In the 49 years since the first Star Wars film — later retitled A New Hope — was released in theaters, the franchise has had unimaginable success when it comes to the video game arena. From RPG classics like Knights of the Old Republic to the success of the Star Wars Jedi games, Lucas’ galaxy far, far away has become a coveted world for developers to play. But how many Star Wars games really feel close to the flavor of George Lucas? One upcoming game feels very old-school in a very specific way— Star Wars: Galactic Racer.
The brilliance of adapting Star Wars into gaming comes from the sheer versatility of the universe: there’s combat-heavy games that emphasize the devastating potential of lightsabers, third-person shooters that hand you a blaster and put you in a Clone Trooper helmet to experience galactic warfare from a boots-on-the-ground perspective, Kinect Star Wars even went so far as to give us Galactic dance battles in the Mos Eisley cantina.
Even though the most popular Star Wars games fall within the circle of action or RPG, there’s one genre they’ve been trying to fine-tune for years now: the racing game. As far back as Star Wars: Demolition (a Twisted Metal riff), the franchise has been trying to find the best way to combine the high-octane competition of racing games with the iconic vehicles from the series, and with Galactic Racer, it seems like it’s finally happening.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer, the soon-to-be-released game from developer Fuse Games and publisher Secret Mode, is fast approaching, and based on the gameplay, it seems as if it’s going to be the first game to properly inhabit the high-octane, toyetic nature of podracing as it was first introduced by Lucas in the prequels. First introduced on-screen in The Phantom Menace as young Anakin Skywalker’s gateway out of a lifetime of servitude, the dangerous sport has appeared intermittently throughout the Star Wars films and television properties, but it’s an addition that only helps to make the world feel more lived in – the same way that Harry Potter treats quidditch as an analogue for high school sports, podracing feels like the Star Wars equivalent of NASCAR.
The game, which takes place post-Return of the Jedi and follows a mysterious racer named Shade competing in the Galactic League tournament in the Outer Rim, will feature multiple vehicles from the series, including podracers, landspeeders, speeder bikes, and a wholly new vehicle created for the game called skimspeeders. It’s all part of an active goal on the part of the developers to combine what works about the games they’ve worked on (Need for Speed and Burnout being the most notable) with the aesthetic and tactile signifiers of the Star Wars universe.
There’s not a Star Wars fan out there who hasn’t wanted to get behind the wheel of a podracer.
Secret Mode
Part of what worked so well about Star Wars under Lucas was the commitment to tangibility and immersion, the ability to not only make podracing look legible on-screen but also look cool, like something viewers would want to be a part of themselves, and Galactic Racer’s first looks all show off a game that appears to have inherited that spirit and taken the initiative to make something that’s deeply satisfying to play while also immersing people in the worldbuilding of Star Wars. This includes the appearance of some fan-favorite characters, including Ben Quadinaros and Sebulba, two rival podracers featured in The Phantom Menace during Anakin’s race.
Although it might not be as eventful to the canon as the Star Wars Jedi games or have the built in fanbase amassed by the Battlefront games, Galactic Racer appears to be made from the same creative standpoint as Lucas approached the prequels with – expanding a world and making it feel that much more alluring and intriguing, truly giving fans a reason to feel like they need to visit. For as Shakespearean and epic as the storytelling in the franchise can feel, it’s nice to be reminded of the little bits of worldbuilding that are inventive and imaginative and make Star Wars feel so alien, and hopefully, Galactic Racer never loses sight of just how much fun can be had making something look and feel as cool as possible.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer releases sometime later this year.Learn Something New Every Day