Tiny Rogues Review
Tiny Rogues is a combination bullet-hell and action-roguelike that captures the best of both genres. The game is a pixel art cousin to Enter the Gungeon or Binding of Isaac bringing a tonne of replay value and fun. The multiple classes, progression system and wide array of gear and perks give the game a tonne of replay value. I strongly enjoyed the fifteen hours I spent playing and look forward to diving in more as new content is released.
Gameplay is fairly simple, move around and shoot at a room full of enemies trying to shoot back. Each floor is made up of ten random rooms, each dropping a small reward like new gear or a stat bonus. At the end of each level there’s a boss, all of which have two phases and then the run continues to the next floor.
The game features meta progression through perks earned at the campfire. Overall none of these feel game breaking and could easily be ignored for players seeking a more difficult challenge. There’s also a system to increase difficulty through negative game effects in exchange for more meta progression XP.
Playing through games will quickly unlock new playable characters, each with their own quirks and skills. While each character has its own unlock conditions I found I unlocked most of them just playing through the game as normal. In the early days the new characters add a lot of variety to play style, later unlocks however feel less high impact once you’ve mastered the game’s core mechanics.
Music and sound design are simple and well suited to the game. Neither stand out as world class but honestly the game doesn’t feel like it needs it. Artwork is high quality with a roster of well designed sprites for the player, enemies and gear. The game does a good job of keeping the screen both packed with bullets and easy enough to navigate. I rarely felt overwhelmed even when navigating a storm of incoming projectiles.
Tiny Rogues feels almost built around replay value. Each run lasts around half an hour with each build usually being determined by the first few drops. With a wide array of characters, alternative levels, perks and weapons, no two runs are ever the same. I completed a lot of runs without feeling like things were getting stale. I’ll be looking forward to jumping back in as new content comes out in future updates.
RubyDev, the game’s publisher, appears to be a solo developer. The game first appeared on steam in 2022 and has had a slew of updates since then. RubyDev notes that they were working part time as a software engineer during the development. Given this appears to be their first game this is a fantastic first release and hopefully a sign of more good things to come.
Overall, this is a great game and one that I’d strongly recommend picking up. It currently sits at 97% positive on steam with close to eight thousand reviews so there’s plenty of others that feel that way too.
Rating: 3/4 - I'd be happy if more games were like this.
Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2088570/Tiny_Rogues/