Star Wars has incredible music, memorable, catchy tunes, and iconic sounds viewers can easily identify, so it makes sense that much of it has been incorporated into Star Wars: Galactic Racer. Developer Fuse Games has done a great job with the build, excitement, understanding tension, and how to let everything grow into a crescendo on the important laps, but the instrumental pieces don’t kick in until near the end, and the rest of the time I’m left wondering: why don’t these speeders have radios?

While I wait for the tunes to kick in, a sea of sound effects fills the air: engines blasting, sand or gravel being forcefully uprooted, other contestants yelling at us in frustration, and metal scraping as we bash against natural formations, man-made obstacles, or other rust buckets. The casual observer might think it sounds like an underachieving high school band warming up, a kind of sweet chaos that forms some sort of disruptive melody. I’m not sure if that’s enough, though.

The game feels great to play. It handles well and is easy to sink several hours into, because the races feel frenetic. There’s just something missing, a cherry on top to really bring the excitement, to fuel these key moments when we bank a corner perfectly, choose the exact right moment and hit the afterburner, or take out that opponent who has been dodging us for the whole lap. Executing a truly clutch move is better with an accompanying soundtrack. This experience is creating an energy that requires an accent. What we really need are killer audio tracks for when we’re racing around these physical tracks. This is one of the few times I’ll ever say this, but in this case, Star Wars needs a licensed soundtrack.

I know, it doesn’t quite fit. Hell, the idea probably seems like sacrilege to some fans, but hear me out: a set of licensed songs could also give a racing game that extra energy, that little bit of juice to push it over the finish line. I get a lot of Redline (2009) vibes from Galactic Racer; the visuals are on point, and I wanted the tunes to match it. This is in no way saying they did a bad job with the music, or that what’s there isn’t perfectly serviceable – it’s not like I expected them to put that one song from the Cantina Band (“Mad About Me”) in there for each stage – I just want the game to have that extra power under the hood. A different approach here might have pushed Galactic Racer into the stratosphere for me.

When I was much younger, I used to love when a game got to that point where I didn’t need to hear much of it to play. After I’d beaten an FPS, fighting game, or racer a few times through and was starting to memorize it, I would take that additional playtime to also go through some of my favorite CDs (haven’t bought one of those in forever). For some reason, that felt different, like shooting monsters in DOOM to Metallica changed the game somehow, or playing Mortal Kombat while listening to Kendrick Lamar made my victories feel even more lethal. This was a personalized type of enhancement, creating a unique experience between me, the songs, and that game. Maybe it’s stupid, but it often felt special, and when everything lined up just right – game, skill, song – it created lasting moments.

Now, this is still an intergalactic adventure with certain themes and tones. We can’t just be blasting Barbie Girl or WAP out of our speakers, as appealing as that sounds. No, as we gallivant to strange planets and risk our lives and winnings, it’s important that we match the mood or find something trippy enough to think the aliens might spin that record as well.

With that in mind, I’ve come up with a few tracks I’d probably slap onto a mixtape for my next circuit. Some of these fit that ‘conflict on a distant planet’ theme, or the type of build-up I mentioned above; maybe the lyrics just work well for me, and a few are somewhat obvious. But that’s me.

“Fuel” - Metallica
“Red Barchetta” - Rush
“Firestarter” - The Prodigy
“Rusty Cage” - Soundgarden
“Speed or Perish” - Carpenter Brut
“Immigrant Song” - Led Zeppelin
“Painkiller” - Judas Priest
“Dirt off Your Shoulder” - Jay-Z
“You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire” - Queens of the Stone Age
“DooM Dance” - Gunship
“Omen" - The Prodigy
“Battery” - Metallica