sections enhance the Star Wars feel. A spiritual successor to Episode 1 Pod Racer.

### Conclusion

Star Wars Galactic Racer successfully fuses Burnout's arcade action with a roguelite progression system, delivering an exciting and challenging racing experience that honors the classic Episode 1 Pod Racer.

## Transcript

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