In one of the most surprising stories of the month, so far, Fuse Games’ brilliant new racing game Star Wars: Galactic Racer is (mostly) launching on Amazon Luna.
As the best-rated Star Wars games in decades, there’s a lot of hype for Star Wars: Galactic Racer, and Amazon is hoping that hype can benefit their largely unknown cloud gaming service, Amazon Luna.
Included with an Amazon Prime subscription, Amazon Luna subscribers will be able to play the entirety of Star Wars: Galactic Racer’s single-player content through the streaming service. This means that the game’s entire single-player campaign, as well as its Arcade and Scenario modes, will be playable for no additional cost.
“We’ve always believed Luna players deserve to be in the action from day one,” said Amazon Head of Gaming Jeff Gattis in an exclusive statement to GamesIndustry, “and Star Wars: Galactic Racer makes that a reality for the first time.”
While Amazon Luna has seen its own first-party games launch day and date on the streaming platform, this marks the first time that a major third-party release has opted to launch on the service. Of course, this means that players will be able to play the game without a download, although they will need to have a solid internet connection to do so.
“If they’re a Prime member, they already have it at no additional cost. It’s exactly the kind of experience we want to deliver on Luna, and we think players are going to love it,” Gattis continued in the statement.
As someone who is a pretty big fan of cloud gaming, in specific instances, Star Wars: Galactic Racer isn’t exactly the type of game I’d necessarily pick to play on Amazon Luna. Not only does the game require some pretty fast reactions—which might be why the multiplayer isn’t included here—but also it moves at a pretty incredible speed with tonnes of post-processing effects.
In reality, this will likely result in Star Wars: Galactic Racer looking a tad rough on the cloud streaming service as macroblocking and video compression turns racing lines into a blur. If you have a Prime subscription, good internet, and no way to play the game otherwise, this should still be an okay option.
While Amazon Luna is one of the lesser known streaming services, it does have an okay selection of included games, including Indiana Jones and The Great Circle. Additionally, the service includes a number of games, unlike GeForce Now, for those who already have an Amazon Prime subscription, which is decent value.
