Solar Blast

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1

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Review:

Solar Blast is a family-friendly Arcade-style game first released to mobile devices in 2018 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game has players controlling a directional shield protecting a sun from incoming projectiles.

The presentation in Solar Blast is impressive given what this game is able to accomplish with only 49MB of memory. The game has a simple, stylized look that works very well, with an orange glowing sun, glowing blue projectiles, and various colored backgrounds that maintain the game’s simple, clean look while also providing some degree of variety. The game’s simplistic look clearly hearkens back to its mobile origins, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, and while it doesn’t impress with top-notch visuals, its efficient economy of design is nonetheless admirable. These visuals are backed by an electronica soundtrack that’s suitable for this type of game, but a bit repetitive.

As for the game itself, I’ll say that the tight economy of design here isn’t limited to the game’s visuals. Solar Blast has players interacting with the game in one way and one way only – the direction players have a 360-degree shield facing. Yet the game manages to keep the gameplay fresh and varied using this single mechanic. Players have to fend off various projectiles, including some that proceed directly to target, some that fall into an orbit before descending, and even some that must be batted away with the shield like one would bat away a baseball with a bat. These objects are all affected by the game’s physics, meaning that players can even use the shield to bat one object into another, if they can manage the timing, angle, and speed correctly (or, more often, this may happen simply due to random chance).

The simple game mechanic that has emerging layers of complexity is a great foundation for the game, and my biggest complaint is that I really wish Solar Blast built on this mechanic in ways that gave the game more engaging progression and gave players more initiative to act on their own. Players progress through the game by going from one level to the next, with each level throwing designated projectiles at them from random directions. However, given the Arcade-style gameplay this game offers, I feel like this game would be a lot more fun if it offered an endless mode where players could try to get a great score, rather than simply trying to beat a level.

In addition, one other thing that limits this game is that players’ only interactions with the game are all reactive – they can only respond to projectiles that approach or catch a few defensive power-ups that drop. As a result, players don’t feel like their skill and ingenuity is “beating” the game so much as responding how the game dictates they should. While this is still fun, it’s not nearly as engaging as it could have been. At the very least, if players have no control over incoming projectiles, the game could have used this in a more engaging manner by making this into a Music-Rhythm game, making the deflections a timing-based activity.

One other thing I should note regarding this game, and that is the unusual way it handles control inputs. Firstly, I should note that this game does not support Pro Controllers at all – players wanting to use more traditional control schemes must make use of Joy-Cons, which is frustrating. Alternately, playing the game in handheld mode allows players to make use of the touchscreen, but honestly I found this to be a more awkward way to play the game, and using analog sticks felt far more natural. As a result of this, I would argue that the Nintendo Switch game is superior to the mobile version, though this version does still have its flaws.

In the end, despite all the missed opportunities to be a better game, Solar Blast is nevertheless still a pretty good one. For a mere $5, it’s a pretty good, simplistic Arcade experience. Despite extremely simple controls, it manages to have some surprising depths, though of course I can’t help but feel like the gameplay here could have been greatly expanded on in numerous ways. However, while it may lack the ambitions to make it into something greater, this is still a worthwhile experience for those looking for something smaller to play in short sessions.

tl;dr – Solar Blast is a family-friendly Arcade-style game where players use a shield to protect a sun from incoming projectiles. The simple one-stick gameplay actually manages to have some surprising nuance. It’s a shame this game passed up numerous opportunities to build on its solid core gameplay to become something greater, but for the low $5 price tag, what’s here is still pretty good and worth a look.

Grade: B-

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