Critadel Mixes 2D Run-And-Gun Action With Roguelike Elements

"rougelike" and "rougelite" have become the new "retro inspired platformer."

I read run n gun, then seen rogue like. Sick of games having to blend different genres. For God's sake just make a side scrolling action game without all the crap please!!

I can hear the groans in the comments from the headline haha.

People read way too much into “rogue-lite/like”. It defines almost nothing about of the gameplay and just the structure of your progression and in a meta- sense, your gameplay sessions.

Is everyone so addicted to concrete linear narratives for every single genre and velvet-rope tours through plot points? When boiled down, how often does the linear narrative add anything to the gameplay really? Sure, say TLOU2 is hung on the skeleton of it’s narrative, but why aren’t we criticizing it for how it’s mechanics would fail to engage in a roguelite/like loop?

As the concepts and designs mature, roguelite/like designs are going to permeate every genre, like how RPGlike/lite has done this last decade, running the gamut of brilliant to insipid progression systems in games.

Either we should be talking about this completely differently, or every game should be labeled by it’s sub-genre, i.e. Sunset Overdrive is an RPG-lite platformer, God of War is a Metroidvania-lite action/adventure, etc., so we can roll our eyes and groan and the other trends that permeate the hobby unnoticed.

Looks okay but still I may wait until a sales happen for this one.

Looks like it could be fun. I'm becoming more forgiving of rogue-like games these days, because they tend to be affordable and nice little time-sinks between bigger games with more depth. A fun thing to boot up between sessions of RPGs and Metroidvanias even though I am almost never good or patient enough to finish them.

No thanks. I already own 20XX.

Looks fun and interesting. I love run and guns but will have to see what the roguelike elements are.

i'm into it, i'm a fan of rougue or arcady games but more than that i've been looking forward to when GBA style games would be the trend

@BloodyMurder Exactly.

This looks right up my alley, that many equipment combos sounds awesome

@Axelay71 Agreed. I get excited about basically any platformer/run and gun that DOESN'T have "rogue-lite" or "metroidvania" anywhere in its advertising at this point.

Honestly, I'd be overjoyed just to have something similar to Contra/Super C on Switch at this point. I know Super Cyborg exists on Steam but it missed the mark for me.

@Spiders

" It defines almost nothing about of the gameplay and just the structure of your progression and in a meta- sense, your gameplay sessions."

Progression and structure is just as important to some as the core gameplay mechanics. This is honestly why I prefer actual retro games at this point. Yeah, some of them are glitchy and have ***** design, but I still find them a lot more enjoyable than the average rogue-lite. There's honestly nothing more frustrating than having a good run on a game in that genre only to get screwed by the RNG. I also really don't feel like I get better or improve at these games, because most of the time you can simply grind your way to better upgrades and in many of these games simply become OP no matter what gets randomly tossed your way. I did not get the same sense of achievement beating The Binding of Isaac as I did Contra, Ninja Gaiden, Castelvania or any other linear sidescroller really.

"Is everyone so addicted to concrete linear narratives for every single genre and velvet-rope tours through plot points?"

Apparently not considering just how many rogue-lites there are in comparison to linear games at this point, especially on the indie front. This also kinda comes off as passive aggressive...for some people plots and narratives aren't really that important when it comes to their games. There's nothing wrong with either approach, but all those "groans" come from people who want a little more variety. Outside of Ayo The Clown and Alex Kidd DX (the latter of which is a remake), I am honestly failing to remember anything in the platformer genre that's come out as of late that wasn't either a rogue-lite, Metroidvania or a combination of the two.

"When boiled down, how often does the linear narrative add anything to the gameplay really?"

In some situations, the "linear narrative" is simply there to set up the action or a reason to go something and nothing more. In those situations, it's all that a game really needs. Super Mario Bros. is a classic because of how great the gameplay and level design is- it didn't need some deep/branching plot to be enjoyable. Same goes for any other actual retro game. Unless a game is highly story driven, I don't feel like there's anything wrong with a traditional/linear plot.

"As the concepts and designs mature, roguelite/like designs are going to permeate every genre"

And that's fine, but it wouldn't hurt anything to have some variety like I said earlier. There will always be people who enjoy games without those designs. Even if roguelite/likes are taking over, I feel like there's always going to be a market for hand-crafted experiences. Honestly, they're a breath of fresh air at this point.

@RetroOutcast totally agree mate, what happened to just great fun video games. Not everyone wants crafting, roguelite, Metroidvania. Open world. Super C on nes is still more fun to play than a lot of today's rubbish.

@Axelay71 You are absolutely right. These "retro inspired" games have always been hit or miss for me, but a lot of them have been "misses" personally over the past few years.

Also agree on not everyone wanting those elements in their games. So many games look appealing to me when I see a few screenshots/read about them, but then I see buzzwords like that and think "maybe on a deep sale" because the more a game tries to do outside of one genre...the more likely it is to get things wrong. Unfortunately, because those elements are popular, we're probably going to see fewer Shovel Knights and Cyber Shadows and more Metroidcraftingvania rogue-lites lol.

I actually just played Super C again for the first time in ages through the Contra collection last week and I'm kinda blown away at how well it holds up for being over 30 years old at this point. It's hard, sure, but at least it isn't because of randomly changing level layouts or because you have to grind away to get better guns. After doing it on one continue and even one life...the enemy spawns can be a little cheap/***** in places but other than that it's amazing and (dare I say) where the series peaked.

@RetroOutcast again your absolutely right, another example for me is God of war loved the original formula upgrading was easy never got in the way of the action. But with the reboot let's change it up to cater for the masses. To be honest retro gaming is my bag nowadays. I bought an atgames games arcade cab and it's amazing. Playing all the classics. I'm slowly starting to realise that modern games just bore me or I haven't got the time to pour hours into them.

@RetroOutcast All great points, and we agree broadly. The only point I would argue with is the first. Structure can inform gameplay — and can be just as important if not more — but it doesn’t necessarily have to.
“Hand-crafted” games have RNG too that can spoil a session or make the player resort to save scumming. Fire Emblem is notorious for it (and also has permadeath).

Hand-crafted linear platform era can have “lives” or “energy bars” or instant re-spawn. We don’t call them “Energy Bar” games or “Lives + Continue” games. I think that kind of poor description what we’re doing with the RLs today. Celeste is gameplay is anchored to it’s respawn system, and plenty of people hate Lives and Continues, but not enough to warrant slapping the label on the box so people can dismiss those games wholesale.

Games like Subnautica and Remnant From the Ashes can be played as RLs. It can be completely quarantined from all the gameplay mechanics and systems and be modes. This can probably be done for most games — not that they should, but it strengthens my point that they can.

I think you make great points but I feel my main one still stands: calling everything a roguelite/like as it’s primary genre doesn’t make sense anymore, and if my prediction that it will continue to dilute into design patterns in every genre, it will make even less sense in the future.

I appreciate you being fair to the other side of my argument so I don’t have to be, because I agree with you a lot but I think the point I’m making deserves to be considered.
I don’t mean to be passive-aggressive, I mean to be aggressive-aggressive against the idea that a poorly representative label should define so many experiences, and how much it disconnects us from future games we may love, as well as the past.

An example would be Dead Cells. Is it a Metroidvania? Not really. Even if it uses those elements — branching paths, upgrade to open new paths, etc. they don’t serve the same function in Dead Cells as the do in a Metroidvania — it doesn’t play out like one at all. A Dead Cells run plays out much more like a classic Castlevania game — particularly III and Rondo — than it does the later IGA-vanias.
Not only is that fact completely lost by the poor application of the label, that distinction is STILL preceded by the fact it’s a rogue like/lite.
Genre and sub-genre classifications should be descriptive, not reductive.

@Axelay71 I think your looking at the wrong end of the telescope on some of these titles. Dead Cells, for example, uses roguelite/like and Metroidvania elements to craft an experience that much closer to the classic Castlevania games than what you would believe of an eye-rolling description like “Rogue-like Metroidvania Indie”.

I LOVE the old school too, and I hate to think you or anyone are missing out on all the ways that indie developers are smuggling those great game sessions of the past into the modern milleu.