Rogue Legacy

Genre: Action, Indie, RPG

Developer: Cellar Door Games

Publisher: Cellar Door Games

System: Linux, Mac, Windows

If you’re like me and seek games that are easy to get into you may like Rogue Legacy. Within the first minute and a half of playing you will understand the basic controls, the concept of the game, and the fact that the reasons you got into the game so easily may be the very reasons that make you hate the game with a fiery passion.

I guess it depends on what you’re expecting from a game.

Rogue Legacy is the story of a family of heroes, one of whom decides to go rogue and kill the king/father of the family and rule the family estate, hence, the name of the game…I think. Don’t worry. None of this is a spoiler since it’s literally the beginning of the game. In response to this treason the rest of the family, consisting of a hodgepodge (hehe, hodgepodge) of warriors and wizards, who may be colorblind, stereo blind, clumsy, bald, flatulent, nearsighted, short in stature, strong of arm, or any of a number of other descriptors, rises up in attempt to defeat their treacherous ancestor. And so they go, one at a time, hopping through the old castle, now haunted with all sort of ghoul and fel-creature, to try to restore their family’s honor or whatever.

It’s a real blast!

The only trouble is that the creatures you are fighting are very strong and you will, without fail, fail.

And die many…

…many…

…times.

But that’s OK! I mean, it is if you’re into that sort of thing. And, as an added bonus, you can get added bonuses from the efforts of the previous family members in the form of heirloom weapons and special abilities that were somehow passed down through the generations of people dying in a castle never to return…

…there may be a little plot hole there, but in general it’s a lot of fun!

Happy Thoughts: Rogue Legacy is an easy game to get into. The controls are fairly simple and the gameplay is that of a standard platformer.

Sad Thoughts: Rogue Legacy is difficult to get into. You die a lot and, unless you amass a lot of wealth in a single run or are really good and the game, you may give up in frustration.

The Bottom Line: I really like this game. If you are able to accept that failure is part of the fun you could potentially have hours of good times.

We are Gods

You've probably been wondering where I disappeared to over the last few months. Or maybe you didn't and that's cool too. I have not given up on writing Ten Minute Game Review. In fact, I've had a couple of games queued up for my insightful remarks, but between the holidays (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, by the way), my birthday, and my recent work developing a card game (I'll get to that), Ten Minute Game Review sort of fell to the wayside. I apologize for that and I plan to slowly begin posting again in the near future. So let's pretend you're not mad at me for leaving you to wade about in the shallows of the internet and let's get back into the swing of things with some shameless self-promotion!

 Did I mention I created a card game? Let's talk about that for this week's session.

 

Through the magic of a small batch printing site called The Game Crafter I have been able to assemble and sell a small card game I developed called We are Gods. The gist of the game is for players to assemble creatures using a bunch of random body parts and do battle for the glory of themselves. They are gods after all.

We are Gods is a game for two to four players and -- OK, I realize that I am sort of reviewing my own game, but I'm not really here to tell you how good or bad it is. That's up to you to decide. And if you want to buy it, play it, and write a review about the first ten minutes of it, send your review to dlexto@gmail.com and I will post it on here so you can tell the world how awful (but really how awesome) We are Gods is -- it typically takes about an hour to play. As a god, you have access to powers that allow you to crush your opponents' creatures and if you have the last creature standing (or the creature with the most health in the event of a stalemate) you win! Make the others bow down and pay homage to you! But remember, the game is short, and in the next game you may be the one doing the bowing down and homage paying...

We are Gods is available now at The Game Crafter for $14.99.