I may be a bit iffy on deck builders (there are just so many flooding the mobile market at any given point in time) but I do love to play a great roguelike, so my attention was captured the instant I learned of Card Crusade ($3.99). As a genre, roguelike titles often feature randomly generated dungeons through which players have to battle and pillage through until they make it to the end. I doubt I’m alone in finding the genre a bit oversaturated, often over-sold versus what a game may actually contain, but Card Crusade is almost exactly what a deck building roguelike on smartphones should be. The heroes are there. The enemies are there. The looting and the battles and the tactics, it’s all there, and playable with a single hand. The game takes place in randomly-generated dungeons; the goal is to get through ten increasingly difficult floors. There are enemies around every corner, chests to plunder, a shopkeep to meet, and a whopper of a boss battle waiting at the end of the last floor. Moving around is as simple as clicking where you would like your little hero to go next, so usually you’ll be going through doors, towards enemies, or searching for loot. When you’re close enough to enemies, a battle will automatically begin – but don’t worry, you’ll never be ambushed and always take your turn first. And there’s no time limit, so you can take your time and really plan out how the battle may unfold if luck is in your cards.
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