# Solar Explorer: New Dawn — user reviews

> 77 indexed App Store user reviews of Solar Explorer by Dwarf Cavern AS, rated 3.99/5 from 95 ratings.

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/solar-explorer-new-dawn/id1457559035/reviews
- App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/solar-explorer-new-dawn/id1457559035.md
- Rating breakdown: 5★ 52 · 4★ 20 · 3★ 3 · 2★ 10 · 1★ 10

## What do users think of Solar Explorer?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 🎨 Stunning graphics and visual polish
- 🎮 Engaging and addictive gameplay mechanics
- 🎵 High-quality soundtrack and audio design
- 💰 No ads or microtransactions
- ⚙️ Realistic physics simulation
- 🎯 Challenging difficulty that rewards skill
- 📱 Smooth controls and responsive gameplay
- 🚀 Excellent value for price point
- 🎪 Arcade-style fun without simulation complexity

**Cons**

- 🐛 Overly sensitive controls and thruster responsiveness
- 😤 Extremely difficult difficulty curve for beginners
- 🔄 Highly repetitive gameplay loop
- ⏱️ Short game length with limited content
- 📍 Unfair asteroid hit detection mechanics
- ❌ Unclear progression system and mission objectives
- 🌍 Unrealistic landing velocity requirements
- 🎮 No checkpoints between mission stages
- 📝 Small text size difficult to read
- 🎯 Overpowered thruster mechanics cause uncontrollable spinning

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Left thruster works sporadically during descent
- Asteroid collision detection is inaccurate
- Controls unresponsive during entry phase
- Ship spins uncontrollably when using thrusters
- Landing pad not appearing in correct location
- Game crashes on older iPad models without iOS updates
- Mission progression stuck at 80% completion
- Active missions remain marked as active after completion
- Text cutoff on right side of iPhone Max screen
- Spelling error: 'collonists' instead of 'colonists'
- Video banding artifacts in cutscenes

**Most requested features**

- More planets and moons to explore
- Checkpoint system between landing stages
- Customizable rocket designs and paint options
- Sandbox or infinite mode for endless gameplay
- Training/practice mode for landing techniques
- Procedurally generated planets
- Additional rocket types and equipment tiers
- Outer solar system expansion
- Multiplayer or competitive racing modes
- iCloud save synchronization across devices
- Adjustable fuel load during planning stage
- Delta-V and maneuver readouts
- Separate fuel systems for maneuver thrusters
- Strategic mission planning with budget constraints
- Text zoom and accessibility improvements
- Directional indicators for course correction
- Story elements and narrative expansion

## Newest reviews (13 of 77)

### 4/5 — Enjoyable until it becomes impossible

*2022-11-17, version 1.0.3*

I got to Venus on medium level but had to give up as it was just too annoying

### 4/5 — Good but…

*2022-08-28, version 1.0.3*

Please fix the controls on the entry becuase it’s not working properly for me.

### 4/5 — Stuck on Earth 88%

*2022-02-23, version 1.0.3*

Must be a bug? I keep successfully landing but I don’t seem to be able to progress, it’s not very clear what else needs to be completed other than looking for ‘active’ missions however upon completing these missions they remain active…..otherwise the game is excellent.

### 4/5 — Very good lander game

*2021-07-11, version 1.0.3*

Overall I really like the look and feel to the game. The only criticism I can make is with the hit detection of the asteroids during landing. 

Some of them are absolutely nowhere near the lander and yet still record a hit - throwing you out of the pipe or worse, into the path of another asteroid.

I’ve go very little faith that I could thread past these rocks without the game thinking I had hit them.

### 3/5 — It is not realistic

*2021-05-09, version 1.0.3*

I touch the ground at 12km per
 hour the moon missions landed at 6-12 miles per hour

### 2/5 — it’s hard

*2020-05-26, version 1.0.3*

Is game is so hard I can’t finish a level 😡😡😡👎🏼 please fix it I could give it five ⭐️

### 2/5 — Fun for an hour

*2020-04-16, version 1.0.3*

Good landing game, controls work well, but gets repetitive real fast.

### 2/5 — Spaceship touches ground and explodes

*2020-01-05, version 1.0.3*

I can’t land perfectly due to the ship exploding when hitting ground and how do I even fix this??

### 5/5 — Bungie should be calling you soon

*2019-09-13*

Destiny 1 and 2 needed this type of element to fill the void between planetary missions. Honestly what you have here is a literal masterpiece. Particularly as a multi-platform mobile game. I was a space and aeronautics nerd as a kid and grew up in the 80s(NASA’s glory years). My favorite game as a kid was the moon lander game that was in the Huntsville Space and rocket center in Alabama. This game is about as close as it gets to the mechanics but obviously a quantum leap on the graphics side of things. I wish you the best and look forward to seeing anything that comes down the DEV production chute.

**Developer response:** Thank you so much for your kind words, for playing and rating the game! I can't tell you how much feedback like this means :) It's quite challenging to do something like this alone, but moments like these absolutely make it all worthwhile :) Thank you!

### 5/5 — The Best Game

*2019-09-03*

This space game has been the best I have ever played, thanks for that, but I have been looking forward to it, I have won it in 48 hours, I wish that in the future more planets and moons will be added.

**Developer response:** Thank you so much for your support and for playing the game :) Future updates will bring more planets and some more features to the game :)

### 5/5 — So much fun!

*2019-07-20, version 1.0.3*

This game is beautifully made and presented. Love how well the physics is applied (I assume, I have next to no knowledge of zero gravity aerodynamics) and the replayability of the levels. 

I’m super unco, so this is a bit of a challenge for me but I’m loving it! Congrats to the creators - this is a spectacular iPad game.

### 3/5 — Good gameplay. Big to iron out

*2019-06-28*

Enjoy playing but the thing that bothers me is the incorrect spelling of colonists (collonists) on the screen after touch down. Could be an easy fix with an update. Otherwise a fun little short game

**Developer response:** Thank you for playing and for your feedback. This has been fixed now and will be rolling out with an upcoming update, sometime next week. Thanks for pointing out the typo :)

### 4/5 — Stuck on Mars

*2019-06-23, version 1.0.3*

I have successfully completed each landing on Mars and its’ two moons. What must I do to get to the next planet?

## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated)

### 1/5 — fix this

*2022-07-10, version 1.0.3*

When I use the thrusters to move the rocket it doesn’t work and I crash into asteroids and die, and I can’t slow down on the landing part It just make me do 360 spins also, when I’m in the blue zone your suppost to be in when I go down for landing it isn’t in there and instead I land 10000 Km away also have another mini thruster so you move side to side not spinning, and when ever I can use thrusters there overly powerful and I go flying a bjillion miles away please fix these issues as they are trash for the time being I will not recommend this to anyone as this is not worth the money please fix this.

### 1/5 — Fix game

*2020-04-20, version 1.0.3*

Why do we land on planets why do we need to land on a landing pad?

### 1/5 — Hard

*2019-11-23, version 1.0.3*

It’s to hard on. The easy setting

### 1/5 — Trash

*2019-09-22, version 1.0.3*

Trash trash trash trash

### 1/5 — I like the game a nano meter

*2019-08-25, version 1.0.3*

I hate the game Cause I can’t pass level 1 the game won’t let me slow down to land THaNK YoU I hate it you won’t be thank you for the feed back 🌇🥵🥵🥵🤬🤬🤬🤬😡😡😡😤😤😤😎👾👾👾👽👽👽👽👿👿👿👿👿👿👿😈😈😈😈😈💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩👊🏿👊🏿👊🏿👊🏿👊🏿👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾👎🏿👎🏾👎🏾👎🏾👎🏾👎🏾

### 1/5 — An arcade lander that has mostly ignores with physics and reality

*2019-06-04, version 1.0.2*

This is a runner app posing as a... spacecraft handling app? Who the f— knows.

Game designer simplified deorbitting a spacecraft that has 6 degrees of freedom (xyz translation, pitch, roll, yaw) into a simple three control runner app filled with annoying unrealistic mechanics.

Save your money.

### 1/5 — Repeats

*2019-06-03, version 1.0.2*

All you do in the game is do the same thing over and over again at different difficulty’s

### 1/5 — Rlly it’s toooo hard

*2019-06-02, version 1.0.2*

I tried 5 times to land on the landing point but noooooo the rocket goes crazy and it doesn’t land he just goes left and I need to turn him right and he spins BUT I DONT WANT THAT SO MAKE IT EASY PLZZZZZ

### 2/5 — The lightest tap can destroy everything

*2022-12-10, version 1.0.3*

On any planet land at are 3-4 kph will instantly destroy you no updates also

### 2/5 — Way Too “HARD”

*2021-03-13, version 1.0.3*

I Tried To Play This Game, Hours Later, Stopped Playing. Please Make It Easy.

## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated)

### 5/5 — Very good

*2025-02-13, version 1.0.3*

Very good game 
I mainly made this to say it is an arcade game don’t rate it 1-2 stars just because you thought it was something different nowhere does it say it’s a simulator.

### 5/5 — Good good goood

*2024-03-17, version 1.0.3*

Good graphics sundhsn

### 5/5 — 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

*2022-02-19, version 1.0.3*

GREAT GAME 20/10

### 5/5 — Highly addictive

*2020-08-22, version 1.0.3*

What a superb app!! Downloaded it when I was getting up, 1 hour later still sat there playing with it! Money very well spent!

### 5/5 — Crashes on iPad 6th generation until you update the software iOS to 13.5.1.

*2020-06-13*

Crashes on iPad 6th generation until you update the software iOS to 13.5.1.

I really enjoy the game now.  Great graphics!

### 5/5 — great game!

*2020-04-11, version 1.0.3*

wow, i love the physic in this game. i’m not a huge gamer but i can’t stop playing!

### 5/5 — One of the best games I’ve played!

*2020-02-06, version 1.0.3*

This game is so fun for me since I love space and rockets. But one thing, if you could make another solar Explorer: game to colonize the outer solar system that would be great!

### 5/5 — Really Good

*2019-10-21, version 1.0.3*

Highly polished lander, very playable. Would recommend.
Can’t wait for the new level updates!

### 5/5 — Simple but great game.

*2019-10-19, version 1.0.3*

This is a brilliantly simple game to play, but it seems to have me hooked. It is physics based, but not in the way of KSP. I haven’t played it on a larger screen yet, but it is beautiful.

### 5/5 — Really fun game

*2019-10-14, version 1.0.3*

Really enjoying this at the moment as a time killer. It’s good to see a game that you can just have a little fun with; without the developer screaming at you for micro payments.

Infuriating but a lot of fun

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*