StarVaders
With so many roguelike deck-building games out there, it's hard for a game in this genre to stand out. However, StarVaders achieves this with its clever design, variety, and colourful presentation. It offers a wild mix of mecha roguelike deck-building and tactical shoot-'em-up.
In StarVaders, players must defend Earth from alien attackers by operating mecha. This tactical grid-based strategy game combines deck-building elements with roguelike progression. Each run consists of three acts, each comprising several increasingly difficult battles/levels, random encounters and boss fights. Enemies appear at the top of the grid-based playing field on each level and advance downwards with each turn. When they reach the bottom rows, they generate 'Doom', resulting in a 'game over' once a certain Doom level is reached. Therefore, players must try to defeat the enemies tactically. This starts off easily but becomes more challenging as obstacles are introduced, and the enemies start to fight back.