‘Starlair’ is the Super Metroid-Meets-Mario mashup of our dreams

Since its release Super Mario Maker Back in 2015, we secretly hoped that Nintendo would follow the same formula for every other franchise they had. That wish has so far been unsuccessful (save for some fun ‘Zelda Maker’ clones from the likes of Quest master And Super dungeon maker), but it looks like another indie developer is stepping up to fill the ‘Metroid Maker’ void.

star is, according to its formality Kickstarter description, the opportunity to “Explore a vast universe filled with player-created Metroidvanias”. In our eyes, that’s ‘Metroid Maker’.

This is the first project from developer Shooty Bazooky, and it certainly looks ambitious. You’ll be given the tools to create complex Metroidvania worlds with environmental customization options, a variety of enemy types, and all the Samus-esque upgrades you can think of. These creations then become their own worlds that other players can stumble upon as they explore the galaxy—think Sky without manbut created by the player.

Sure, the main attraction is probably the Metroidvania buildbut Starlair is as much about exploring these worlds as it is about creating them. There’s an artifact-collecting story mode to keep things interesting at the start, and you earn credits by completing each level that can be used for ship upgrades or cosmetic player options.

Here’s a look at Shooty Bazooky’s gameplay details so far:

The universe is always expanding. That’s even true in Starlair. Every time new planets are created (by the player), the universe expands. New motherships are launched. The world is always expanding.

But what is Starlair? It’s a giant, endless adventure that’s almost entirely player-generated. Each planet in the game is a player-built world. These are side-scrolling Metroidvanias that can take half an hour or a week to complete. As more people play, more worlds appear, and it can take a lifetime to complete them all.

You play as a bounty hunter. As the game opens, you’ve betrayed your boss by dropping a bounty, then assassinated that boss’s wife – in revenge. Accused of colluding with the release bounty, your former boss demands a life of slavery in exchange for what he lost.

You are tasked with finding mysterious artifacts hidden inside “refugee planets”, which are worlds you will create in Starlair. As you collect more artifacts, you’ll start to know what they are – and why your boss wants them so much. But – at some point, when you collect more artifacts, someone else will approach you with another offer.

You can explore the storyline – or just fly around in space playing the world. It’s up to you. It’s not too heavy and that’s intentional. Each world has a social area in the landing zone. Here you can chat with other players – share tips/tricks or check the world leaderboard to see who has the fastest completion time, most completions, most monsters killed, highest percentage, etc.

As we mentioned, Starlair is now available to support adoption Kickstartermeaning it will only become a reality if the funding target is achieved £5,531 via July 19.

If this goal is achieved, the developer has stated that it aims to launch an early access version on Steam in “early fall” with the full version. released 1.0 by February 2025. You’ll be glad to know that Switch is included in the launch platform list (the developer released a video about it runs on hardware) as well as, interestingly, ‘Switch 2’, which the developer hopes will offer more power for improved resolution. Of course, all of that is pending Nintendo’s official announcement.

What do you think about Starlair? Would you like to see it on Switch? Let us know in the comments.