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

[00:00] If you ask me, Disney's been pretty

[00:02] smart in recent years about its Star

[00:04] Wars video games. Instead of relying

[00:07] solely on its small group of internal

[00:10] development teams, as it did a long time

[00:12] ago in a gaming galaxy far, far away, or

[00:16] signing an exclusivity deal with one

[00:18] single publisher, as it did last decade

[00:20] with EA, The Mouse now hands its

[00:23] licenses, Star Wars included, to

[00:25] absolutely anyone with a great pitch.

[00:28] And we've already had one game of the

[00:30] year caliber masterpiece come out of

[00:32] this strategy. That would be 2024's

[00:35] Indiana Jones and the Great Circle from

[00:37] the Riddic and Wolfenstein veterans at

[00:39] Machine Games. And so when Lucasfilm

[00:42] first announced Star Wars Galactic Racer

[00:45] earlier this year as a collaboration

[00:47] with developer Fuse Games, who counts a

[00:49] number of Burnout alumni in its ranks,

[00:52] my optimism immediately skyrocketed. A

[00:55] Star Wars racing game made by people who

[00:58] have some of the best arcade racers ever

[01:01] made under their belts. Yes, please. And

[01:04] now that I've finally had the chance to

[01:06] play Galactic Racer, I don't need to

[01:08] search my feelings because I already

[01:11] know it to be true. This high-speed

[01:13] rogike, more on that in a bit, racer is

[01:16] an absolute blast. Welcome to Derven

[01:20] Akos, where champions are born and

[01:24] losers annihilated.

[01:27] The setup is simple. Your shade, a

[01:30] semi-willing participant in the galaxy's

[01:33] renegade racing circuit, out amongst the

[01:35] outer rim, where rules and laws are more

[01:38] like requests and polite suggestions. I

[01:41] say semi-willing because Shade would

[01:44] rather lay low and avoid Kestar Bool, a

[01:47] powerful enemy who has both the means

[01:49] and enough pettiness in his bones to

[01:52] make your life difficult if you get in

[01:54] his way. But that eventually leads you

[01:57] to in turn want to knock Bool off his

[02:00] comfy perch. And so you'll race speeder

[02:03] bikes, skim speeders, land speededers,

[02:06] and yes, pod racers in a series of

[02:09] events in order to advance up the ranks

[02:11] and through the entire circuit to get to

[02:13] the top spot. Galactic Racer builds this

[02:16] in a rog light loop that, if I'm being

[02:19] honest, I was extremely skeptical about

[02:22] prior to playing it for myself. My first

[02:24] thought was, don't we have enough rogue

[02:26] lights out there already? The answer is

[02:29] still probably yes. But to Fuse's

[02:31] credit, how they've wrapped the Rogue

[02:34] Light template around Galactic Racer

[02:36] makes a ton of sense. You customize your

[02:39] character, make your vehicle your own

[02:41] through earned cosmetic unlocks, and

[02:44] most importantly, build your ride to

[02:46] your preference with the gameplay

[02:48] affecting abilities that you earn

[02:50] through winning races. But the Outer Rim

[02:52] is a ruthless place, and this circuit

[02:55] isn't one for second chances. So, you

[02:57] can only race by earning a league token.

[03:00] If you lose it in one of the eliminator

[03:02] races, you'll inevitably come upon

[03:04] during your run. And yes, they operate

[03:07] exactly the same as Burnout's eliminator

[03:09] races in which the last place driver is

[03:12] disqualified from the competition at the

[03:13] end of each lap. You'll have to start

[03:15] the run all over again. But in classic

[03:18] Rogue Light fashion, you'll be able to

[03:20] bring anything you've previously

[03:22] unlocked to the table as you have

[03:24] another go at it. And the eliminators

[03:26] are no joke, I should add. In my

[03:28] 45minute hands-on time, I did the first

[03:31] race or two in my run after customizing

[03:34] my character and then jumping right in,

[03:36] but then immediately hit my first

[03:38] eliminator. I got too aggressive, going

[03:41] for a takedown in one early race turn

[03:44] and ended up putting myself into the

[03:46] wall near the end of a lap without

[03:48] enough time to get back out of last

[03:50] place before I got eliminated. Oh, and

[03:53] the takedowns, by the way, are exactly

[03:56] as you remember them from Burnout, right

[03:58] down to using a nearly identical camera

[04:01] angle when you see the slow motion

[04:03] wreck.

[04:07] >> Did everyone see that?

[04:10] >> Anyway, I had to start the run again

[04:13] from scratch. I quickly learned that the

[04:16] CPU racer AI means business in Galactic

[04:19] Racer. I was stunned to have been

[04:21] bounced from the tournament so quickly,

[04:23] but honestly kind of impressed. It made

[04:26] me steal myself for the next run where I

[04:28] did a heck of a lot better.

[04:30] >> Put up a fight next time.

[04:33] >> But I'm getting a little ahead of

[04:34] myself, though. There's plenty more to

[04:36] say about the racing portion of Galactic

[04:39] Racer. Obviously, I want to give props

[04:41] to the onfoot sections that you'll

[04:43] experience between races. In them, you

[04:46] roam around each planet's paddic. Think

[04:49] of these kind of like the infield areas

[04:51] of a NASCAR race and can talk to fellow

[04:54] racers, upgrade your ship with Hei the

[04:56] Monkeylike mechanic, tweak your

[04:58] characters or vehicles appearance, or

[05:00] chat with the organizer of this whole

[05:02] thing, Darius Pax, a big voice, big

[05:06] personality creature who sounds a bit

[05:08] like he's channeling Danny DeVito's

[05:10] Penguin from Batman Returns.

[05:13] >> Of course. Of course. AND YOUR TIMING IS

[05:16] IMPECCABLE AS ALWAYS.

[05:19] >> When you're ready to hit the track, you

[05:21] have a couple of interactive moments

[05:22] that can give you an initial gameplay

[05:24] advantage. The first is your ignition

[05:27] sequence. Regardless of what vehicle

[05:29] type you're piloting, if you

[05:31] successfully hit the prompted button

[05:33] sequence in the brief window of time

[05:35] allotted, you'll begin the race with a

[05:37] bonus, like your afterburner being

[05:40] primed and or your shield being fully

[05:42] charged up and ready to deploy right at

[05:44] the starting line. I'll note that the

[05:46] sequence was the exact same in every

[05:48] single one of my races, so hopefully

[05:51] they're all randomized in the final

[05:53] October 6th release just to keep me on

[05:55] my toes a bit more. And the second

[05:57] pre-race opportunity is to surge out of

[06:00] the starting gates, Mario Kart style, by

[06:02] keeping your throttle in the middle of

[06:04] the three zones of the onscreen meter as

[06:07] the green flag figuratively drops. In

[06:10] these high-speed races that can be won

[06:13] or lost in a second or two, that initial

[06:15] moment matters more than you might

[06:17] guess.

[06:24] Okay. Yes. Properly nailing your

[06:26] ignition sequence is important, but what

[06:28] really makes or breaks your race is how

[06:31] frequently and effectively you use your

[06:33] abilities. I only saw a couple of them

[06:36] during my hands-on time, but there are

[06:38] plenty of them to unlock, and they'll

[06:40] allow you to craft a pretty bespoke

[06:42] build for your vehicle. Take the

[06:44] affforementioned shield for instance. If

[06:47] you're bunched up tight in a cluster of

[06:49] fellow racers, you can be sure that at

[06:51] least one of them will try to shunt you

[06:54] into the nearest wall. Nailing the

[06:56] timing on your shield ability so that

[06:58] it's active when that takedown attempt

[07:00] comes and before running out of juice

[07:02] and needing to recharge via cooldown

[07:04] timer can save you from a fate of having

[07:07] to be blotted off the tracks walls with

[07:09] handy wipes. The other one I used

[07:11] extensively during my hands-on session

[07:13] was Ramjet, which sadly I don't have

[07:16] footage of here. It's functionally the

[07:18] same as an afterburner with the key

[07:21] difference being that you can keep the

[07:23] extra push of speed going past its

[07:25] cooldown point at the risk of pushing it

[07:28] too far and having your craft explode. I

[07:31] earned some modifiers for this as I

[07:33] played, including one that would reduce

[07:35] ramjet consumption by 50% while in

[07:38] midair, meaning on a jump, since, of

[07:40] course, all of these Star Wars racing

[07:42] vehicles are technically in midair all

[07:44] the time. The tracks, meanwhile, vary

[07:47] from short to long and from hot to cold

[07:50] depending on which planet they're

[07:52] located. Jaku doesn't have any

[07:54] temperature concerns, but Lantana has

[07:56] patches of magma on track that will

[07:58] overheat your vehicle if you're not

[08:00] careful. While Ando Prime is an ice

[08:03] world where you'll need to zip through

[08:05] conveniently placed heating tunnels in

[08:07] order to not get fully frozen over and

[08:10] thus slowed down. on all of them.

[08:12] Knowing when to drift is crucial,

[08:15] particularly on tracks that have

[08:17] shortcuts accessed by hitting those

[08:19] borderline hairpin turns just right. As

[08:22] is making sure you are never sitting on

[08:25] a full reserve of Afterburner. Between

[08:27] constantly boosting, drifting, avoiding

[08:30] environmental hazards, finding

[08:32] shortcuts, taking down rivals, and

[08:34] avoiding them taking you down, there's

[08:37] plenty in this arcade racer to keep you

[08:39] on your toes at all times.

[08:41] >> Now, this is Pod Racing.

[08:44] >> The developers purposely allotted me

[08:46] time to experience Pod Racing at the end

[08:49] of my demo in an arcade mode outside of

[08:52] the regular Rogue Light Circuit. I'm

[08:54] glad they let me get my sea legs under

[08:56] me first because the pod racers prove to

[08:59] be a much more difficult spacehorse to

[09:02] tame. They're much faster than the other

[09:04] vehicles while also being a heck of a

[09:07] lot more fragile. Not to mention that

[09:09] the track I pod raced on was Tatooine,

[09:12] which included a particularly harrowing

[09:14] narrow canyon run, where one wrong move

[09:18] would turn me into a stain on the canyon

[09:20] walls.

[09:27] Once I get more comfortable with pod

[09:29] racing in the full game, I definitely

[09:31] want to play around with the camera

[09:33] angles. There's a cockpit view that

[09:35] looks especially cool on the pod racer,

[09:38] but requires your reflexes to be even

[09:40] quicker. All in all, not only were my

[09:44] fears of the rog light loop unfounded,

[09:46] but the burnout roots baked into

[09:48] developer Fuse Games' DNA was joyously

[09:52] evident in every moment that I spent on

[09:55] the track with Star Wars Galactic Racer.

[09:57] And the times that I wasn't going

[09:59] 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.