Solar Ash is a fast-paced platformer with a story that’ll keep you skating all over the place.
It seems 2023 was the year of great games. We’ve seen everything from maddening Souls-like releases to super cozy survival games, but platformers seem somewhat underrated… Or at least, the developers for certain platformers tend to fall under the radar.
Heart Machine is currently the prime example, and while they don’t exclusively deal with platformers, they do fall into the underrated category with their releases of Hyper Light Drifter, Heart Machine’s first step into the gaming world, with a pixel art adventure released in 2016.
Though this didn’t stop the Los Angeles-based developer, they kept pushing forward and eventually released Solar Ash for PC in 2022. However, they saw the rest of their fans and expanded the release of Solar Ash to console platforms on 14 September 2023. Now, Heart Machine does come with a motto, ‘Building impactful experiences with heart’.
And they more than hit the nail on the head with Solar Ash, but added a few twists to their puzzle platformer. This is even more real with Annapurna Interactive as their publisher, you know…. The same publisher as Stray, so you know there’s either a vague story or a detailed one waiting for you, but it’s great either way you look at it.
The world of Solar Ash isn’t quite what you’d expect; you’ll play as Rei, a Voidrunner on a mission of note. Voidrunners are the select few who can survive the Ultravoid, and the Ultravoid is a world-eating black hole. However, Rei’s world is on the verge of destruction because of the Ultravision.
She and a team of Voidrunners set out with the Starseed to collapse the black hole threatening their existence. Unfortunately, nothing is ever quite as it seems, and their mission went very far South. Rei is the final member of the team, and after losing all communication with the rest of her team, she sets out into the Ultravoid to find her team members and finish the mission. Granted, this is where things went downhill for her.
Your adventure into Solar Ash starts with Rei jumping into the event horizon of the Ultravoid, though this is also where she meets Echo for the first time. Sadly, that meeting doesn’t last very long as Echo smashes her into oblivion, which is when Rei wakes up at the landing site.
Welcome to the tutorial; a little warning: While the tutorial is detailed enough, it can’t quite prepare you for how smooth the controls are, which is to be expected since Rei doesn’t just run; she skates. Naturally, this comes with its challenges in terms of control because of how fluid movement can be, and this speeds up the overall gameplay a lot, to the point where you might lose control a few times at first.
As mentioned before, starting the slippery slope to chaos, Rei doesn’t just run or walk; she also Skates. Skating is similar to sprinting, but it also feels, for lack of a better word, slippery. This is to be expected, though, and can take some getting used to at first.
But with some practice and following the PPlasma, you’ll be skating all over the Ultravoid in no time. However, Skating isn’t all there is to Solar Ash, and this is where Boost comes in handy when you need it most. A quick burst of speed to get around fast, extend your jumps, or just dodge enemies.
Now, life in Solar Ash isn’t all running and jumping, well, not entirely. You’ll have to face off against the Remnants in various forms, from tiny creatures that only need a few hits to take down to the more complicated things that look like tar and bone covering walls in certain areas.
However, there is a lot more to them than just standing in your way – You’ll eventually meet CYD, an AI who will help you along the way, provided you can clear out the Remnant and reconnect all the Starseed Conduits. Once all the Conduits are reconnected, you can finally activate the Starseed.
Taking on the Remnant is no easy task; small creatures are a piece of cake to take down, while bigger ones need a bit more strategy or quick thinking. There is the matter of the bigger Remnants, though; approaching one will spawn a spear, which marks the start of a timed puzzle.
You’ll need to climb, sprint, run, and grapple your way to each spear to reset the timer. Failing to do so while on the Remnant will cause you to burn away if you’re on top of it, or you’ll just have to start over. Souls-like fans will definitely shine here because it’s just pattern memorization.
Sadly, there is one more Remnant to keep in mind before you can consider the area completed: Massive Anomalies. These are essentially the area bosses; they’re big and menacing, and clearing out the Remnant brings them one step closer to rising again.
Taking them down is semi-simple, though; it’s also a type of fast-paced puzzle, but the stakes are much higher, and you’ll need to do it in one shot to bring it down. Unless you’re a sucker for punishment and just want to see Rei burn away when the time runs out, though that might take a few tries if you have shield charges.
Speaking of, Solar Ash doesn’t have a health system; you’ll instead be given Shield charges. These can be seen as health but also lives; running out means you are destroyed, and you’ll lose any Plasma you picked up along the way and progress with the current Massive Anomaly.
To make matters worse, you only start with one spare charge, giving you two hits, and then it’s destruction for you. However, CYD is more than an interesting conversation because she can upgrade your Shield charges at the cost of Plasma, and extra charges are scattered all over the place.
On the other hand, CYD will also allow you to swap Voidrunner Suits. Yes, the plot thickens even more in Solar Ash. Rei would be severely limited in perks if she couldn’t power up; finding Voidrunner logs in each area will give you pieces of their respective suits, and each suit comes with a unique buff.
The suit buffs range from Double Plasma Pickups to a nice damage boost; sadly, you can only use one at a time. So, this one is dependent on your playstyle, and which suits you can get since the logs are hidden.
The biggest thing to keep in mind with Solar Ash is that each new area will keep you on your toes. Each area will have different environments that you’ll need to use to your advantage to get around. You might start with a sea of clouds to Skate on, but it’ll eventually become a Lava Hell where you’ll need to use mushrooms that shoot out grind rails to grind on all over the place.
Luckily, with how fast-paced Solar Ash is, it’s nice to have a pause button that comes in the form of Timeslip. This will bring the passage of time to a crawl for you and your enemies while also extending your grapple range. This is a nice touch and gives you a second to plan your next move.
Now, the Ultravoid would be a very dull place if there weren’t some form of side-quest or even other people to talk to. We get it; side-quests are a drag, but these are different. The NPC quests in Solar Ash might be a little over the top and downright odd.
But they all add to the main story and give you more information about what the Ultravoid is. Their stories also add so much more to the overall story and tie everything together, even though they might seem quite far from the actual plot.
This goes without saying, but Solar Ash has so much visual appeal it’s almost terrifying. It doesn’t rely on over-the-top 3D modeling or realistic textures; the game instead relies on simple textures and unique designs to create the Ultravoid and the characters inside of it.
Though it does really well as a third-person platformer, somehow, everything seems to be perfectly optimized, which is rare in this day and age. Solar Ash might be one of those releases where you occasionally have to stop and admire the scenery and its weird goodness.
Solar Ash doesn’t just impress on visuals, though; the sound engineering and voice acting are both phenomenal in every sense. There is subtle background music that helps build a good atmosphere, but it’s mostly the ambient music that drives everything, though the sound effects are great, too.
What makes Solar Ash shine is the voice acting, being fully voiced for all the conversations and even the log entries; every voice helps build the story and gives the game a somewhat relaxed feel when you’re not running around.
Overall, Solar Ash is one of those incredibly rare masterpieces that doesn’t get enough recognition for what it gives you; with an intensely rich story that unfolds as you progress and the unique world design, it just keeps giving you more reason to keep going. The fact that it’s a puzzle platformer adds to this game’s unique flair and helps keep things a bit more lively where other games go stale after a while.
