Atooi's Knights of the Rogue Dungeon follows closely in the footsteps of Q*Bert, the popular isometric platformer from the golden days of the arcade. The goal of each randomly selected level is to simply hop onto every single tile (changing its color) while avoiding any of the roaming enemies that randomly drop onto the stage as you explore.
Though you can choose to tackle each stage any way you’d like, you’re incentivized to plan out a route where you touch the same tiles as few times as possible. Not only does your score multiplier increase if you can continuously land on fresh tiles, but after hitting a set threshold, you’ll activate 'Knight Power' which enables you to turn the tables and instantly kill any foes you touch. However, both the score multipliers and Knight Power will disappear if you step on a tile you’ve already touched.
There’s a tense rapid-fire pace to clearing each stage, which should only take you a minute or so. You need to plan several moves ahead to ensure you can keep your streak going, yet enemies constantly pressure you to keep moving, and these foes often foil your plans due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s really enjoyable to continuously make snap decisions on the fly and deftly maneuver around them—sometimes everything just falls perfectly into place and it feels amazing when you land on that last tile.
Naturally, you’re prone to make some mistakes, and all it takes is one touch to end your run entirely. Luckily, roguelite elements add metaprogression to decrease the difficulty over time. You get coins from beating enemies and landing on certain tiles, and after paying a ‘death tax’ the remainder is added to your bank to spend on upgrades such as extra tries or quicker access to Knight Power. Regularly using it is essentially mandatory, as the later levels pull no punches and all but demand you have a decent pile of boons built up. We enjoyed what this shop system brings to the table, as it gives more tangible goals to pursue than a simple high score.
All this is well and good, though it bears mentioning that the price for Knights of the Rogue Dungeon feels a little steep for what’s on offer. Ten bucks seems a lot for what amounts to a fun, but shallow arcade-style experience featuring only an hour or two of novel gameplay. We cleared it in about eight hours, and mileage will vary, but it doesn't take long before you realize how similar and recycled the level designs get. New game elements, such as fresh enemies or hazards, are sparsely introduced and it feels like you sometimes run the same slightly modified level a few times in a given run.
More importantly, this is based on a free iOS game called Knight Fright, which features virtually the same experience sans the upgrade shop. True, navigating via an analog stick feels much more intuitive than taps or swipes on an iPad, but all the same, it’s tough to ignore that you can essentially get the same game for free on an Apple device.
If you’re looking for a simple, fun, somewhat shallow arcade-like game for your Switch, Knights of the Rogue Dungeon is definitely something that’ll satisfy that need. Overall, this is an enjoyable experience—though we’d recommend you try the iOS game first to see if this is really for you.
Comments 18
J-Bird!
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I have the Totes the Goat version. I’ll stick with that for now. Or check out the free mobile version mentioned in the review.
This actually looks really good. I used to hate Qbert, but was playing at a barcade with a friend a few years back, and we could not stop trying to beat each other's high scores.
Surprised there are not more Q*Bert clones. Maybe there are a lot of clones, though, and I am just not looking for them.
Q-Bert says:
My siblings and I played tons of Q-Bert on our Colecovision when we were kids. What a great game! A spiritual successor might be fun to try.
Really, I can’t help but wish I could play the original Q-Bert. With all the success Hamster has had porting old Japanese arcade games, I wish somebody could do the same for Q-Bert and other Western-developed arcade games such as the Williams/Midway titles (Defender, Robotron, Joust, etc).
How did the reviewer beat this in 2 hours? It took me 13 hours to beat it the first time.
Loved Q-Bert on the 2600. Might pick this up if it goes on sale.
Happy to know it's good if short and simple, will consider getting it on sale!
The faux-pixel textures is a trend that can't die quickly enough.
@PorridgeParlour I haven't beaten the game yet myself, but no way am I doing it in two hours or less, lol. I'm guessing that's an estimate as reviewers (everywhere) are prone to secretly withhold exactly how much time they've spent on a game.
@FatBeverly https://www.megavoxels.com/learn/what-is-a-voxel/ Are you referring to this? I don't know, if done in the right art style, they're pretty good.
Is there payola on with NL and Atooi? This site is always positive about this scammer outfit.
@PorridgeParlour
Does this game have difficult options? It seems more common today the press playing the game in the easy and following some type of guide.
Remember that IGN review where the reviewer got caught lying about finishing the game?
Anyway, reviews today do not make sense anymore, since they know that few will read, so they are all shallow and superficial nowadays, unfortunately.
@Rozetta I don’t see any difficulty options anywhere. I think something silly is going on here…
@Kilroy No, I'm referring to the textures.
@FatBeverly They're not faux textures. All of the assets are voxels.
https://x.com/JoolsWatsham/status/1744793321443127697?s=20
I have issues with the controls. If the game is similar to Qbert, then shouldn't you press the directional pad the same way to move along the isometric grid. Nope. Doesn't work that way. As a fan of Qbert and Totes, I'm irked. I hope they update to make it play like the others.
@DwaynesGames Dodo Peak is a fun Q Bert style game available on Switch. I waited forever for it to go on sale. It's good, I recommend it!
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