Star Wars: Galactic Racer Praised as an All-Time Great Racing Game

It has been a remarkably fruitful season for Star Wars titles. Late August brought the launch of Star Wars Zero Company, which captured a phenomenal critical response and currently holds an impressive metascore of 85, a notable achievement for a relatively niche tactical genre. Now arrives Star Wars: Galactic Racer, an adrenaline-fueled arcade racer that feels brilliantly inspired by classic genre-defining powerhouses like Burnout and Wipeout.

At the time of writing, Star Wars: Galactic Racer boasts a stellar metascore of 88 across 44 critic evaluations, complemented by an 87 on OpenCritic. While it may not quite unseat the year’s undisputed racing champion and GOTY contender, Forza Horizon 6, it easily surpasses expectations. For a debut project by developer Fuse Games exploring an untested arcade-racer and roguelite hybrid formula, these numbers are extraordinarily high.

Though not contributing to the numerical scores, Polygon critic Oli Welsh lauds the title as “the best arcade racing game in a generation,” highlighting its breathtaking orchestral score, vibrant roster, diverse planetary environments, and masterclass audio direction. “Speed never sounded so good as it does in Star Wars,” he notes, while also commending the demanding challenge: “The learning curve is steep, and there’s a lot to manage and think about in a race. But boy, when you get there, the rush is unmatched.”

Similarly, Jeff Grubb of Giant Bomb awarded a flawless five-star rating, describing it as “everything I hoped it would be. Fuse built a campaign that keeps giving me reasons to master the tracks, then made the racing feel good enough that I wanted to.” Echoing this sentiment, Jordan Middler of VGC matched the top score, calling the release “a throwback to the glory days of PS2 racing, and one of the best arcade racers in years.”

Demi Williams of TechRadar awarded a near-perfect 4.5 out of 5 stars, characterizing the experience as “an exhilarating, highly engaging roguelike racer with amazing buildcraft customization that offers endless possibilities on the track.” Meanwhile, Jordan Ramée at GameSpot counts it among their absolute favorites of the year, stating, “Every moment feels joyfully fast. Every decision carries the weight of tension. And every run is a rewarding chance to learn, improve, tinker, and adapt, whether it ends in success or failure.”

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On the slightly more conservative side—though an 8/10 remains an exceptional endorsement—Luke Reilly of IGN points out that the run-oriented campaign can occasionally feel “unavoidably tedious over long stints because of its heavy reliance on repeatedly revisiting the same slim selection of planets.” Aside from minor notes regarding the absence of a split-screen multiplayer mode, these remain his principal critiques.

Will Sawyer of GamesRadar shares similar reservations concerning the limited planetary variety, while also calling out an abrupt campaign conclusion and an uncomfortably sharp difficulty spike near the end of the third act. Nevertheless, he ultimately celebrates Galactic Racer as a “proud rebel when compared to the current racing game landscape” and hails it as a “perfect start” for Fuse Games.

Our first hour with the thrilling Galactic Racer revealed some real surprises

 

Source: Polygon