Yet another one of the somehow-legal-crack-cocaine-on-Steam-store roguelites, on par with Vampire Survivors with how good it pumps the ol' dopamine drip and eats the time allocated to your responsibilities, social life, and hygiene.
Its pool of mechanics is concise, shockingly well-balanced for a game in early access, and, as of 20 hours of game time, still producing new results every run. In sheer variety of approaches, Tiny Rogues easily beats Vampire Survivors, and gets close to such giants like Isaac and Dead Cells. The interaction between skills gained on level ups, innate character abilities (and there are so many characters), equipment, and consumables is really rich and varied, and makes planning a build a delight each time.
The tiny SNES-like action of the game is, again, shockingly satisfying, dynamic and, unlike Vampire Survivors, never lets you just kick back and enjoy the show. The first 5 levels or so are usually very breezy, but they let you focus on perfecting your build. The later levels are the real test of both the build and your skill, where the bullet hell aspect of the game comes through full force.
The only downside is that the game pretty much doesn't have any lore or story. It has a cute 8-bit aesthetic and even cuter homages to Dark Souls, but that's the extent of aesthetic engagement. It's so fun, that you don't actively notice it, but I imagine it will impact how much I remember of the game and how much I'm willing to return to it after, say, 40 hours.
Its pool of mechanics is concise, shockingly well-balanced for a game in early access, and, as of 20 hours of game time, still producing new results every run. In sheer variety of approaches, Tiny Rogues easily beats Vampire Survivors, and gets close to such giants like Isaac and Dead Cells. The interaction between skills gained on level ups, innate character abilities (and there are so many characters), equipment, and consumables is really rich and varied, and makes planning a build a delight each time.
The tiny SNES-like action of the game is, again, shockingly satisfying, dynamic and, unlike Vampire Survivors, never lets you just kick back and enjoy the show. The first 5 levels or so are usually very breezy, but they let you focus on perfecting your build. The later levels are the real test of both the build and your skill, where the bullet hell aspect of the game comes through full force.
The only downside is that the game pretty much doesn't have any lore or story. It has a cute 8-bit aesthetic and even cuter homages to Dark Souls, but that's the extent of aesthetic engagement. It's so fun, that you don't actively notice it, but I imagine it will impact how much I remember of the game and how much I'm willing to return to it after, say, 40 hours.