The best part of The Phantom Menace – podracing – is coming to Star Wars: Destiny

In the wide Star Wars canon, it’s probably an understatement to say that Episode I: The Phantom Menace doesn’t often place towards the top of the list. But, despite its faults, the film still managed to feature some of the galaxy far, far away’s most iconic moments. Perhaps the best of the lot is Tatooine’s favourite spectator sport: podracing.

The sci-fi motorsport will soon get its due in collectible dice-roller Star Wars: Destiny, with a new series of cards focused on recreating the high-speed vehicle chase arriving as part of the Way of the Force expansion, due out in Q3 2018.

Tatooine’s own Boonta Eve Classic race will form the basis of a new plot card, which will build on the game-shaping scenarios first introduced in Legacies by encouraging players to invest resources in their podracers after resolving dice to gain extra resources later in the match. The Mos Espa Arena that plays host to the race appears as a battlefield with the ability to force an opponent to lose a resource or gain one yourself, gaining the benefit of doing both when you spot a podracer.

Several of Episode I’s pilots also make an appearance, with Sebulba standing out from the pack thanks to his damage-heavy die and special ability to add or remove resources from a support card. His podracer, meanwhile, lets its player deal indirect damage – if combined with its owner, the damage can be dealt to a specific character.

He’s joined by Anakin himself, this time in the ‘podracing prodigy’ variant. The young Skywalker focuses instead on generating resources, with the ability to turn a droid or podracer die to any side after activation. His podracer has the ability to discard the top card of a deck or, when paired with the kid Vader, directly from an opponent’s hand.

As well as podracing, Way of the Force includes the chance to wager on the race as Qui-Gon Jinn and Watto did, with the Podracer Betting card involving rolling a vehicle die to gain resources.

Destiny has done a good job so far of redeeming some of the more maligned characters and aspects of Star Wars’ least-liked film, and this latest addition sounds like a fitting way to honour one of its brightest spots. Now we’re just waiting for the expansion that confirms Jar Jar Binks as a Force-wielding Sith lord.