
With near-perfect execution, StarVaders is a must-play for any strategy fan.
96
Verdict
97%
Steam
—
IGDB
Verdict score based on confidence-adjusted Steam reviews?
Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam (97% positive from 4.0K reviews)
Steep difficulty curve may not appeal to casual players
StarVaders is a 2025 roguelike deckbuilder video game where players build and use a deck of cards to control a mech to fight enemies on a grid. The game was developed by Canadian indie studio Pengonauts, and released in April 2025 for Windows and macOS. The game received "generally favorable" reviews and was nominated for "Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year" at the 29th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.

Runs well on modern hardware.
Last updated 1d ago
The best Deck builder I have ever played. Even more awesome than Wildfrost and Trials of fire, my previous two favorites in the genre. Edit: I've come to the conclusion that spells are a bit gimmicky. They tend to dominate too much in late game and there isn't really any strategy to the majority of them. You just cast them whenever they become fully charged. And I am not really a fan of the fact that a couple af cards and artifacts kind of break the game. Recycler and Void storm come to mind. That said I still think Starvaders is a great game. Runs with pilots that belong to Gunner and Stinger are super fun and most of those pilots feel completely unique. So, after revising my ranking list, Starvaders is my third favorite deckbuilder of all time (after Wildfrost and Trials of fire).
Really fun deckbuilder with some unique spins. Fantastic soundtrack.
I have seven hundred Junk cards and five hundred Burnt cards, there are fourty bombs on the field all centered on Me; the second I shuffle my deck I will Die.
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Data sourced from RAWG, Steam, IGDB, CheapShark, Wikipedia, HLTB, and GX Corner. Sources: rawg, steam, cheapshark, igdb, wikipedia.
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