Star Wars: Galactic Racer is earning strong reviews, with critics praising its incredible sense of speed, gorgeous visuals, excellent sound design, tight handling, and Burnout-inspired racing. The roguelite structure also adds tension and replayability, although some reviewers criticize repetitive tracks, limited vehicle variety, and an underwhelming story.
8.6
Average Score (adjusted)
Confidence: Medium
Highly divisive
Reviews: 11
Top Review: Eurogamer (10.0)
Spread: 3.2
GameSpot thinks that Star Wars Galactic Racer is superb and one of the best racing games in years. Pros: sound design and visuals create an exhilarating sense of speed, enough tracks for variety while staying familiar, an intriguing mystery setup, and a clever roguelike framing that delivers tension the story doesn't. Cons: no music or funky radio DJ, and a main story and characters that aren't that interesting.
IGN rates Star Wars: Galactic Racer as great, calling it a fabulous-looking and frantically fast anti-grav racer. Pros: impressively customisable vehicle classes beyond podracers, gorgeous course design, a credible and explorable world outside the racing, a fresh roguelite-adjacent structure that injects real risk, authentic sound design, Burnout-inspired takedowns, and a MotorStorm-like feel. Cons: the campaign grows repetitive due to its slim selection of repeatedly visited planets, and the lack of split-screen is disappointing.
PC Gamer thinks Star Wars: Galactic Racer is a solid arcade racer whose run-based structure works better than Burnout Paradise's open world. Pros: a strong sense of speed, satisfying afterburner and ramjet boost management, enjoyable roguelite campaign structure, fun Star Wars worldbuilding, characters like Sebulba, and excellent engine sounds and music. Cons: hard-to-read tracks causing crashes, a flawed autopilot, and a story that builds up but pays off poorly.
Destructoid rates Star Wars: Galactic Racer 8.5, calling it finger-breakin' good. Pros: amazing vehicle handling, exceptional gameplay, environmental effects that significantly alter each planet, a surprisingly decent story, and lots of modes with incredible replayability. Cons: a sheer lack of visibility on some planets and races, roguelite elements that can artificially prolong the campaign, a roguelike system that doesn't always click, and only three main vehicles with no proper customization.
DualShockers rates Star Wars: Galactic Racer 8.5/10, saying every crash makes you better. Pros: gorgeous visuals and phenomenal sound design you actually race by, tight controls, a story that gives every race real stakes, and a roguelite loop mirroring Shade's growth with deep upgrades. Cons: slow-motion crash replays and unskippable cutscenes kill momentum, some tracks are extremely hard to read at speed, and the story doesn't feel fully resolved.
GameStar thinks Star Wars: Galactic Racer is not podracing, and finds bigger problems than the missing Podracers. Pros: it suits players wanting a few relaxed evening laps, anyone who can't get enough Star Wars, and those satisfied with roguelite progress bars as motivation. Cons: it does not suit players frustrated by erratic racing AI, those wanting an Episode 1 Racer revival, or anyone expecting track variety. The review notes Podracers barely feature and the game spreads itself too thin under the hood.
Eurogamer thinks Star Wars: Galactic Racer is absolute racing paradise, sci-fi royalty getting the right kind of Burnout treatment. Pros: a surprisingly fun roguelite campaign, wonderful Burnout-style racing with Criterion DNA, two strategic boosts with the risky Ramjet and redlining, a strong sense of brilliantly decrepit Star Wars technology, planets with distinct environmental effects, gorgeous tracks, and a lovely suite of racing options. Cons: no notable negatives are stated in the text.
PC Games thinks Star Wars: Galactic Racer is racing-fast and damn fun. Pros: a fantastic sense of speed thanks to ex-Burnout developers, two boost mechanics with the risky Ramjet, aggressive takedowns, distinct vehicle classes, planets with real environmental effects, satisfying build-crafting, and the exclusive podracer events as peak Star Wars. Cons: too few planets and track layouts, making the campaign repetitive, no splitscreen multiplayer, and quiet paddock dialogue mixing.
Push Square thinks Star Wars: Galactic Racer is a thoughtfully designed triumph and one of the better racing games on PS5. Pros: a sensational sense of speed, tracks with real character, varied playstyles and approaches, a rewarding roguelite campaign, sublime audio and visuals, and flawless performance. Cons: some repetition on replays, overall flow that could be streamlined, wanting more planets, and no split-screen.
HobbyConsolas thinks Star Wars: Galactic Racer is a cosmic blast that sets a new standard for speed in video games. Pros: a brutal sense of speed among the best ever in a racer, a convincing Star Wars vehicle feel with clear differences between speeders and podracers, a brilliant and deep roguelite story mode, spectacular audio design, and a soundtrack led by its main theme. Cons: six planets feel too few, the campaign lacks more replay incentive after finishing, and the crash camera obstructs too much, though it can be disabled.
GamingBolt thinks Star Wars: Galactic Racer is amazing and a must-play for arcade racing fans. Pros: tight racing mechanics, satisfying takedowns, an addictive roguelite campaign, a perfect Star Wars vibe, rewarding progression and customization, excellent course design, spectacular visuals and audio, and near-perfect performance. Cons: vehicle types could use more variety, cosmetic customization feels limited, racing events lack variety, and it needs more modes outside the campaign.