The 7 Best Racing Games Like Star Wars: Galactic Racer

Nintendo’s F-Zero series was one of the pioneers of sci-fi anti-grav racing games when it launched on the SNES in 1990, and immediately set the standard for blistering speed and intense competition between huge fields of racers. You can sample pretty much the entire series on Nintendo Classics, or try the brilliant battle-royale twist on it, F-Zero 99, on Nintendo Switch Online. But, for my money, the pick of the bunch is 2003’s F-Zero GX for GameCube, which was made by Toshihiro Nagoshi at Sega’s Amusement Vision studio (Super Monkey Ball). F-Zero is a perfect match for Sega’s brash and intense racing-game style, and the result is transcendent.

4

Wipeout Omega Collection

Sony

Where to play: PlayStation 4

The other grand dame of sci-fi racing is, of course, Sony’s Wipeout series, which features (somewhat) more realistic physics than F-Zero and adds a suite of weapons and pickups clearly influenced by Mario Kart. Wipeout purists would probably pick either the 1995 PS1 original or its sequel Wipeout 2097, but this 2017 compilation of PS3/Vita-era games is the easiest to play in the here and now — and it’s also stunningly beautiful.

5

Fast Fusion

Where to play: Nintendo Switch 2

No list of sci-fi racing games is complete without a nod to the Fast series by German indie developer Shin’en Multimedia. Fast kept the flame of high-speed anti-grav racing lit after F-Zero and Wipeout fell by the wayside, holding space in the genre until Galactic Racer came along. The Fast games are all technically excellent and have been made exclusively for Nintendo consoles since the first game’s debut on WiiWare. Fast Fusion, a Switch 2 launch title, is no exception.

6

Reality Drift

Image: Arganoid Industries

Where to play: Windows PC

Galactic Racer‘s roguelite racing campaign is original, but it’s not completely novel — there are a handful of indie roguelike driving games out there. Perhaps the most exciting is Reality Drift, a surreal riff on OutRun with a roguelike structure and some wild art, including contributions from Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi. There’s a demo available on Steam now, and it’s out on Nov. 11.

7

Need For Speed Unbound

Image: Criterion/Electronic Arts

Where to play: PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. Included in EA Play, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and PC Game Pass.

There’s nothing else in mainstream racing games that plays quite like Galactic Racer‘s campaign. But you’ll find a kindred spirit of sorts in Unbound, the last Need for Speed game EA made before it turned Criterion into a full-time Battlefield support studio. NFS Unbound is a hardscrabble street-racing game in which you have to eke out upgrades for your banger by gambling on yourself, featuring a fixed calendar that only gives you so much time to prepare for a championship race. Sound familiar? Well, guess what creative director Kieran Crimmins and lead designer Bill Lane did next: They joined Fuse Games and made Galactic Racer.