Roguecraft DX Review

Back in July 2023, Evercade hosted an "Indie Special" showcase. There were some huge announcements packed in there, but nestled in between them was a little riddle.

On a Commodore 64 style screen was the text:

I can be big or small,

smooth or rough.

Easily thrown or impossible to varry

What am I?

Type your answer on the

Evercade's secret keyboard

to win your reward.

If you dare…

It turned out to be a hint for unlocking a brand new secret game: Rogue64. It was an immediate hit with the community (well once folks figured out how to unlock it). A minimalistic and quite streamlined "roguelike," it was able to bridge the gap with many community members who typically suffer from "the blue box blues" and can't quite get to grips with home computer games.

Then a couple of years later, at another showcase we got another surprise: another game from the same developer was going to get a solo cart! And it was called Roguecraft DX!

Now many members of the community had been following the development of Roguecraft and theorized that it might be coming to Evercade. But I'm not sure anyone expected a (temporarily) exclusive version of the game on a solo cart.

I've been a lifelong fan of roguelikes since I first got real, real deep into nethack back around 2003. So I was excited to see what this expanded cousin of Rogue64 had to offer.

Tell me about Roguecraft DX

Roguecraft DX is an expanded and Amiga-fied version of Rogue64. But well maybe you aren't familiar with Rogue64 and so that's not so helpful.

So let me use the same descriptors that I used above for Rogue64, just to get us started here: it's a minimalistic and quite streamlined "roguelike" for the Amiga.

At the time of release, this "DX" version was exclusive to Evercade and didn't actually run on a stock Amiga due to needing more memory or something. Since then, DX has been released elsewhere.

In Roguecraft DX you choose one of three classes - Warrior, Wizard, or Rogue - and are charged with reaching the bottom floor of the dungeon of Mordecoom to slay monsters and collect the riches within. On each of the 15 levels of the dungeon are a variety of enemies, two types of potions randomly chosen at the beginning of each run, and health and strength upgrades.

How's it play?

Really well.

The art is really nice and readable. The sound and music is well done. The enemy designs are really cool. All of the presentation is great.

The gameplay is also very fun. As a "roguelike," movement is turn-based - you move, then the enemies move - and it has bump combat. Well one class has ranged magic, but they can also do melee bump combat. Especially on the later levels each room is full of enemies, making movement tactical and combat tense. The potions usually add a pretty nice twist to each run.

It's a very well-designed game, both in presentation and gameplay.

I sense a "but" coming…

Not necessarily a "but," but…oh wait yeah I guess a but.

Roguecraft DX is a well-designed game that is a lot of fun to play. But you may have noticed how a couple times up above that I described it as "minimalistic and streamlined." And I worry it's a little bit too minimalistic and streamlined for its own good.

Part of this is likely down to the limitations of the game's original host platform (again, Amiga) - a compromise between the limits of the system and the standards Badger Punch is holding themselves to for the game's presentation. But part of it is also conscious game design.

And in some ways I wonder if that streamlining even disqualifies it from "roguelike" status.

Oh boy here we go, roguelike pedantry

No, no I'll save you most of the in-depth pedantry here and keep it a little surface-level. My little soundbite sized critique is:

Roguecraft DX is too streamlined to be a proper roguelike, and has no metaprogression to make it a roguelite.

Now if you aren't super into roguelikes, that might not mean too much. And if that's the case please feel free to skip the rest of this section. But otherwise, let's pull out some examples.

Each level of the dungeon is procedurally generated, but that process just generates the layout using premade rooms. There are a decent number of rooms to pull from, but not a ton. You'll start recognizing rooms pretty quickly. The rooms all look great and there are some cool layouts with traps or fun routes to lead enemies around, but there just aren't a ton of them to go around.

Likewise, there aren't a ton of different potions. You get two random potions each run, but they pull from a relatively small pool. There are some fun effects and a couple easter eggs related to potions, but again you'll have your strategies worked out for each potion soon enough.

Alright, one more. There are a pretty large stable of enemies in the game. And the art is fabulous. You'll have some enemies stronger than others or some that poison you or some that fly over pits, stuff like that. But they all behave basically the same and, crucially, move one space at a time. That means that, once you have a handle on how things move, you can move unharmed through some very crowded rooms. Exercising that sort of tactical movement can feel pretty thrilling…until it starts to feel a little hollow.

And this is without getting into the more basic stuff. Your two stats are health and strength. Aside from a handful of potions, you have no equipment to pick up or manage. You gain strength predictably, but you never find any new weapons or spells or abilities or anything. It's all, again, very very streamlined.

None of this is a problem, per se. But some people will hear "roguelike" and have some very specific expectations. I'm not here to walk you through the Berlin Interpretation of roguelikes, but if you're into that sort of thing you might be able to start running that checklist yourself.

Wrap Up

Okay, but is any of this a problem?

Hopefully I've given you enough information to help you make this determination for yourself, reader. But for me? No, it's not a problem. Or…not much of one.

I put over 20 hours into this game to beat it with all three classes and I had tons of fun doing it. Here, check out a 3 hour stream I did for my successful wizard run.

If you have very specific standards for your roguelikes, you may find yourself a little disappointed with Roguecraft DX. But if you aren't a roguelike purist (or if you can keep your expectations in check), there's so much to love about this game.

This is easily an Essential Evercade cart, even being a single-game cart.

In this way, the streamlining works in the game's favor: people who usually prefer something crunchier will still find something to enjoy here, while people looking for something a little more casual or just dipping a toe into the genre are unlikely to encounter any unpleasant friction.

But, really, don't take my word for it. Fire up Rogue64. On your device and if you like that, Roguecraft DX is a prettier and slightly more feature-rich version of the same game.