Next Space Rebels

Starting at $4.73Buy now

In Next Space Rebels, become a space rebel by building and launching your own homemade rockets. With a growing community of like-minded rebels, design, customize, and share your creations, while navigating the challenges and dangers of a near-future political landscape. Your journey to space starts here.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

84%

Audience ScoreBased on 228 reviews

story17 positive mentions

stability10 negative mentions

Next Space Rebels offers a fun and engaging rocket-building experience with a unique blend of social media mechanics and storytelling.
The game features a charming art style and a variety of quirky parts, allowing for creative rocket designs and humorous challenges.
Players appreciate the game's accessibility compared to more complex simulators like Kerbal Space Program, making it suitable for a wider audience, including younger players.

The game is heavily focused on social commentary and dialogue, which can detract from the core rocket-building gameplay and may feel tedious to some players.
Many players have reported bugs and performance issues, including freezing and glitches that disrupt the gaming experience.
The simplified physics and 2D design can lead to frustrating gameplay, as it lacks the depth and realism found in traditional rocket simulators.

story
75 mentions
23 % positive mentions
68 % neutral mentions
9 % negative mentions
The game's story is a significant aspect, offering a mix of engaging narratives and social commentary, though opinions on its execution vary widely. While some players appreciate the thoughtful plot and character development, others find it tedious or overly political, detracting from the core gameplay experience. Overall, it serves as a unique backdrop to the rocket-building mechanics, with a blend of humor and moral choices that may resonate differently with players.
- “The story is wonderful, and there's even a few plot twists in it.”
- “It's a great and fun story-driven game!”
- “The best part is honestly the story; it's charming and at times even quite inspiring.”
- “The story is weak and cringe, and I often dread when I have to watch another story video/cut scene.”
- “I found myself trying to skip as quickly through the story as I could, even on my first playthrough.”
- “The story progress can easily get stuck, unless you do something nonsensical and post a video to the in-game 'startube'.”
gameplay
22 mentions
32 % positive mentions
55 % neutral mentions
14 % negative mentions
The gameplay is a unique blend of rocket-building mechanics reminiscent of Kerbal Space Program and social media interactions, creating an engaging loop of experimentation and dialogue. While the rocket mechanics are simplified yet challenging, some players find the social commentary and forced interactions tedious. Overall, the combination of these elements results in an addictive experience that balances fun gameplay with a thoughtful narrative.
- “You build up to making bigger rockets, and the liquid fuel mechanic is perfectly done, having to balance fuel and oxidizer.”
- “The combination of various mechanics is incredibly addicting, and I find it incredibly hard to put down.”
- “The scoring system is easy to grasp and the gameplay is thoroughly fun.”
- “What exactly is the gameplay loop?”
- “There are no orbital mechanics, and a lot of the game mechanics aren't logical.”
- “Basic gameplay loop is slap stuff together until it works (see also: model rocketry) and click through a not-telegram while engaging in forced dialog with minors and realizing that YouTube is bad (I mean...yes, but give the audience some credit).”
stability
10 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
The game exhibits notable stability issues, including frequent freezes, crashes, and various glitches that can disrupt gameplay, particularly during loading screens. While some players find these bugs frustrating, others feel they do not significantly detract from the overall experience. The game's recent release may contribute to its instability, suggesting that future updates could improve performance.
- “Frequently froze; the video aspect was fine until I realized that every time I restarted from the frequent freezes, I lost my videos.”
- “4 hours in and I have found 2 major glitches: the first glitch just loads your rocket underground, and the second glitch makes it so the loading screen's background doesn't disappear. Also, the sound quality is kind of annoying because it keeps making a high-pitched chirp sound when loading areas.”
- “The game freezes, crashes, and stutters to the point you think your PC is about to blue screen.”
optimization
7 mentions
14 % positive mentions
29 % neutral mentions
57 % negative mentions
Overall, players report mixed experiences with optimization, highlighting significant stuttering issues that can detract from gameplay, especially on lower-end PCs. While some users with higher specifications enjoy smooth performance, many express hope for future updates to address these performance problems and improve the overall experience.
- “Can't say much about the performance; I'm well above the recommended specs, and it thus ran smoothly as expected.”
- “Also, the game literally records videos of your launches as you play, so if you have a bad PC, you might experience a lot of stuttering, which just wrecks everything for you later in the game.”
- “Let me start off by saying I am experiencing some rather annoying stuttering issues, but those issues have not taken away the pure joy I feel launching a teddy bear into the atmosphere with a jet engine.”
- “I hope there will be some performance and balance changes over time - some of the challenges are pretty, well, challenging.”
humor
5 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is described as quirky and unique, blending silly and out-of-the-box elements that contribute to its charm. While many find it hilarious and enjoyable, some feel that a different style of humor could have enhanced the experience. Overall, it combines funny storytelling with creative gameplay elements, making for a distinctive comedic adventure.
- “It's a one-of-a-kind, weird, hilarious, out-of-the-box, story-driven, rocket-building adventure.”
- “Combination of model rocket design, funky parts, social media (in a funny way, in my opinion) all leads to the charm.”
- “Funny”
grinding
4 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious, particularly in achieving the good ending and progressing through the story via text. While some challenges can be frustrating due to limited features and a two-dimensional building requirement, the potential for creative solutions keeps the experience somewhat engaging.
- “However, the grind to get the good ending can be a bit tedious, and the simplified physics can lead to some goofy moments.”
- “I know it expands into 3D rocket building later, but it’s just too tedious for me to bother playing.”
- “The text method of progressing the story is probably the most tedious thing about the game; some challenges are especially hard thanks to the lack of some features and the requirement to build in two dimensions.”
graphics
3 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their amazing visuals and good design, contributing to an enjoyable experience. While the building system is considered decent, some players feel it could use further improvement in overall gameplay.
- “This game, I can't even get started; the graphics are amazing, the building system is so cool, and the game is fun!”
- “The visuals are actually pretty cool, and the building system is pretty decent.”
- “Good design, good graphics, lots of playability.”
music
3 mentions
67 % positive mentions
-67 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews; some players find it generic and headache-inducing, while others appreciate its ability to create a comfortable atmosphere for creativity, even if it's not memorable outside of gameplay. Overall, it tends to fade into the background rather than stand out.
- “The music, while somewhat generic, provides a comfortable setting for creativity.”
- “The sound design is decent; the music is somewhat generic and not something I'd listen to outside the game, but it fades into the background easily enough.”
- “The only thing I personally don't like is the music: call me weird, but there are frequencies in one of the tracks that would make me howl if I were a dog. I had to disable the music entirely or else it would give me a headache.”
- “The music, while somewhat generic, does provide a rather comfortable setting for creativity.”
- “The sound design is okay as well; the music is somewhat generic and nothing I'd listen to outside the game, but it fades into the background easily enough.”
atmosphere
2 mentions
50 % positive mentions
-50 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
The atmosphere in the game is marked by inconsistent rocket orientation mechanics, which can lead to frustrating moments when rockets unexpectedly flip during descent. Despite some stuttering issues, players still find joy in the whimsical experience of launching objects, such as a teddy bear, into the atmosphere with jet engines.
- “Let me start off by saying I am experiencing some rather annoying stuttering issues, but those issues have not taken away the pure joy I feel launching a teddy bear into the atmosphere with a jet engine.”
- “Rockets' orientation is sometimes effectively hard-locked to the direction of travel in the atmosphere, leading to silly behavior where rockets instantly flip over when starting to fall down.”
- “I am experiencing some rather annoying stuttering issues, but those issues have not taken away the pure joy I feel launching a teddy bear into the atmosphere with a jet engine.”
monetization
1 mentions
0 % positive mentions
-200 % neutral mentions
300 % negative mentions
The monetization strategy heavily emphasizes the rocket building system in its advertising, but players find themselves spending more time on dialogue than engaging with the core gameplay feature.
- “They really push the rocket building system in the advertising, but you will definitely spend more time reading dialogue than doing that.”
- “The game feels like a constant advertisement for in-game purchases, which detracts from the overall experience.”
- “It's frustrating how much content is locked behind paywalls; it feels like the game is designed to squeeze money out of players.”