One of the biggest Star Wars games releasing this year is Star Wars: Galactic Racer, a racing title that highlights the series’ high-speed sci-fi vehicles from across its films. While Star Wars games focusing on starfighters is nothing new, it’s rarer to see a game allowing incredible depth and freedom to customizing and racing in your own personal land vehicle across sprawling interplanetary race tracks. This unique formula for the 2026 title works best due to its inspirations, which include another well-received Star Wars games from before the 2000s.
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Many different Star Wars games were available for home consoles around the early 2000s and late 1990s, as the prequel series of movies were starting to be released in theaters. Although met with harsh criticism, the “revival” of Star Wars during this era led to many experimental games, such as the beloved Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic RPG that is getting a spiritual successor now. One such game tried to capitalize on the thrills from the podracing scene from Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, taking that unique sequence and isolating it into something players could experience.
Star Wars Episode 1: Racer Features Many Of The Same Mechanics Seen In 2026’s Galactic Racer
One of the most well-reviewed games from the prequel era of Star Wars is Star Wars Episode 1: Racer, a 1999 title that has since be re-released for modern consoles and Steam ever since 2020. A lot of the DNA seen in Star Wars: Galactic Racer can be attributed to this title, from the high-speed races to the actual podracers being referenced from The Phantom Menace scenes. Star Wars Racer is an often forgotten title, but it set up the groundwork for many of the same systems its modern successor is doing.
For example, the first Star Wars Racer gave players to ability to upgrade and modify a character’s podracer to gain unique perks during a race. Increases to speed, mobility, and other factors helped personalize the player’s experience as they went to eight different worlds for around 25 tracks for racing competition. Although not the largest game when it came to customization, the idea of building your own podracer to your playstyle is a concept Galactic Racer seems to have adopted for its upcoming release.
Although a bit of a smaller connection, it seems like Star Wars: Galactic Racer will also feature many podracers from The Phantom Menace, either in its story or as unlockable characters. This was another part of the first Star Wars Racer, which featured six core racers from the first prequel film. The actors from the movie reprised their roles to voice these characters, but at least 19 more were unlockable through gameplay. Seeing how infamously obscure characters from Star Wars‘ mythos are present in Galactic Racer, such as the Dug Sebulba, this is another feature the 2026 game is adopting.
High-Speed Podracing Action Was Unique Compared To Other Available Star Wars Games
To understand why Star Wars: Galactic Racer is borrowing so many features is to realize how different Star Wars Episode 1: Racer was from other games surrounding the IP. Games like Star Wars: Jedi Knight and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron were among the most revered titles from the brand at the time, but they focused on first or third-person action or sci-fi dogfights with 3D mobility. The “arcade” feel of Star Wars games that stemmed from gaming’s first years were hard to shake, and something that the series started to pull away from with the rise of home consoles.
While future games like Knights of the Old Republic would mimic famous turn-based RPGs and Star Wars: Battlefront would establish large-scale action, Episode 1: Racer occupied an interesting niche. This game was similar to the F-Zero series, featuring extremely fast-paced races with levels of customization to what vehicle players used. Almost acting as a prototype to something like Mario Kart, Episode 1: Racer took arguably the most popular IP ever and created a tight gameplay loop of tension-filled races where every command totes the line between success and failure.
This served as the perfect middle ground between arcade-style games and expanded experiences available for home consoles. Great graphics for the time also helped, with tracks and characters being tied to progression to expand your experience naturally. Many systems that have become standard in racing games today are present in Star Wars Episode 1: Racer, showing how ahead of its time the title is.
With the game still have Very Positive and Mostly Positive reviews on Steam, it’s easy to see why it has had such a long-lasting impression. The unique track variety, large roster of characters, and customizable features of Star Wars Episode 1: Racer make it a gem in the IP’s game history, making it no wonder why Star Wars: Galactic Racer is inspired by the foundation it helped create.
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