I play a lot of deck builder games, and I’ve also played a ton of Slay the Spire clones. Slay the Spire is certainly a great a game that led to the genre being as popular as it is today. I, however, prefer to play games that put a unique spin on the formula, rather than copy it wholesale. I’ve thrown together a list of 10 deck building games that aren’t Slay the Spire, literally and metaphorically.
Ball X Pit is a pretty creative rogue-lite that takes the old school concept of Break Out and puts an interesting spin on it. On the surface, it’s pretty simple, block shaped enemies descend from the top of the screen and you shoot balls to destroy them. What makes the game interesting is the array of special balls and upgrades you get and how you combine them. You have everything from fireballs, balls that shoot lasers, and balls that shoot other balls, if you can think of a ball, it’s probably here.
Monster Train 2 is pretty much the same game as its predecessor, but bigger. For a deck-building game, that’s probably for the best. For the most part, it’s a direct improvement over the original, and its mechanics are more refined. On the other hand, Monster Train 2 also retains many of the same flaws as the first game and even exposes a new one that I may not have noticed in the first game, but was likely there.
Covering games in one form or another means I end up publishing a lot of negativity, be it about individual games or the industry as a whole. I wanted to start the new year off with something positive, so I decided to put together a small list of games that I’m looking forward to and that are coming fairly soon.