Star Wars: Galactic Racer is utter joy in racing game form, and its depth, run-based structure, and deep vehicle customization options are going to keep me occupied for hours on end.
It was the game that made me grin from ear to ear the quickest out of all that I saw at Summer Game Fest 2026, and I am so excited for it. As soon as I took control of a racer and was on the starting grid, I was immediately smiling, and soon after, laughing to (or at?) myself — it really was that quick.
Blending some really excellent Burnout-style racing game features, with a level of depth and customisation that can get frankly mind-boggling, with the excellence that is Star Wars lore and settings, it has all the ingredients to be a hit this year.
Feel the burn
At the core of Galactic Racer is its Burnout-inspired racing experience, and let me tell you, this is fantastic.
The racers, be they landspeeders, speeder bikes, or podracers, on offer all have their own style, way of handling, and moves to master, and the team at developer Fuse Games has even added a brand-new vehicle to the roster — a whole new addition to the Star Wars universe — the Skim speeder.
Races feel intense and can get very enjoyable and chaotic very quickly. Collisions are not only a danger to you but can be of great benefit, allowing you to muscle your way through for track position or remove them from the equation entirely, so there’s always a balance to be had between taking evasive action or just going on the charge to create havoc.
The courses I tried were absurdly fun too, full of different routes to take, and plenty of opportunity for overtakes or other ways to try and gain an advantage over your competitors, crashing into your foes, and deploying skills. From inputting a series of button presses to get a bonus off the starting grid, which is a satisfying mini-game, to perhaps what is one of the best in-race features of slow-mo crashes of one of your foes — or yourself, which is amusing every time — each race is filled with moments of fun and a high overall level of sheer excitement.
It’s also incredibly beautifully realized, both on the track and off it: characters and cars look excellent, and the environments and race tracks, even though they’re passing at a high speed, are wonderfully detailed and evoke the style of Star Wars’ planets brilliantly.
The options are endless
Where Star Wars: Galactic Racer offers depth, however, is in, well, everywhere else: from in-race synergies between your vehicle and the environment, to the narrative, and to the amount of customisation and part combinations you can engage with, the game looks to be as deep as a Sarlacc is long.
The story here is about your racer’s rise through the ranks and is implemented in a runs-based, branching way where you pick the route of your races that are the map of your and the story’s progress. You can pick a route that’s higher risk-reward, or pick something safer to progress.
When it comes to how you can build, craft, augment, and customize your racer, we get into some serious depth. I was told by the devs at SGF that they think there are a number of vehicle part combinations that are in the order of ‘trillions’ in the game simply due to how many different things you can combine with other different things, from durability to boosts, from handling to abilities.
This gets further augmented by the fact that you can build specific racers for specific worlds, tracks, and conditions. Need a racer that won’t get slowed down by water? Check. Want to sacrifice durability to perhaps invest in a build which runs extremely hot for speed, but then rely on a racetrack’s water courses to cool it down? Absolutely.
The synergies between a racer’s parts and between a racer and the environments make the build possibilities seemingly endless.
As a result, Star Wars: Galactic Racer has shot up my list of anticipated games for the rest of the year, and I can’t wait for lights out when the game releases on October 6 this year, on PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC to dive further into everything it offers.
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rob.dwiar@futurenet.com (Rob Dwiar)
