Star Wars: Galactic Racer Swap Pods for Speeders in New Roguelike Story

As a lifelong Star Wars fan, I still remember how much I enjoyed Episode 1: Racer back in the early 2000s—and it stayed the only racing game I truly clicked with for years. So when Summer Game Fest rolled around and Star Wars: Galactic Racer showed up as one of my most anticipated releases, it instantly raised the stakes. This is the kind of Star Wars side-eye that only the “My Dark Side” crowd can really relate to: you want it to be good, but you also expect it to be scrutinized.

I got hands-on time with Star Wars: Galactic Racer, then spoke with Fuse Games founder and CEO Matt Webster, along with Lucasfilm Games executive producer Craig Derrick, to dig into how this new racing take fits into the wider Star Wars universe.

Speeding Into Roguelike Races

The demo started strong, but my expectations were already high the moment the clock began. Before I even got to drive, I was introduced to the main vehicle classes available in the story mode: speeder bikes, skim speeders, and landspeeders. What I couldn’t pick from the story lineup was the podracer—those appear in Arcade mode, along with race replays that let you revisit classic moments, including the Boonta Eve Classic from Episode 1.

I went into the experience trying to set aside the debate and see whether the game could actually earn my enthusiasm. It did—mostly. The demo leans into fresh handling and racing ideas, from the skim speeder’s Knife Edge cornering concept to more aggressive momentum plays like the Ramjet ability. In other words, it doesn’t treat “new mechanics” as a checkbox; it asks you to learn new ways to race.

Webster broke down one of the key additions that changes how you use boosts:

“We’ve got a hot and cold mechanic going on there that impacts the Ramjet, a new boost system that generates a massive amount of heat. Hold it for too long, it blows up,” Webster said. “So that’s a new boost mechanic that then [influences] the environment in one way or another.”

Beyond the vehicle lineup and their distinct Abilities, Lucasfilm and Fuse also aimed for long-term replay value by leaning into a Roguelike structure. Instead of repeating the same path every run, you can mix dozens of unique upgrades and parts to build the racing setup that matches your preferred playstyle. And if you’ve ever chased the “best possible run” in Roguelike hits like Slay the Spire, you’ll recognize the core appeal here: the excitement is often in finding the right combination to complete your run.

When I asked Webster what part he’d choose if he could only pick one, he pointed to how much variety the system creates:

“I think there’s something like trillions of combinations,” Webster muses. “There are so many parts, and many of them are synergistic with each other. So that’s the really interesting thing for people to start thinking [about]. And because that element’s randomized, you’ve got this decision-making happening that we’ve not seen for a long time in racing games.”

A Galactic Shock

Even while I was excited to test each of the new vehicle types, I’ll admit I braced myself for disappointment once it became clear that podracers weren’t included in the main story portion I played. The title alone practically invites you to expect the most iconic racers from the franchise—especially podracers.

I love risk-taking, creative detours, and unusual ideas in Star Wars games, so I was willing to keep an open mind. Still, it’s hard to ignore how separate the podracing feel is from the main story. Getting into Sebulba’s podracer to relive the Boonta Eve Classic was absolutely one of my standout moments in Star Wars: Galactic Racer, even if the podracers’ comparative speed repeatedly sent me into canyon walls more often than I’d like to admit.

Meanwhile, progressing through races to upgrade my landspeeder was genuinely exciting. As I kept moving forward, I started finding synergistic parts that pulled me closer to the “perfect run” goal Roguelike fans chase every time. Yet despite the shiny new mechanics and the variety of vehicles, my interest in podracing didn’t disappear—it just stayed in the background, waiting for the right moment.

There’s still plenty of time before I can call whether Galactic Racer fully wins me over, or whether the missing podracing story component is simply too big to overcome. Based on the taste I got, though, I’m already planning to jump back in and hunt for that perfect run when Star Wars: Galactic Racer launches on October 6.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer has a release date, and all three editions are available to pre-order starting now.