Star Wars Galactic Racer Is Fast, But Is It Accessible?

Pod racing is back. Star Wars Galactic Racer brings that familiar, high-speed Star Wars spectacle into a new racing game, with a roguelike structure, upgrades, and plenty of ways to build out your racer. It has already gotten a lot of people excited, and after spending some time with it, I can see why.

But I went into the game with a question beyond whether it was fun: did they make pod racing accessible?

I’m Steve Saylor, I’m blind, and I look at games through an accessibility lens. I bought Star Wars Galactic Racer with my own money, and I’ve played about two hours so far. I didn’t receive a review code, and I haven’t completed a full run, so this is an early look rather than a final verdict. I may not have encountered all the features or challenges yet. With that said, I’ve seen enough to understand where the game helps and where it leaves disabled players with more work to do.

The speed is the point

Star Wars Galactic Racer is fast. Not just “this is a racing game” fast, but “I need to keep my eyes on the track every second” fast. That speed is clearly part of the design. Pod racing has always been about the feeling that you’re pushing your vehicle to the limit, and the game wants you to feel that.

This brings the challenge for those who are disabled, where their eye-hand coordination isn’t fast enough to keep up with that constant speed. This affects quite a few disabilities. I’ll talk about my experience as a blind player, but this will affect those with motor and cognitive disabilities.

I don’t want to suggest that the developers should simply slow everything down. A game speed setting can be a useful accessibility option, but here, changing the speed could change the core feel of the game. I’m not sure it would be the right answer on its own. What I do know is that the game’s speed makes other accessibility features more important. If I can’t see where a turn is coming, or I need extra time to read something, I don’t have much room to recover.

The first planet I raced on was Jakku, with sandy, brown and beige environments. I had a hard time spotting the track and figuring out where to turn. The game does use lights to point you in the right direction, but they can blend into the surroundings. I would have liked a high-contrast option, or another way to make the track edges, turns, and important landmarks stand out.

There’s also no mini-map, which would have helped me understand where I was on the track. The heads-up display is a reasonable size, but in the middle of a race, I still found it difficult to focus on. The action is moving so quickly that I’m trying to keep my attention on the track ahead. That leaves little time to check other information on the screen.

Some useful options are already here

There are accessibility options spread across the settings menus, which is a good start. One of the most helpful options for me was the ability to set acceleration and boost to toggle instead of hold. That means I don’t have to keep pressing those buttons while also steering. It reduces how many things I need to manage at once and could make the game more comfortable for some motor-disabled players, as well as anyone who finds holding multiple buttons uncomfortable.

The simplified pre-race check option is another useful option. Before a race, you go through a button sequence to get your racer ready. The full sequence can be a lot to keep track of, but the simplified version cuts it down to a few inputs. It makes starting a race easier, especially when you’re still learning the controls.

There’s also an option to automatically deactivate the ramjet before it overheats. The ramjet gives you an extra boost, but it builds up heat as you use it. I initially struggled to manage it, so automatic deactivation helped me focus more on racing and less on watching the meter. These kinds of options don’t take away the excitement. They let me spend more attention on the parts of the game I’m actually trying to play.

The game also has interface scaling, subtitles with adjustable size and background opacity, and an option to turn off the crash camera. I didn’t find the crash camera too disorienting, but I’m glad it’s optional. A camera shift after a crash could throw off someone’s sense of direction, so being able to disable it is a thoughtful addition.

There are important gaps

The biggest issue for me as a blind or low-vision player is the menu narration. It’s available, but it isn’t turned on automatically, so you have to find and enable it in the settings. Once it’s on, it can help you navigate parts of the menus, but it doesn’t read everything. It doesn’t provide full narration for the in-race HUD or all the menus, which limits how useful it is.

I would also like to see control remapping. There is an alternate control scheme, but it wasn’t a great fit for me. Without the ability to remap controls, players are left choosing between the default controls and the alternative the game provides. That’s not enough flexibility for people who need a different layout to play comfortably.

The colorblind options are filters. Filters can change how colors look, but they don’t necessarily make important information easier to distinguish for colorblind players. For some players, they may not solve the problem they’re meant to address. I’d rather see options that let players customize important colors or add clearer outlines and contrast.

Subtitles are available, and you can adjust their appearance, which is good. The challenge is that characters sometimes speak while you’re in the middle of a race. If you’re deaf or hard of hearing, reading dialogue while watching a fast-moving track can pull your attention away from the race at exactly the wrong moment. I would like to see more control over when dialogue appears, or a way to review important conversations outside the action.

A fun racing structure, with a learning curve

The game isn’t just a series of races. Its roguelike structure gives you choices about what events to take on as you move through a run. Some races focus on placing as high as you can, while others have different objectives. You can continue through parts of a run without always finishing first, second, or third, though higher placements give you more credits and upgrade opportunities.

You can unlock new vehicles, liveries, upgrades, and abilities. I enjoyed having goals beyond just finishing each race. The campaign also has a story that gives you more reason to keep going. If you just want to race, there’s an arcade mode, and there’s multiplayer as well.

That said, the number of options and upgrade paths may feel like a lot, especially if you’re also trying to learn the racing controls and keep up with the speed. For some cognitively disabled players, having all of those systems introduced alongside fast races could become overwhelming. Lower difficulty settings let you adjust things like how many crashes you can take and how aggressively opponents race. I started with a higher difficulty than I needed and may lower it as I learn. Based on what I saw, I couldn’t change the difficulty during a run, so it’s worth choosing carefully at the start.

One ability I’m interested in exploring more is autopilot. It can steer for you for a short time, which could help with difficult turns. But it’s an upgrade you have to unlock by progressing through races. I wish it were available as a straightforward accessibility option from the beginning. If a player needs help steering, they may have to get through the hardest part first before they can access the tool that could help them.

A recommend for some, not recommend for all

So, is Star Wars Galactic Racer accessible? Not fully. Some options helped me, especially toggling acceleration and boost, simplified pre-race checks, and the ability to adjust difficulty. The game also offers different ways to progress through its racing events, and I’m enjoying how the campaign gives the races more context.

But the gaps matter. I want stronger visual contrast, more complete menu and screen narration, and control remapping. Some of the information that players need is hard to see or manage at the game’s speed, and subtitles during a race can create their own challenge.

I’m not ready to give the game a final score. I haven’t finished a full run, and I want to spend more time with it before making a final recommendation. For now, I’d call it a recommend for some, not recommend for all. If the options I’ve mentioned work for you, you may find a fun, exciting racer here. If the missing features would block you from playing, I’d wait for an update or try it somewhere you can return it before committing. So you’ll just have to keep Biddy Blas waiting a little longer to challenge you in a race until hopefully the developers can improve its accessibility in a future update. But for now, I need to get back to Jakku. I have a race to win.