Like many people, I took a while to get on board with roguelikes. When I got back into gaming in 2016, the genre was everywhere. I tried games like Spelunky, and understood what they were going for. I’d listen to gaming podcasts where hosts extolled the virtues of their systemic gameplay and emergent stories, but I couldn’t make the genre click for me. Until, that is, I started playing them on my phone.
Roguelikes Are Better On Your Phone
Downwell was the first I found, which is fitting, because it’s basically vertical Spelunky. The game, from developer Ojiro Fumoto, casts you as a little dude falling down a well with only his gun-boots to slow his descent. As you go, you collect new gun modules — one might turn your boots into a powerful laser, another a shotgun — and upgrade your health and energy at stores along the way.
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I’ve Been Playing Downwell For Five Years, And I Won’t Stop
Downwell is a simple game. So, why am I still playing it five years later?
This was a good intro to the joys of roguelikes because it’s basically just a mobile arcade game. Unlike in classic arcade games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, though, your skills aren’t the only factor contributing to your success. The game comes alongside you, offering better weapons and more health so you have a fighting chance.
This made it click that a roguelike can just be a better version of a phone game like Flappy Bird. I died all the time in that game, but kept playing because I was having fun attempting to make it further and further. In Downwell, those factors are still at play, but there are also sick upgrades I can use to assemble a cool build.
I was into all of this, in this context, because I wasn’t just sitting there and banging my head against the wall. I was playing Downwell during waiting times at my job, while watching TV, and during other times when it didn’t need to sustain my full attention indefinitely.
Making The Switch To Mobile
Into the Breach launched at the same time I was perpetually playing Downwell on my phone, and though I bought and played it on PC, it didn’t really take off for me until Netflix added it to its gaming service. As soon as I could jump into Subset Games’ tactical roguelike on the go, I started playing so much more. Turn-based combat works really well on a touch screen, and the bite-sized matches were a perfect fit for a phone game.
This year’s Balatro is the latest game to really take off for me once I bought the mobile version. I enjoyed it on Xbox, but I just didn’t think about it as often. My One S is a relic from the previous generation, so I don’t use it very often. I appreciated Balatro’s brilliance whenever I played it, but it just felt like the wrong way to engage with this kind of game. When LocalThunk ported the instant classic poker game to mobile, it quickly became my go-to mobile game. I’ve been playing it non-stop, and I don’t see that stopping anytime soon.
All of this has me wondering: how did people get into roguelikes in the days before they were readily available on handhelds? How did they deal with the sting of permadeath while sitting at their PC, with the empty feeling of knowing that your last hour of progress had been eradicated? Those frustrating moments demand a console that you can just… put away. I don’t foresee ever playing them any other way again.
