Star Wars: Galactic Racer – Is It a Sequel to Episode I: Racer?

As of October 19, 2026 · Not a review: based on published reviews and store pages

I was 14 or 15 when I played Star Wars Episode I: Racer on PC. I had just seen The Phantom Menace and was simply happy to dive back into the Star Wars universe and play a part of its newest story. My memories of the details are faint by now. So I come to Galactic Racer the way many returning fans will: remembering the feeling more than the tracks.

The short answer is no. Star Wars: Galactic Racer is a new arcade racer from Fuse Games, a studio of former Criterion developers who worked on Burnout and Need for Speed. It launched on October 6, 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Podracers are in the game, but they are a side attraction. Most of the time you race landspeeders, speeder bikes and skim speeders.

A note up front: I have not played Galactic Racer yet. What follows is a buyer’s briefing based on published reviews and store pages, written for people who, like me, remember the original.

The two games side by side

What is different

The vehicles. The campaign is built around three classes. Landspeeders are the heaviest, slide through corners and are best for shoving rivals aside. Speeder bikes are nimble and get short speed boosts, but they are fragile. Skim speeders are new to Star Wars, can tilt sideways to dodge obstacles and take the longest to learn.

The campaign. Episode I: Racer was a tournament: win races, buy better parts, move on. Galactic Racer is a roguelite. Each of the three acts costs a League Token to enter. Crash too often or get eliminated and you lose it. Lose all of them and the act restarts with a new set of randomised events.

Not everything resets. Upgrades earned in one run raise your vehicle stats for the next. Damage also carries over: a battered vehicle develops faults in later events until you pay for repairs. Standard races do not require a podium. You only have to survive.

Reviewers are split on this structure. Traxion found several restarts in a row frustrating and criticises rubber-band AI in the final knockout events, but credits the upgrade system with keeping players coming back. Gfinity misses a practice mode for learning the tracks. If losing progress annoys you, this is the biggest risk in the purchase.

Where the podracers are

• Arcade mode: You can start a podrace right away, on a recreated Mos Espa circuit on Tatooine. Sebulba, Gasgano and Teemto Pagalies are playable.
• Campaign: Podracers show up later, as side missions hosted by an older Sebulba. In the story, podracing is outlawed in this era.
• Online: A separate podracing tour for up to eight players unlocks at rank five.
• Grid size: Six podracers in single-player, eight online. That is far from the crowded start line of the film.

Reviewers describe the podracers as the fastest and least forgiving vehicles in the game, where scraping a wall usually ends in a crash. Traxion warns that anyone hoping for a podracing-centred game may be disappointed, because the selection of pods and pilots is small.

What feels familiar

• Boost and heat: In the old game, boosting too long set your engines on fire. Here the stronger of two boosts, the Ramjet, overheats and blows up your vehicle if you overuse it.
• Ando Prime: The ice planet from Episode I: Racer is back as a campaign location.
• Sebulba: Still around, still playing dirty. His podracer carries a flamethrower.

Reviews also single out the sound of the podracer engines as spot-on.

Before you buy

• Game Pass: Not included, and nothing has been announced. Here is what is new on Xbox Game Pass this month.
• Amazon Luna: Prime members can stream the single-player modes (campaign, Arcade and Scenarios) at no extra cost since launch day. Online multiplayer is not included yet; Amazon says it will follow later. Streams run at up to 1080p and 60 fps.
• Xbox Series X: A stable 60 fps at an internal resolution of about 1296p, in a single graphics mode, according to Digital Foundry.
• PC minimum: Core i5-8400 or Ryzen 5 2600, RTX 2060 or RX 5600 XT, 12 GB RAM, 50 GB on an SSD.
• No split-screen: There is also no custom single race and no private lobby. Parties are capped at three players for now; Fuse Games has announced an update that raises the limit to six.
• Crossplay: Supported between PC, PlayStation and Xbox. According to Traxion, it runs through an Epic Games account.
• Difficulty: The campaign difficulty can be adjusted.
• Deluxe Edition ($79.99): Three extra vehicles, liveries and three Arcade events. It adds no story missions.

Should a returning fan buy it?

I have not bought Galactic Racer yet, so this is not a review. Going by the reviews, three questions decide whether it is for you.

• Do you want podracing or a racing game? If you want a modern Episode I: Racer, this is not it. If you want a fast arcade racer set in the Star Wars universe, several reviewers call it the best in years.
• Can you live with restarts? The run-based campaign is what critics praise and criticise most. If losing progress annoys you, try the campaign on Amazon Luna first if you have Prime, or wait for a sale.
• Do you play on the couch? There is no split-screen. The original still has it.

Critics are clear: Galactic Racer holds a Metacritic score of 88 on PS5, 86 on Xbox Series X and 82 on PC. If podracing is all you want, the original is still sold for PC on Steam and GOG and runs on Xbox Series X|S for $14.99, split-screen included. I will add my own impressions here once I have played Galactic Racer.

Sources: Traxion (review, October 2, 2026) · Gfinity (review, October 2, 2026) · Pure Xbox (Digital Foundry analysis, price) · Metacritic on X (Metascores, 72 critic reviews) · VGC (party size update, October 8, 2026) · GamingTrend (campaign length) · Xbox Store (Episode I: Racer) · PlayStation Blog (Episode I: Racer, by Aspyr) · PC Games (Amazon Luna, October 7, 2026) · Notebookcheck (Luna stream quality)