Described as ‘special’ by Balatro’s creator, snappy tactical deckbuilding roguelike StarVaders punches well above its weight

This is the last thing I need. Another deceptively addictive roguelike to bombard me with syrupy dopamine hits. I have Expedition 33 to play and Blue Prince’s late-game puzzles beckon, not to speak of countless indie oddities vying for my time. But no, I’ve spent far longer playing StarVaders than I’d care to assign a hard numerical value to for fear of being shamed since a-bit-too-enthusiastically accepting a code yesterday.

What’s it all about? Take classic retro arcade mainstay Space Invaders, ladle in some of Into the Breach’s turn-based strategy, then top it off with Balatro’s deckbuilding roguelike loop, and you more or less get StarVaders, a tactical, grid-based, deckbuilding roguelike. Yes, yes, these are all the rage right now with a poor facsimile of the last popping up what feels like almost daily. But StarVaders is a lustrous little standout despite its Steam tags aligning with what’s hot right now. Balatro’s creator, LocalThunk, called it ‘special’ so don’t just take my word for it.

StarVaders is played on a 5×8 (sometimes 5×9) grid where you command a mech tasked with wiping out cutesy alien robots and gelatinous blobs as they slowly shift to the bottom of the screen. Using cards pulled at random from your deck, you can move squares, fire off bullets, plant bombs, draft in drones that match your moves, or perform a myriad of other actions to rid the grid of enemies. Every roguelike run is framed by three acts. Each one consists of four minor scuffles and a boss fight. Fail to fight off the alien invasion and you’re booted back to the beginning, unlocking new pilots and cards to soften the sting of failure.

The real magic is in tactically placing your cards to orchestrate combos, which you’ll need as the threat mounts the deeper you get into a run. Your mech can also overheat, a neat throw-caution-to-the-wind mechanic. A gauge in the top left fills up as you use cards. Overheat by using more cards than the standard allocation to unleash a bonus attack and you’ll burn it, rendering it useless for the rest of the fight. Chrono Tokens let you rewind time if you botched your last turn, working as a safety net so your run doesn’t end too prematurely. Throw in over 400 unique cards, upgrades, and artifacts that change with every run and you get a solid idea of StarVaders’ deep replayability. 

While describing the moment-to-moment granularity gives you a sense of what StarVaders is all about, it doesn’t convey just how fun and easy it is to play. No steep learning curve, no loading screens, no endless dialogue, or other superfluous dross, it’s bam, bam, bam, perfectly-paced interactive fun as soon as you load in. To top it off, there are snappy stories for the mech pilots you’ll meet along the way that frame the whole experience with a bit of narrative dressing.

Better yet, StarVaders is out today, April 30th, 2025, on Steam so you can sample its satisfying hook right away. It’s the debut game from developer Pengonauts, a team of three working out of Montreal, Canada. I’ll be keeping a close eye on what they do next.