Solar Ash Reviews
If you’re looking for an exciting platformer with a stellar style and fast-paced action, Solar Ash will scratch that itch and more. Its puzzle-solving and exploration are hefty enough without overstaying its welcome. It’s not without flaws, but despite all of them, the mobility in Solar Ash is unrivaled, making it one of my favorite platformers in recent memory.
Solar Ash was a bit of a mixed experience, with not all aspects meeting the high quality of its core features. The first-rate visuals and the fluid movement system do lots of heavy lifting and do still outweigh the negatives to provide a world worth exploring in a way that will be hard not to enjoy.
Solar Ash combines complex ideas with simple and exciting gameplay in a way that few games are able to, and the final product is nothing short of remarkable. The visual style and soundtrack create the atmosphere, and the excellent writing of Rei and her journey use it to tell a story of grief, and how we can use it to build something better. Heart Machine's passion is clear, and Solar Ash is a triumph that manages to be incredibly fun despite its deeply emotional core. The game's world may be cold and unfeeling on the surface, but that'll only make you want to connect with it more. Solar Ash is an example of Heart Machine's exciting, compelling, lightning-in-a-bottle brilliance, and more than deserves to be considered among 2021's greatest games.
Influences from other games are quite present in Solar Ash — Tony Hawk's line-following, Super Mario Galaxy's wraparound camera, Shadow of the Colossus's massive bosses. While those together may seem incongruous, they come together to make it an exciting, fast-paced platformer that gives you the tools to move smoothly and complete the challenges before you. It's so satisfying to nail those obstacle courses, clear anomalies, and topple skyscraping Remnants. The roller coaster of Solar Ash is well worth riding.