Atooi’s Knights of the Rogue Dungeon follows closely in the footsteps of Q*Bert, the popular isometric platformer from the golden days of the arcade. The goal of each randomly selected level is to simply hop onto every single tile (changing its color) while avoiding any of the roaming enemies that randomly drop onto the stage as you explore.
Though you can choose to tackle each stage any way you’d like, you’re incentivized to plan out a route where you touch the same tiles as few times as possible. Not only does your score multiplier increase if you can continuously land on fresh tiles, but after hitting a set threshold, you’ll activate ‘Knight Power’ which enables you to turn the tables and instantly kill any foes you touch. However, both the score multipliers and Knight Power will disappear if you step on a tile you’ve already touched.
There’s a tense rapid-fire pace to clearing each stage, which should only take you a minute or so. You need to plan several moves ahead to ensure you can keep your streak going, yet enemies constantly pressure you to keep moving, and these foes often foil your plans due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s really enjoyable to continuously make snap decisions on the fly and deftly maneuver around them—sometimes everything just falls perfectly into place and it feels amazing when you land on that last tile.
Naturally, you’re prone to make some mistakes, and all it takes is one touch to end your run entirely. Luckily, roguelite elements add metaprogression to decrease the difficulty over time. You get coins from beating enemies and landing on certain tiles, and after paying a ‘death tax’ the remainder is added to your bank to spend on upgrades such as extra tries or quicker access to Knight Power. We enjoyed what this shop system brings to the table, as it gives more tangible goals to pursue than a simple high score.
All this is well and good, though it bears mentioning that the price for Knights of the Rogue Dungeon feels a little steep for what’s on offer. Ten bucks seems a lot for what amounts to a fun, but shallow arcade-style experience you’ll have finished in an hour or two. More importantly, this is based on a free iOS game called Knight Fright, which features virtually the same experience sans the upgrade shop. True, navigating via an analog stick feels much more intuitive than taps or swipes on an iPad, but all the same, it’s tough to ignore that you can essentially get the same game for free on an Apple device.
If you’re looking for a simple, fun, somewhat shallow arcade-like game for your Switch, Knights of the Rogue Dungeon is definitely something that’ll satisfy that need. It’s over quickly, but this is an overall enjoyable experience—though we’d recommend you try the iOS game first to see if this is really for you.
Atooi’s Knights of the Rogue Dungeon follows closely in the footsteps of Q*Bert, the popular isometric platformer from the golden days of the arcade. The goal of each randomly selected level is to simply hop onto every single tile (changing its color) while avoiding any of the roaming enemies that randomly drop onto the stage as you explore.
Though you can choose to tackle each stage any way you’d like, you’re incentivized to plan out a route where you touch the same tiles as few times as possible. Not only does your score multiplier increase if you can continuously land on fresh tiles, but after hitting a set threshold, you’ll activate ‘Knight Power’ which enables you to turn the tables and instantly kill any foes you touch. However, both the score multipliers and Knight Power will disappear if you step on a tile you’ve already touched.
There’s a tense rapid-fire pace to clearing each stage, which should only take you a minute or so. You need to plan several moves ahead to ensure you can keep your streak going, yet enemies constantly pressure you to keep moving, and these foes often foil your plans due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s really enjoyable to continuously make snap decisions on the fly and deftly maneuver around them—sometimes everything just falls perfectly into place and it feels amazing when you land on that last tile.
Naturally, you’re prone to make some mistakes, and all it takes is one touch to end your run entirely. Luckily, roguelite elements add metaprogression to decrease the difficulty over time. You get coins from beating enemies and landing on certain tiles, and after paying a ‘death tax’ the remainder is added to your bank to spend on upgrades such as extra tries or quicker access to Knight Power. We enjoyed what this shop system brings to the table, as it gives more tangible goals to pursue than a simple high score.
All this is well and good, though it bears mentioning that the price for Knights of the Rogue Dungeon feels a little steep for what’s on offer. Ten bucks seems a lot for what amounts to a fun, but shallow arcade-style experience you’ll have finished in an hour or two. More importantly, this is based on a free iOS game called Knight Fright, which features virtually the same experience sans the upgrade shop. True, navigating via an analog stick feels much more intuitive than taps or swipes on an iPad, but all the same, it’s tough to ignore that you can essentially get the same game for free on an Apple device.
If you’re looking for a simple, fun, somewhat shallow arcade-like game for your Switch, Knights of the Rogue Dungeon is definitely something that’ll satisfy that need. It’s over quickly, but this is an overall enjoyable experience—though we’d recommend you try the iOS game first to see if this is really for you.
