Still the fucking best roguelike, LONG LIVE THE KING

A step away from perfection when it works, and an incredibly tedious trial and error grind when it doesn't. I get why some people don't like Synthetik, but I managed to break through the awful and the good was honestly some of the best in this genre

Very fun and weirdly exhilarating, with every character feeling distinct and awesome to try different strategies with. Unfortunately, there's essentially 1-2 strategies you can actually win the whole game with for each deck colour, other strategies being just fun little penis runs you won't beat the final boss or get far on the assention scale with. Still very cool, and it's influence has been very impressive

Hades, at this moment, is the only roguelike to fully utilize a story framing that revolves directly around the fact that it is a roguelike you're playing, and with the story being damn solid, the gameplay being tight if not lacking in variety, and the general aesthetic being fun, memorable, and well-executed, this game is just a treat

Dicey Dungeon exists at a near-perfect intersection between Darkest Dungeon-esque "random bullshit that feels unfair" line, and a good roguelike's "It's fun, unique and chill every time" line. Every part of it is simple at the start, but keeps getting just a bit more complicated down the line to keep you hooked, and sooner or later, you learn to work around and accept the bullshit, and just start vibing. And this kinda combination of chill and challenge is pretty unique not just for this genre, but for videogames in general

It's unique, influential, and it can be fun, but more often than not, I don't feel much of anything playing Isaac, and at other times it just feels like the game is fucking with you and daring you to stop playing. And it's not that it's hard, is that the roguelike element is only fun as far as it makes you an overpowered demi-god effortlessly smashing everything in your path, because otherwise, there's not strategy, the strategy for picking rooms and powerups and shit is non-existent, and this game actively wants you to get bad items that won't help you or even be fun in any way. Isaac is best described (not by me) as a slot-machine: if you get lucky - great, if you don't - it was all a waste of time. This game is boring in terms of movement, combat, progression and secrets, and would honestly be best if turned into an RPG or something. But at least the "room-clearing laser-beam" shit is pretty cool ngl

West of Dead is probably the first rogue-like/lite game that I've played that isn't all about fast-paced action with lots of doges, walking on razor's edge with high-damage enemies and crazy items that make you go nuclear if you manage to nab them, OR one that isn't turn-based. West of Dead is slow, and it's methodical, and pretty much 80% of guns and items are designed to keep you in cover taking pot-shots at the undead hords untill your cover breaks, when you'll have to find a new piece of wood or brick to hide behind. The rythm of this game is pretty unique, and so is the atmosphere, and while it's kinda clunky and I wish it was a little more exciting at times, this one is one of the better rogue-likes I've played so far.

Cult of the Lamb's roguelike half is more fun than most on a basic mechanical level, but with just a few weapons and spells, low enemy variety and pretty boring items, it's fairly weak as a representative of this genre

Bad North is fun for sometime, but like 80% of any run is piss-easy or literally impossible to win with your strategy and squads. This game is low-stakes, low-reward, and one of the rare examples of a roguelike whose roguelike elements do nothing but hinder the experience. If this very game was just a streamlined RTS-RPG with some spoofy story about a troop of viking warlords, it would've been a blast, 'specially given the art-style and the sound-design, but as it is, it's very dissapointing at the end of the day. Still pretty fun doe

It's fun when it works, but it almost never does, and all the challenges the game throws at you feel discouraging in the worst way possible: instead of defeat pushing you to get better at the game, in DD defeat never feels like your fault, and "getting better" feels like a very nebulous goal concidering the RNG at the core of this title. I guess I can commend a game going for a "you can die at any moment and you'll just have to eat it" kind of gameplay loop, but without any meaningful narrative to support it I can't say Darkest Dungeon worked for me

NT is fun and chaotic and has great sounds, but the guns mostly feel the same, and so do the bosses, and so do the enemies, and so do the maps. In a way, it is one of those "pure" genre experiences, but just like it is with other pure genre-games, Nuclear Throne is kinda boring, and I had no motivation to continue playing past, like, the 5-hour mark

It's fun to mow-down swaths of enemies with fireballs and whatnot, but that's kind of the extent of what Hero Siege has going for it

It's very simple, but it's kind of fun too. Definitely worth playing on mobile, but on PC? Suit yourself...

Just as annoying as Rebirth, but not nearly as fun, though I do appreciate the Newgrounds charm this one has

Try as I might, I don't get Spelunky. It feels like no matter what I do, no matter what approach or what turn I make, I always end up eating an arrow from off-screen, or being soft-locked out of the exit because I don't have enough bombs, or just end up feeling like I wasted my time. All of the influences of this game seem to clash in the worst way possible: the platforming is wanky and takes away from the action, the action is dumb and ultimately pointless, and all of the time you spend killing is time wasted, and puzzle-solving is kind of the point, but feels awkward and, again, is just another thing vying for your time. At the end of the day, whatever you do - be prepared to die and restart in a minute or two anyway. That's life.

Adore's heart is in the right place, but as it is right now, the game is just too awkward to control to be enjoyable consistently

Kind of awful, which is weird, because it's literally Gungeon but a mobile game. Turns out a roguelike with watered-down item randomization and nutered mechanics that is controlled with glass is not a fun thing

Ziggurat feels like if Croteam made a Serious Sam game, but made the guns into water-guns, then made all the enemies demons from Doom '93, then made Sam a lumbering pile of metal sometimes running at 3 mph. Not Good