The roguelike genre has turned from a relative niche into something much bigger. Roguelike games can be famously tough to crack into; generally, they have a high difficulty that means you’ll bang your head against a wall as you learn how to play the game, puzzle out what strategies work best in the procedurally generated levels, and figure out how to overcome tough enemies or challenges. 2024 showed that the genre wasn’t only a commercial force through hits like Hades II and Balatro, and also that a roguelike could be almost anything: from a poker variant to a flashy multiplayer action game.

Speaking of Balatro, it was undoubtedly one of, if not the, best games of the year. The game is supremely easy to pick up because of its roots in building traditional poker hands, but each round feels wildly different because of the clever and sometimes superpowered joker cards that can give you massive bonuses. The game is a perfect mix of skill, risk, and a little bit of luck, and it feels so good when you find a strategy that completely stacks the chips in your favor. I think I’ll be playing Balatro for years to come, especially with whatever’s cooking for the game’s upcoming major update. And now that the game is out on mobile, I can play wherever I want.

That is, when I’m not dipping my toes back into Hades II. The game, which is still in early access, is shaping up to be a worthy successor to Hades, and it’s arguably more fully fleshed out than many finished titles. I’ve already put more than 30 hours into Hades II, and I feel like I still have so much to unlock and master, but I’ve intentionally held myself back from playing more so that I don’t burn out on the game before it reaches v1.0. I only beat the new boss in the most recent major update a single time before deciding that was enough.

There are a couple other roguelikes that I have loved and want to put more time into but haven’t because of the sheer volume of other games in the genre to check out. Shogun Showdown, which is all about tactics and positioning, makes you feel like a genius by showing you the future. I really enjoyed getting a handle on the game’s weapons and items so that I could pull off well-planned combos against waves of enemies.

Windblown, the new roguelike from Dead Cells creators Motion Twin, takes a lot of what makes Dead Cells great and translates it to 3D. Weapons are varied, satisfying, and can combo well with each other. The game’s biomes are creative and fun to explore, with lots of nooks and crannies. But where Windblown really shines is its multiplayer — until playing the game, I had no idea how good roguelikes could be with friends. Like Hades, Windblown is also in early access, so I’m expecting to play it a lot more next year as Motion Twin makes major updates.

And those are just the new roguelikes I’ve actually been able to put time into this year. There are still a bunch more that I want to play or have barely touched that seem extremely promising. Vampire Survivors got two major crossover DLCs that I want to dig into: one with Contra and one with Castlevania. (I’ve only played a couple rounds of the Castlevania expansion, and I was tickled at just how large the map was.) And while I’m talking about Vampire Survivors: Halls of Torment, which is kind of like Vampire Survivors mixed with an old-school Diablo aesthetic, left early access, and I want to check out what’s changed since I first dabbled in it last year.

The Rogue Prince of Persia, a roguelike take on classic Prince of Persia action and platforming, is an example of how big publishers like Ubisoft are jumping into the genre — and it seems like something that’s right up my alley. Rogue is another early access roguelike on this list, but it’s gotten a bunch of big updates since its May launch, including a significant update in November that revamped the art style and added new biomes, bosses, and more. I should also mention that Rogue also has a Dead Cells connection: it’s made by Evil Empire, the studio that worked on many Dead Cells updates and DLCs, which gives me a lot of faith that they’ll do a great job shepherding the game to its eventual full launch. 

Heck, 2024 has been such a banner year for roguelikes that even the 2014 classic The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth got a significant new DLC update that added online multiplayer.

The sheer amount of great roguelikes just this year shows that the framework of the genre offers a lot of ways to make interesting games. I particularly appreciate how they’re generally more digestible than blockbuster epics. Next year has some promising roguelikes like Slay the Spire 2 and Hyper Light Breaker, but I know I’ll be returning to a lot of 2024’s excellent roguelikes over and over again — well, after just one more round of Balatro.