Every Star Wars racing game, ranked worst to best

Star Wars racing games have made a triumphant return with the release of Galactic Racer. 

With former Criterion Games developers at the helm, it marks a return to form after a chequered history of vehicular Star Wars titles.   

To celebrate the release of Galactic Racer, we’re looking back at every Star Wars racing game and ranking them from worst to best.   

Honourable mentions

Star Wars Outlaws

Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws was overlooked at launch, but post-release patches have since improved Ubisoft’s open-world adventure game set in a galaxy far, far away, which mixes shooting, stealth and platforming. For some fans, living the fantasy of exploring Tatooine and visiting landmarks such as the Mos Eisley Cantina or Jabba’s Palace is worth the price of admission alone.   

Vehicles are integral to the experience, too. Much of your time is spent exploring the vast environments on a speeder bike, which you can upgrade with special abilities such as boosting and driving over water as the story progresses. 

There is also a racing element. Hidden around the open worlds are head-to-head Speeder Race side missions, where you cross through checkpoints and earn credits for crossing the finish line first.

Star Wars Demolition

Star Wars Demolition doesn’t feature any racing, but the arena-based combat game from the developer of Vigilante 8 lets you battle in various Star Wars vehicles, from Land Speeders and Snowspeeders to AT-ST walkers. The action takes place in a deadly contest run by Jabba the Hutt after podracing is outlawed.

Star Wars Demolition is an average vehicular combat game with clunky controls and poor graphics even for the time, but those curious can buy the original PS1 version on PS5.   

Kinect Star Wars

While Kinect Star Wars is best known for its infamous Han Solo dance number, it also features a token podracing level.

This was the first time podracing was represented in an HD video game. But instead of using a controller, you controlled the podracer’s engines by pushing your hands forward and backwards. It didn’t catch on.      

4. Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing

There was a time when seemingly every mascot character was given a kart racing spin-off to capitalise on Mario Kart’s popularity. In 2001, Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing jumped on this bandwagon.

Released in 2001, the PlayStation 2-exclusive racer sees you race as cartoony, big-headed characters from the Phantom Menace, including the likes of Anakin Skywalker, Jar-Jar Binks and Boss Nass.

With its colourful graphics and cute characters, this family-friendly take on George Lucas’s space saga is clearly aimed at younger padawans, but its oversensitive controls and bland environments let it down. It’s not the worst Star Wars game ever made, but it’s hardly the best either.

3. Star Wars Racer Revenge

After the success of Star Wars Episode 1: Racer, a sequel was inevitably greenlit. The result was 2002’s Star Wars Racer Revenge, which, unlike its predecessor, was exclusive to PlayStation 2, despite the original being synonymous with the Nintendo 64.

Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to the legacy of the original.

While the core frenetic racing was similar, Racer Revenge shifted the focus to combat, with mixed results. Perhaps in response to Burnout’s popularity in the early 2000s, the sequel emphasises wrecking opponents to earn winnings. This takes the focus from the high-speed racing that made the original so enthralling, and the controls feel less refined.

Seeing an adult Anakin Skywalker from Attack of the Clones piloting a podracer is novel, at least.

Like its predecessor, Star Wars Racer Revenge was re-released for PS4 and is playable on PS5 via backwards compatibility.  

2. Star Wars Episode I: Racer

Now this is podracing.

For many fans, the 16-year-long wait for Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace was a bitter disappointment, thanks to its over-reliance on special effects, stilted dialogue and incessantly irritating Jar Jar Binks. However, most fans agree that two standout scenes partially redeem it: the Darth Maul lightsaber duel and the podrace.

With its memorable vehicle designs featuring cockpits attached to two engines, high-speed action and spectacular crashes, it’s enthralling to watch.

It was no surprise, then, that the memorable race sequence was adapted into a video game, with Star Wars Episode 1: Racer speeding onto Nintendo 64 and PC in 1999, followed by a Dreamcast port, often considered the superior version, in 2000. A standalone version also hit arcades in 2000, with the aptly named Star Wars Racer Arcade developed by Sega. 

Star Wars Episode 1: Racer captures the blistering speed of podracing as you weave through canyons at hundreds of miles per hour, with a variety of playable characters and upgradeable vehicles.

Alongside the Mos Espa circuit from the film, it also introduces several locations unique to the game that require mastery of the intricate designs and shortcuts. Adding to the challenge is a MotorStorm-style boost mechanic, where overheating your engine causes your vehicle to explode.

The tournament is woefully short by modern standards, and the default AI opponents are too slow. But even ignoring the Star Wars licensing, it’s a fantastic futuristic racer in its own right. If you missed the original or want to revisit it, the classic Star Wars racer is playable on modern platforms with high-definition graphics and updated controls.

1. Star Wars: Galactic Racer

Star Wars: Galactic Racer could have easily been a fan-pleasing remake of the original Episode 1: Racer.

While podracing returns and represents the most difficult events, Galactic Racer features an expansive vehicle selection focusing on three categories: landspeeders, speeder bikes and skim speeders, each with their own unique attributes.  

An original story set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens sees you play as Shade, who joins a racing tournament known as the Galactic League to overthrow its reigning champion, the arrogant Kestar Bool.

This isn’t a standard racing campaign, however. Wrecking too many times will knock you out of the tournament, forcing you to restart the current planet-hopping story act. Revisiting the same locations can get frustrating, but there’s a sense of consequence rarely seen in the genre.

Its roguelite structure helps alleviate the frustration, too. When repeating runs, an extensive upgrade system lets you improve your vehicle’s stats and equip special abilities to create unique builds. It encourages replayability in both the single-player and multiplayer.

With a team of ex-Criterion veterans who worked on Burnout and Need for Speed, developer Fuse Games has a long legacy of helming arcade racers, and it shows in Galactic Racer’s tight vehicle handling, aggressive racing and well-designed tracks with branching routes.

The roguelite structure won’t appeal to everyone, the number of locations is too sparse and the lack of split-screen multiplayer is disappointing. But the core racing is consistently exhilarating and surprisingly challenging.  

After waiting over two decades for a new vehicle-focused game based on the science-fiction franchise, Galactic Racer

The force is exceedingly strong in this one. Galactic Racer is not only the best Star Wars racing game ever made, it’s one of the best arcade racers in recent years even if you’re not a fan of the science-fiction saga.