Solar Ash delayed to December

News
By published

The Hyper Light Drifter successor was originally scheduled to arrive this month

Solar Ash
(Image credit: Heart Machine)

Hyper Light Drifter creator Heart Machine has delayed Solar Ash, its upcoming third-person parkour platformer, to December 2.

Originally expected later this month, Solar Ash will now arrive on PS4, PS5, and PC (via the Epic Games Store) right before the holidays. This represents a roughly five-week delay, which is pretty small compared to the many delays we've seen in the past two years especially.

"We want Solar Ash to shine, and we need a bit more time to get the last pieces of polish and bug fixes into the game, while still navigating this global pandemic as a highly dedicated team," Heart Machine said in a statement posted to Twitter. "This short delay will help us get there." 

"The support and understanding pouring in has been so heartwarming and encouraging for the team," Heart Machine said in a Twitter reply. "The community is great!!"

We got our first up-close look at Solar Ash last month, and were immediately engrossed in its fluid movement and fantastical world. By deliberately minimizing actual combat and focusing more on the elegant, explosive parkour of protagonist Rei, Solar Ash creates a platforming playground we can't look away from. Director Alx Preston described the "dumb elevator pitch" for the game as Shadow of the Colossus meets Super Mario Galaxy, hence the titanic bosses and explorable planetoids, and it genuinely lives up to that far-fetched premise. 

As you'd expect from a game pushing stylish movement, Heart Machine hopes Solar Ash speedrunners "break the f*ck out of it". 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.