Discover Your Next Run
Playstyle guide · 8 reviewed games ·
Side-view roguelikes put movement and execution beside procedural builds. Some are precision platformers, some are systemic sandboxes, and others use weapons or character forms to change how every attempt feels.
Browse all 54 game reviewsThe category ranges from tightly controlled arcade action to games where physics and environmental interactions are the real opponent. Strong combat feel helps, but route variety, legible hazards, and build decisions determine whether repeated stages stay interesting after the first clear.
Start with responsive combat if you want execution to carry the run. Choose systemic platformers when discovery, traps, and improvisation sound more appealing than a steady power curve. The individual reviews flag harsh learning curves, repetition, and limited content before you commit.
8 complete reviews
Open any review for its strengths, trade-offs, player fit, run profile, and current Steam review summary.
Best for fast side-scrolling combat
Dead Cells is the benchmark for side-scrolling action roguelikes. The art, music and arsenal all pull their weight, but the reason to return is simpler: moving, striking and reacting feel exceptionally good.
Best for systemic platforming where every object can change a run
Spelunky still feels remarkably coherent because its traps, creatures, tools, shops, and terrain obey rules that can be learned and combined. Death often traces back to a visible chain of causes, which makes a severe game feel fair enough to study rather than merely endure.
Best for experimental wandcraft inside a simulated world
Noita turns every pixel into material and every wand into a small programming problem. The freedom to melt, freeze, ignite, tunnel, combine spells, and accidentally destroy yourself produces discoveries few roguelikes can match, but the game is content to let those discoveries arrive through brutal failure.
Best for a compact arcade loop built around one perfect mechanic
Downwell builds movement, offense, braking, and resource recovery around the same pair of gunboots. That economy of design gives every descent a clean arcade rhythm: fall, choose a target, fire to correct the line, land when necessary, and decide whether extending the combo is worth the danger.
Best for loot-driven platform combat and RPG-style character growth
Dungreed leans further into equipment and RPG progression than most side-view roguelites, so a new weapon can redirect the entire attempt rather than simply raise damage. The combat and loot are immediately readable, although persistent upgrades and town rebuilding make repeated resource runs a central part of the experience.
Best for racing a rising difficulty clock while stacking items
Risk of Rain makes time a resource before the player picks up a single item. Searching a stage can produce more money and equipment, but the global difficulty keeps climbing, so greed has a visible future cost; once stacks begin interacting, that early tension turns into one of the genre’s most memorable power curves.
Best for experts who want denser systemic challenges and secrets
Spelunky 2 takes the original’s compact systemic grammar and adds branching worlds, mounts, liquids, layered spaces, new routes, and an intimidating number of secrets. The result rewards years of mastery, but its busier layouts also create more ways for a correct plan to collapse into a chain reaction.
Best for changing movesets through a roster of swappable skulls
Skul’s best idea is treating character classes as equipment: a run can carry two skulls and switch between their complete movesets. The roster creates excellent variety and pairs well with item inscriptions, though familiar rooms and stat-heavy permanent progression become more visible after the novelty of new forms fades.
