Sometimes good ideas don't come together into being good final products. What sounds good on paper can be lackluster in execution. Not so much with Steredenn [$3.99], which sounded amazing on paper! A roguelike combined with a shoot 'em up, with a heavy metal soundtrack" It's like Pixelnest said "How can we make a game that Carter Dotson would enjoy"" Then, they made it. Of course, they didn't do exactly that since it didn't release on mobile for about a year and a half after its original release, and I am kicking myself for having not played it until now. Well, better late than never: Steredenn is fantastic fun for fans of roguelikes, shoot 'em ups, and/or heavy metal.

While Steredenn fails the Berlin definition of the roguelike, it does have some strong credentials for those who want a bit of purity from the definition. That is, every game session starts out the same: you have your blaster, you start from level 1, and go from there. Bosses start to become familiar over time, but levels are otherwise generated randomly. When you beat the game, it does loop around, there isn't necessarily a finite ending, though there is the seeded Superplay mode that you can enjoy if you want more of a fixed challenge. Certainly, the limited number of opportunities to pick up new weapons means that learning how to play with what you get becomes key to success, because unless you can survive a long time, you might not get exactly what you want. This definitely feels lik...