An alpha game created from a variety of genres, and it does all of them extremely well, on the surface, a simple rogue-like, similar to The Binding of Isaac, or Swords of the Stars: The Pit. But It has a lot more to it than most other games in the genre.
As mentioned above, it is a Rogue-like game, but from the title “NecroDancer” you can already guess what the twist may be. This game is played to music, not just background music, but you play along with the music itself, matching the beats, each beat is a “turn” in this tile based adventure, going too slow? Miss your turn. Going too fast? Lose your combo and your turn.
The music comes from the amazing composer, Danny Baranowsky, who has made music for other indie games, including Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac, both games were praised for their excellent sound tracks. But not only are you able to play to this brilliant sound track, but they have added the feature to be able to play to any song you want, similar to Audiosurf.
As with all rogue-like games, the controls are quite simple, yet effective. It is played solely on the arrow keys, with combinations used for items or spells. But the best feature a music rhythm game could include for controls? A dance mat! The game is 100% playable on a dance mat, as well as keyboard or controller.
“The daily challenge, the same layout for everyone, once a day”
As it is an invite only early access game, there is still quite a bit of locked content, but they have included probably one of the best features a rogue-like could have, Daily Challenges, a predetermined layout for the dungeon, which is the same for every single person who plays it that day, all scores for the daily are then uploaded to the leaderboard for all to see and show off to their friends.
While the game offers a lot so far, can it continue to reveal more and even better content? I think so, the game is already incredibly fun and challenging, and they have included enough to keep people playing every day.
To find out the latest info around the game and to get updated on when the full release will be available, check out the mainsite here: http://necrodancer.com/ or follow their twitter @Necrodancergame