Did you know video games are magic? Video games are magic. They can defy your expectations and invert sensations in so many ways, but today I want to talk about Star Wars Galactic Racer in particular, and how it turns the simple act of pushing some buttons–that thing you do in every video game all the time forever–and makes it feel like something else entirely.
At two points in Galactic Raceryou’re asked to press buttons in a certain way. Firstly, before every race, in a simulation of a Star Wars pilot flipping a bunch of clicky, 1970s-ass buttons, you’re given a chance to complete a bunch of QTEs to activate your various special abilities before a timer runs out, after which you need to press another button to turn your engines on. And secondly, when it’s time to activate your ramjet–the game’s fast but also extremely dangerous second level of afterburner–you need to perform a little controller gymnastics.
First Zero Company, now this; for the first time in a long time it’s been good to be in a galaxy far, far away
AftermathLuke Plunkett
The former doesn’t sound like much fun, but through a combination of hearing the buttons THUNK as you press them, your on-screen character flipping switches as you do and the required combos having the cadence of a pilot toggling a whole bunch of buttons in a row and then seeing/hearing the engines fire up as you pull a trigger, it really does feel like you’re sitting in a cockpit smacking springy, steel switches.
The latter is even more magical. Picture this: while you’re warming up the ramjet during a race (it can only be turned on when a meter is full) your right index finger will be holding down the trigger and your thumb will be resting on the A (Xbox, PC) or X (PlayStation) button. Got that? When it’s time to activate the ramjet, you need to take your thumb off the A/X button, click down on the right thumbstick to open up your vents then get right back down to press the A/X button to actually fire the jets.
Combined with the heavy CACHUNK sound of the jets roaring to life and the whooshing visual effects you see on the screen, the precise sequence and design of those button presses feels exactlylike opening up one of these bad boys then getting the tactile pleasure of slamming down on the button.
While these sound like incredibly weird and niche things to point out, they play a huge part in my enjoyment of the game. Even hours into this thing, having just wound up the third and final act of the story, I have never oncegot tired of the pre-race button presses, nor has the act of activating the ramjets failed to put a huge smile on my face as, for a second, my humble Elite controller passes for some kind of thousand-dollar flight sim setup. Both these simple acts add massively to the feeling that instead of sitting at a desk in the suburbs I wasstrapped into an intergalactic death machine.
I missed going at sublime speeds and bursting into flames.
AftermathChris Person
I don’t want to sound like I’m selling anything else in this surprisingly remarkable video game short;it’s a triumph of everything from voice acting to art design to lighting and camera direction. I just for a second wanted to say thank you to whoever worked out that–with a little thought put into it, a few basic button presses can turn the most mundane and repeated video game interaction imaginable into something transformative.
