Tag: Roguelike-like

Roguelike-like: Spelunky

On January 12, 2012

If you are unfamiliar with roguelikes, consider reading my roguelike introduction.

Spelunky is one of the best examples of games that successfully translate roguelike design elements into a different genre. In Spelunky’s case, this genre is the 2-D platformer. I was going to wait to post this until the new, updated version of Spelunky is released on X-Box Live Arcade, but that seems to be taking forever and I got impatient. The original, free version of Spelunky is possibly the best freeware game I’ve ever played, and you should be playing it too.

Roguelike-like: Transcendence

By waltorious

On November 20, 2011

In Uncategorized

[Click on images for larger versions.]

Recently I’ve discovered a few games that are clearly influenced by traditional roguelikes, and manage to use roguelike elements in a completely different genre with some impressive results. Transcendence is one such game, and it also happens to be completely free.

It’s a weird mix of styles. On the surface it appears to be a top-down space combat game that controls similarly to Asteroids, but features the kind of free-roaming, explore/trade/fight/upgrade gameplay popularized by Elite and continued by the likes of Freelancer and the X series. But play for a little while and you’ll soon see that Transcendence takes just as much inspiration from roguelikes.