Derelict Star Review
Derelict Star is a momentum-based 2D platformer with a chef's kiss gamefeel, and it's already making waves in the indie gaming community. With a release date set for April 3, 2026, and an expected price of $10, this game promises to deliver a unique blend of challenge and exploration. Developed by gate and published by Luminous Tree Games, Derelict Star is designed to run smoothly on a variety of systems, including the RTX 3060 (laptop), Ryzen 5 5600H, and 16GB RAM. It's also Steam Deck Verified, which is a big plus for fans of portable gaming.
A Unique Gaming Experience
Derelict Star is a game that will test your patience and skill in equal measure. It's a momentum-based 2D platformer with a 1:1 aspect ratio, and its spartan pixel art style is reminiscent of classic gaming. The game's strict physics system is both a challenge and a feature, as it requires precise control and timing to navigate through its sprawling world. There are no boss battles or combat elements, just a little pixel person stranded in space who must retrieve eight power cells to power up their ship and get home.
The game's setting is a massive space freighter, which is a world of ultra-parsable grids. The austere and beautiful design of the freighter is purely functional, but it's filled with secrets waiting to be discovered. The chunky pixel art allows for precise movement, which is crucial to the game's design. For example, the difference between dying to a lava coral and standing close enough to gain momentum to reach a nearby platform is clear and well-defined.
A Special Kind of Metroidvania
Derelict Star is a special kind of metroidvania, similar to Öoo, but with a unique twist. Instead of gaining new power-ups or skills to access previously inaccessible areas, the game focuses on unlocking the mysteries of how the player-character works. It's a game about learning how to move, and it has more in common with a Codemasters F1 game than it does with a typical metroidvania. The game trades in perfect but vibe-driven execution, and it wants you to feel out curves and right angles just so and at the right speed.
The challenge of the game is that the movement is never obviously possible until you pull it off. When you learn to do it with aplomb, the game sings anew with endless potential. Moment-to-moment experimentation is baked into its design, and it demands that you keep trying.
The Jetpack Mechanic
One of the standout features of Derelict Star is the jetpack mechanic. The game is designed in such a way that you are always conscious of your hands when playing, and you are amazed by what they can achieve. The jetpack allows for incredible movement, and the game's design encourages creative use of this feature.
At the bottom of the screen is a meter that shows how much speed you've accrued via running on flat ground. If you jump and use your jetpack from a static position, it's piddling, but if you fill the meter from blue through orange into red via running and then jump, you can leap vast distances. Sometimes you can maintain a red-level momentum even if you slow down, as long as you don't collide with any momentum-killing surface, allowing you to float upward through impossible vertical gauntlets.
The game's world is a grid, but you are not fixed to it. This collision of ultra-readable obstacles with expressive play is where the heart of Derelict Star's compelling tension and agency lies. The rules during the first hour are the same as the rules 30 hours later, and you are never better equipped, but you're constantly learning.
Exploratory Atmosphere
Importantly, Derelict Star doesn't sidescroll: the world unfurls as discrete rooms. Sometimes you use your momentum, speed, and amazing ability to float not just to reach platforms but to peek into places it might be possible to reach. In this world of discrete "rooms," there is always a regional novelty, such as slippery ice, vines that stop you from jumping but can give you a huge amount of vertical momentum if you grasp onto them at speed when they're on walls, collectible dots that give you a brief vertical boost, or bouncy airborne bubbles and blocky nodes that can propel you great distances if you hit them from the correct angle at the right speed.
Along the route to every crucial power cell lies a new confusion to your jetpack fellow's path. The game executes on its concerns with formidable severity and quiet technical prowess. Checkpoints are abundant, and from each, it's possible to fast travel to another via a map that plainly shows where each power cell is. This gives Derelict Star its freewheeling, explorative atmosphere: if things are too tough, it's just three button presses to get back on track.
