Images courtesy of Pengonauts

Invaders are attacking the earth, invaders from beyond the stars. StarVaders, if you will. Using mech and a deck you’ll fight to save the world in this deckbuilding robo-roguelike, from Pengonauts.

Slay the Spire has inspired countless successors, and players are spoiled for choice when it comes to choosing a new roguelike deck builder these days. Does StarVaders blast open a niche for itself, or will it end up engulfed in a swarm of similar titles? Does it rise to the challenge like Independence Day, or are we in for an uncomfortable Battlefield Earth-like experience? Let’s find out…

Reach for the Starvaders

Combat in StarVaders is a game of carefully maneuvering across a grid littered with explosives and enemies. Swarms of aliens spawn along the top row, and you need to use all of the bombs, bullets, and blades at your disposal to ensure they don’t reach the bottom. The game features three mechs, each of which can be operated by three pilots.

There are a wide variety of different play styles you can go for, but fundamentally the game is all about resource management and weighing up short-term advantage against long term sustainability. You can combo off, but playing too many cards in a single turn burns up your resources and leave you unable to call upon them later. The need to balance dealing out massive damage now, with needing to save your cards for later leads to plenty of interesting decision making. It also means that when the finish line is in sight, you can go all out and throw everything you have at the enemy which is incredibly satisfying.

StarVaders provides the player with three “Chrono Tokens” at the start of each of their runs. These tokens rewind a small amount of time. They can reset turns, and change the cards you draw. These time-travelling tokens can also reroll your loot drops, change your encounters, and modify the contents of the shop. Chrono Tokens are StarVader‘s biggest innovation, and you’ll find yourself increasingly relying on them as you complete more runs and realize just how useful they are.

The connective sections between rounds of combat in StarVaders aren’t as engaging as they could be. Most roguelikes have branching paths players can follow, letting them plot their route through the game and carefully curate their future battles. StarVaders instead provides a randomized selection of levels, leading to up to an eventual boss battle. While Chrono Tokens can be used to change what’s on offer, you’re still not left feeling like you have as much control over the future of your run as you might like. Regardless of the links between the levels feeling lacking, the gameplay itself is compelling enough to keep you hooked.

Wishing Upon Some StarVaders

StarVader‘s sound design excels, especially for the first release from an indie studio. The music ramps up in intensity as you progress through the game and gets you hyped to blow up aliens. This is combined with a whizzing and popping selection of sound effects that make every card play feel satisfying. 

Graphically, the game successfully adopts the look and feel of a Saturday morning cartoon. You’ve got a cooky cast of characters, striding into battle in their boldly colored mechs. There are neon lasers and bombs that would fit comfortably in a Sci-Fi Tom and Jerry spin-off. For the most part, it all looks great. Some of the enemy designs begin to blur together, but the bosses still look distinct.

The game’s story is functional. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but then it doesn’t need to be. You’re here to blow up baddies using big robots, and the game provides you with all the motivation you need to do that. Occasionally, hints are thrown out suggesting that there’s something major bubbling behind the scenes, but the plot isn’t the game’s primary focus. You’re here to unwind by stringing together explosive card combos, and StarVaders knows that.

Conclusion

The roguelike deckbuilding genre is very crowded. Fortunately, StarVaders is bombastic and bold enough to set itself apart from the competition. Aside from its time-warping Chrono Tokens, it doesn’t attempt anything hugely experimental, but it nails the core principles of great deckbuilding gameplay. Thanks to the wide selection of mechs and pilots, there are plenty of ways to approach each run. The boss fights shake up the gameplay in interesting ways, and the difficulty level strikes the right balance between being challenging and beating you down, but never so tough that things feel hopeless. You’ll always know where you made your mistakes, and how to improve for next time.

Aesthetically, the game feels like it stepped straight out of Nicktoon’s lineup from the 2010s. The energetic colors and frenetic sound design give the game a sense of vitality. The game’s battlefields have all of the color and liveliness of a Dance Dance Revolution stage. As alien invasions go, here’s one you’ll be happy to fight off time and again.

StarVaders is available on Steam. For more digital deckbuilding content from Card Gamer, you can check out our reviews of SpellRogue and Cobalt Core.