That is an IGN opinion piece from Phil Iwaniuk, adorned winner of many Gran Turismo Sunday Cups who discovered to really feel, not suppose in 1999’s Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer. It is a philosophy which will impair his opinions, however yields many a purple sector.
What number of occasions have you ever purchased an inexpensive banger, entered it in a sequence of races known as one thing just like the ‘Rookies Cup’, and used the proceeds to unlock new occasions? Since Gran Turismo arrived in 1997 and pioneered that vehicular rags-to-riches construction, it appears like we’ve repeated that similar racing recreation marketing campaign mode grind numerous occasions.
Actually, if you pause and look again on the nice and good of racing video games, it looks like all of them, from Want For Velocity to Grime Rally, have been about placing you on the backside of a giant pile of occasions and having you step by step climb your means as much as the sooner races in the most effective vehicles. The style’s been laser-focussed on innovating in the case of visuals, physics fashions, tire simulation and the like, nevertheless it’s been caught on the identical solo gameplay construction for means too lengthy.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer flies its speeders in opposition to the grain in some ways. Greater than only a recreation that will get each the cinematic IP and the sensation of racing proper, it’s an expertise that appears to be visiting from a parallel universe. One the place the acquainted hand-holding recreation design philosophy didn’t take root, and the Gran Turismo profession mode didn’t change into ubiquitous.
“Why hasn’t somebody thought of that earlier than?” Fuse Video games co-founder and CEO, Matt Webster, mirrored on the sport’s distinctive run-based profession mode when IGN spoke to him again in Could. It’s so apparent that it could make for a incredible racer if you see it applied like this: as a substitute of working by way of a to-do checklist of championships, you decide from a variety of completely different sequences of occasions, every with their very own dangers and rewards, and when you lose too many occasions alongside the way in which you’re booted out of the entire championship. It’s again to the beginning for you, and no excuses. Even earlier than you get acquainted with the nuances of the mode, there’s one thing about figuring out shedding truly issues that feels refreshing.
“Gaming is risk-reward”, says Webster, “however the threat has to have a consequence.” In Webster’s earlier racing hits like Burnout, that consequence appeared like a spectacular wreck, your automobile resetting on the monitor, and also you having some catching as much as do.
“However we have misplaced consequence as a result of, in lots of racing video games, we do not actually spend the time on crashing,” he provides. “It’s been eroded away. So [we] checked out completely different genres that you might steal from, as a result of genres have finished that in up to date gaming. We see tons of hybrid mechanics moving into, and truly racing is a bit of an outlier that hasn’t finished that.”
As an alternative, racing has gone in a single of two instructions not too long ago. The post-covid sim racing growth appeared to persuade builders of the extra hardcore titles that the PvP-focused iRacing mannequin is king. Why spend so much of effort on a profession mode constructed round PvE racing when your participant base is queuing up in lobbies, ready to offer extra clever and unpredictable competitors than even the neatest AI drivers? The success of Assetto Corsa Competizione and Le Mans Final has solely strengthened that argument.
On the different finish of the spectrum lies the Forza Horizon mannequin. Pleasant, malleable, and completely player-directed, its construction is mainly failure-proof. Forza Horizon 6 set a brand new normal for open-world racing in 2026, capturing the crystallised essence of Japanese automobile tradition and supplying you with some ways to discover them. However does shedding a race actually carry a lot weight on the Horizon pageant?
Like an encouraging mum or dad, Horizon treats every part you do as a victory. Oh, you drove by way of one other mascot, nice job! it cooes. Wow, and that’s 25% of all of the roads explored now – somebody deserves a cheeky wheelspin. So if you do truly tackle one thing troublesome and prevail, the payoff is dulled not as a result of the sport doesn’t recognise it, however as a result of it treats you want its favorite particular little driver, regardless of whether or not you win or lose.
So sure, it appears like an oddly radical transfer that Star Wars: Galactic Racer implements a narrative-led championship mode and offers you actual penalties for wrecking your automobile and shedding races. Nevertheless it goes a lot additional than that. Turning profession mode right into a sequence of runs makes it a playground for experimenting with completely different builds in, and that’s one thing racing video games simply don’t do.
Alongside every run in Galactic Racer you earn credit, elements, talents, and upgrades. Some of these rewards are fairly orthodox and can be utilized for simple buffs like a greater cornering stat or a better high velocity, as we’ve been accustomed to within the style for many years.
However many rewards include an RNG-ified twist. Say throughout one run, you see an improve card that makes your ramjet booster 20% extra highly effective whilst you’re overheated. You keep in mind that the following planet you’re racing on is Jakku, a scorched desert the place your speeder overheats nearly immediately. So that you begin to design your complete construct round overheating shortly and staying overheated, to offer your ram jet godlike energy. Get it fallacious and also you blow up, incurring injury that should be repaired in order that it doesn’t impair your stats and talents. Get it proper, and you are feeling such as you’re on that unstoppable Balatro run.
Higher nonetheless, the run construction has a means of turning all the sport’s different sensible little thrives into necessary roguelite variables. Most blatant are the standing results you’ll encounter on every planet’s broadly differing local weather and situations. The aforementioned Jakku brings the chance of overheating, whereas Ando Prime presents the alternative downside: its glacial plains will freeze your engines except you discover hotter pockets. Your interplanetary championship hop may embody a number of standing results to be cautious of.
By itself, this addition will get you enthusiastic about taking completely different traces by way of tracks, to seek out shade on sizzling planets or search for ramps over corrosive swimming pools. And that’s nice in itself, however when mixed with the elements and upgrades obtainable in every run, it turns into the inspiration for particular automobile builds. You’ll be able to flip ostensibly unfavourable standing results to your benefit.
And it goes deeper. Little touches just like the pre-race checks – primarily QTEs that make you are feeling such as you’re arming numerous elements of your automobile – on their very own are only a good contact that makes you are feeling one way or the other extra bodily in management and planted in your automobile. However as you undergo a run, you decide up backers who fund your racing and supply tokens. On one run, a selected backer may reward you for finishing a sure quantity of pre-race checks, and also you may really want these reward credit to restore your ramjet. Immediately a pleasant contact turns into an necessary half of the story of this run.
The potential for that construction to shake up different racing video games is simply so juicy. EA F1’s driver profession mode is not any slouch, however think about the way it’d be elevated if, if you crashed your automobile, it gave you actual and lasting penalties to cope with. What if being busted by the cops in Want For Velocity didn’t simply lose you credit, however your automobile and your profession mode progress too?
Hardcore racing simulators shouldn’t flip a blind eye, both. For those who’re prepared to courageous unranked public lobbies and scrutinise toe-in angles, it’s not a leap to think about {that a} solo profession the place failure carries penalties may attraction.
Perhaps it’s the open world racing recreation that may crib most successfully from Star Wars: Galactic Racer, although. Forza Horizon 6’s no-fail, maximalist method is great enjoyable, however the sense of progress and accomplishment is damage by the tempo it throws vehicles and credit at you, win or lose. What if every entry to Horizon Pageant advised a unique story, and making it onto Legend Island wasn’t a given?
“In an open world racer, you possibly can determine [what] you are going to get after” says Fuse inventive director Kieran Crimmins. “You’ll be able to primarily do every part. Whereas on this, you have to make the selection. These selections actually matter and so they could also be your final demise or the trail to victory.”
Like Half-Life’s Gravity Gun, the Crysis Nanosuit, and Shadow of Mordor’s (egregiously copyrighted) Nemesis System, what Fuse Video games has created right here is the kind of system you actively miss in different video games. The kind of concept that would stage up a style if it proliferates. And there’s indicators that it’s going to. Galactic Racer just isn’t the one roguelite motorsport recreation to have launched this 12 months – we’ve additionally seen Carmageddon: Rogue Shift and Driving Rogue, each of which have been developed in parallel with Fuse’s work. Clearly it’s not simply Webster and his group which have recognised how this system could be fitted into the style’s engine bay. In the end, racing video games have discovered a strategy to inform emergent tales and to reward replayability with construct experimentation, and that lastly lets go of the Rookies Cup.
Phil Iwaniuk is a veteran {hardware} smasher and recreation botherer who has written for the likes of PC Format, Official PlayStation Journal, PCGamesN, The Guardian, Eurogamer, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, and IGN. He gained an award as soon as, however he would not prefer to go on about it.