Thanks to roguelikes likeRogue LegacyandHades, the genre is more popular than ever before. Even big franchises are branching into the genre including the Switch spinoff toCrypt of the NecroDancer,Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda. That was a full game but another big example,God of War Ragnarok, got a free DLC update with a roguelike mode.
It’s a genre that is here to stay and there are plenty to check out on consoles. There are quite a few only available on PC right now too including Early Access games. Here’s a look at what exciting roguelike treats await avid console fans.
7Anomaly Collapse
Steam Rating: Very Positive
Anomaly Collapseis a roguelikeStarfoxfans may enjoy as it stars a pair of anthropomorphic animals. The main character, Glitch, finds himself stuck in a time loop. Every time he dies, he starts to remember that he is somehow lost to time.
The gameplay is similar toDarkest Dungeonin thatAnomaly Collapseisa 2D turn-based RPG. Characters can move, attack, interact with the environment, and even pair up with partners to do joint attacks. UnlikeDarkest Dungeonthough,Anomaly Collapseis not as brutally difficult or bleak.
Death Must Dieis technically an auto-battle game akin toVampire Survivors, but players don’t have to turn automation on. Sometimes the game works better as a manual action roguelike. Either way, players will have to survive through hordes of enemies on each run.
They can gain temporary bonuses from gods,akin toHades, and can even find equipment that will carry over between rounds. It’s a more fleshed-out idea thanVampire Survivorswith new lore and features unlocking after every failed attempt.
One of the biggest releases of 2024 so far,Hades 2’s early access launch came a bit out of nowhere, but it has been mostly a success story. The sequel has the same type of gameplay as its predecessor, an action roguelike from a top-down perspective, but everything ismore refined inHades 2. There’s also a new protagonist, Melinoe, who is trying to save the underworld from the Titan, Chronos, who took it over.
As with the first game,Hades 2matches a gripping narrative with a roguelite structure that utilizes death as a storytelling tool. While not containing all that many levels in the grand scheme of things, the game offers plenty of replayability through its boons and weapons, which can be combined to create a wide assortment of builds.
The original game took about two years to make it out of Early Access and onto consoles as well. Based on that metric, console players may have to wait until 2026 to playHades 2officially and it could even be on the next PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo consoles.
4Mullet Madjack
Steam Rating: Overwhelmingly Positive
Mullet Madjackis a lot of genres thrown into one surreal experience. In the future, mankind can only survive on dopamine for a few seconds at a time. It’s as if theCrankfilm series was turned intoan anime OVAfrom the 80s. Players are a nameless hero who is tasked with killing robots to save a streamer girl from an evil billionaire.
Every ten floors of this industrial complex is a new biome to explore and the better players are at killing robots, the more time they will get back on their life clock. It’s more of a pure shooter with roguelike elements, but it is one exciting ride regardless of what genre one wants to accredit it to.
Noitahas been blowing up the roguelike scene on PCs for a couple of years now. It went into Early Access in 2019 and met its 1.0 status in 2020 and yet it has never made it to consoles. It’s a pure magical chaos simulator wherein players take on the role of a wizard just trying to survive in a series of biomes.
They can find magical rods and items imbued with certain elements that will react accordingly to the environment. Water will put out fire and bombs will explode walls, for example.Noitais a roguelike that is about magical experimentationwhich is one reason why Steam players dig it so much.
2Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood
Steam Rating: Mostly Positive
After the success ofVampire Survivors, a lot of auto-battle roguelikes have started to pop up.Renfield: Bring Your Own Bloodis one of those games which is based on the movie,Renfield, from 2023. It’s aretelling of the Dracula storywherein his servant, Renfield, is trying to escape from his vampire overlord.
In the game, players will fight through hordes of gang members, and upon death, gold can be used to upgrade Renfield to better the next time around. There are even skins to become other characters. It’s a basic auto-battle roguelike but it looks and plays well for a relatively cheap price on Steam.
1Swarm Grinder
Swarm Grinderis another auto-battle roguelike but this one isn’t based on a movie. Instead, players will drop into a zone riddled with parasitic bugs trying to take them down. Players can find crystals that can be used to upgrade the mech in between runs, but there are plenty of temporary upgrades to gather too.
From damage boosts for the main gun to new equipment like the blade attachment, there are a lot of upgrades to mess with on a run. Based on the text pop-ups, map, and overall design, it feels like someone turnedStarCraftinto a roguelike against the Zergwhich is not a bad thing at all.
