10 roguelikes you need to try

Roguelikes are the gift that keeps on gifting. Most of these are pretty cheap and they offer a ton of content. Compared to story games, they are absolutely worth the money. If you like the genre, you will know most of the ones I’m recommending already, so don’t expect any surprises, but if you are new to the genre, then these are the best recommondations I can give you. What I tried to do with this list is give you a variety of roguelikes, so you don’t play 10 games with the same mechanics.

Balatro
If you have been living under a rock, you might not have heard of the insanity that is known as Balatro. It’s a solo poker card game. Your goal in this game is to beat high scores by making insane combos with poker hands. Beating 8 bosses makes you win a run. Jokers are wild in this game and give you extra perks and ways to make combos. If you like cards and high numbers, you will like this game.

Ball x pit
This game is so much freaking fun. you have to have the balls to play it though, in game, obviously. What were you even thinking. This is an arkanoid/ball breaker roguelike. You unlock different characters that manipulate the balls differently and you unlock more levels. There is also light base-building in between the levels that help you unlock buffs and perks for your characters that make the levels easier. it’s not a diffficult rogue-like, but so much fun.

Brotato
What can you do these days for 5 euro (5 dollar approx.)? Not much. What you can do is get hours and hours of fun in Brotato. it has a ton of taters to unlock as playable characters. Your goal is to survive rounds and rounds against alien invaders. It’s a vampire survivor-like (also a good roguelike) but on a smaller, contained map. It has a fun art-style and is fun for those 30 minute runs.

Children of Morta
Why should you get Children of Morta? The first one is the beautiful pixel art. The touching story of a family. the action-rpg playstyle. If you like all this, you are going to love this roguelike. You can play this solo or multiplayer, which is a nice thing in a roguelike.

Dead cells
Dead cells is a heavy hitter in the roguelike genre. Made by obvious fans of the metroidvania style of gameplay and it shows. It’s one of my all-time favourites of “just another go” style of gameplay. I have this on so many different consoles and pc it’s not even funny anymore. I just love this game. The fact they got to do a collaboration with castlevania is just icing on the cake. Dead cells is one of those games that you love or hate, but there is no in-between. You either are freaking nuts about this game, or you don’t like it. I’m not good at it, but I absolutely love trying to progress the biomes and finishing at least one run, but so far, it hasn’t worked out in my favour yet. Still love the game though.

Hades
Seriously… if you don’t know the game Hades at this point, what are you even doing here? You are Zagreus. With the help from your aunts and uncles you have set your mind to leaving your father’s clutches and to leave the underworld. Oh, yeah… your father is Hades. Yep, that dude. Big ego, Three headed dog. You know him. This game spawned a few clones and it even got a sequel. You gotta love it. It has a great soundtrack, absolutely lovely graphics and the characters are so funny (and gorgeous!).

Devil Jam
I’m not biased for Devil Jam. It’s made in Flanders, Belgium. So yeah, maybe a little. It’s a vampire-survivor like, but unlike brotato or the actual vampire survivors, this is rhythm-based, so adds another twist to the mix. It plays like a metal-album and has the graphics to match. It has the looks and feel of Hades but then a vampire-survivors-like. It’s a beauty of a game, pokes fun at the metal fans and has a very, very good soundtrack. Absolutely love it.

Rack and slay
You probably don’t have the aspiration to be the best pool-shark there ever lived, but you might love to play a game of pool. what if you did it as a dungeon crawler? You hit other balls in holes, spike them, do other nasty things to them. Gameplay is simple but surprisingly addictive. The balls you are supposed to hit have these funny faces and respond to you hitting them. I love how each board where you play has traps and such that you need to avoid, but you still get room enough to bounce around. It’s one of the most fun, original roguelikes that I know of.

Wizard of legend
What if you could be the best elemental wizard that ever lived? You dash around generated dungeons to face off against the best in this wizard tournament to claim the title for yourself. If you ever wanted a good “the last airbender” game but couldn’t find one, you will love the elemental powers in this game. A round can end in minutes or can last 30 minutes. Up to you. (i’m not good at this game, so i’m usually in the minutes department, I really need to step up my game).

Dungeon clawler
You play as bunnies operating a claw-machine. That’s the game. The things you catch either damage your or damage the opponent. It’s that easy. Fun to play one-handed, as it has surprisingly easy controls. This game also has the distinction of having my favourite, my all-time favourite boss-stage track of all time. It’s called “I fugue with the tocatta“, based obviously on Tocatta and Fugue in D minor, my favourite classical track, but this one brings it to the modern era, and it’s so good!

Here are 3 bonus games for you as well:

Raccoin
You like that coinpusher action? You like raccoons? Then we got a winner for you. This is a game like balatro, where you make insane combos to beat a certain target number, but instead of doing it with cards, you do it with coins. The game has a mix of this pixelated art and 3D to it, that makes it fun to look at but the gameplay and the coins falling is so satisfying. Fun for a quick 30 minute game.

Moonlighter
Shop by day, dungeon crawler by night. That is the gameplay loop. You are tasked by running this store with all the curios you find in the dungeon at night. You have to keep the picky store-patrons happy with adjusting the prices to their liking. Next to that you have to survive the dungeon each night. You thought running a store in your day-to-day world was nuts…

Glyphica
This is a minimalist typing game, where you destroy words by typing them. you unlock power-ups as you go, but you need to be darn fast to type those words, or you will lose. I won one run so far, and i’m a pretty fast typer. Don’t play this one if you haven’t mastered touch-typing. It’s a good one to test your skill, or to sharpen your typing skills. You must be crazy about typing games to play this one, so you are warned, but if you are, you are going to love this one. It has this techno-minimalist vibe to it, that makes it a joy to play.