Planned to release later this year, Star Wars Galactic Racer is a glorious return to the high-speed world of intergalactic racing last seen in Star Wars: Racer Revenge all the way back in 2002.
While not solely focused on pod-racing like prior games, Fuse Games’ take on the genre aims to encapsulate the sense of speed players felt when watching The Phantom Menace’s spectacular Boonta Eve Classic set-piece back in 1999.
In an interview with IGN, the game’s developers explained that the time is right to deliver a racing game with the speed and visuals of that scene from Episode 1. Returning to track-based racing, the team have cranked up the visual fidelity to match – and sometimes exceed – the looks of George Lucas’ movie.
“I can’t answer the question of how come no one else has thought about it,” Fuse Games CEO and founder Matt Webster said. “Maybe it’s a question of timing. But once we had that, it was like, ‘okay, how can we do something different with racing and Star Wars?’l
Creative director Kieran Crimmins added: “I see it more like the time was right now rather than the time was wrong before… Whenever you make a video game, it’s a mixture of so many elements. It’s a little bit hard to get the lightning in the bottle, but when we did this brief and we got this together, we were like, ‘this is the perfect time to make this thing.’ And I believe we’re the perfect studio to make it.”
Just like in The Phantom Menace’s pod-racing scene, Star Wars Galactic Racer will require players to do more than just turn corners. These rapid vehicles give off huge amounts of heat, and that needs to be managed alongside the game’s two-phase boost system.
“Boost has been in and around racing games forever,” Webster explained. “Press the button, go fast, consume the boost, and you’ve got a sort of a tactical decision-making going on there. But we wanted to do something more. So we have a two-phase boost system. The second phase is something called a ramjet, which just goes really, really, really fast, but it’s got a consequence too — it generates a load of heat, and if run it for too long, you’re going to explode.”
Webster explained that different planets will force you to use your vehicles in different way. If you’re racing through the freezing snow planet of Hoth, you’ll be able to boost for longer; if you’re zooming around the desert planet of Jakku, you won’t be able to boost as long.
“The environment has a tactical part to play in terms of your racing, and it plays its part in the ramjet,” they continued. “So in Lantaana — a lush, tropical rainforest vibe on an active volcano island planet — we’ve got rivers of lava and rivers of water, hot and cold. And so you have those decisions — the environmental heat helps get my ramjet up to operating temperature, but it’s obviously going to get it hotter, quicker. I can also cool the ramjet, running it for longer over the colder water.”
Star Wars Galactic Racer is slated to launch later this year on PC, Xbox and PlayStation 5.
