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

If you ask me, Disney has 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 (2024’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, from the Riddick and Wolfenstein veterans at MachineGames). 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 roguelite (more on that in a bit) racer is an absolute blast. The setup is simple: you’re Shade, a