Almost two years after its original release, the indie hit Slay the Spire finally makes its way to Nintendo Switch on June 6th. Even after the long wait, the rogue deck construction is gripping and addicting. It’s, dare I say, perfect for the Switch.

Developer Mega Crit Games announced that the deck builder will be joining Nintendo’s hybrid console on the Steam forums yesterday. It’s $ 24.99 on the Nintendo eShop.

Slay the Spire is like a villain where you have to build the perfect deck and fight your way through a legion of enemies to get further down an ever-changing tower. It didn’t come out of Early Access until January, though gamers have raved about it for years. It has a large player base that shouldn’t increase until the launch of Switch.

Switch’s release has been delayed several times this year and the PS4 version only came out a few days ago. There was no official word on an Xbox One version, despite fans repeatedly asking about Reddit.

Slay the Spire had sales of more than 1.5 million in March, so it’s a certified hit and it’s just getting released on major console platforms. We are sure to have more success when new players dip their feet into the world of villainous card making.

Are you looking for something new for Switch? Check out the 25 Best Nintendo Switch Games You Can Play Right Now.

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Platforms: PC (verified)

With Good Shepard’s new villainous deckbuilding title Monster Train, it doesn’t take much time to see that its developers are clearly huge fans of Mega Crit Games’ Slay the Spire. Monster Train’s deck construction and RPG mechanics will be instantly familiar to Slay the Spire players, but that familiarity also cleverly disguises a complex and compelling web of unique gameplay components and features.

Monster Train can be an overwhelming experience for even the most dedicated digital deck maker, but its tense combat encounters, lavish progression mechanics, and great strategic potential make it a must-have for single player card game enthusiasts.

highway to Hell

Similar to Slay the Spire, Monster Train involves going through a series of randomly generated combat encounters as you navigate a map that is peppered with equally random compilations of events and deck changing options. In contrast to Slay the Spire, where the player controls a single hero and the associated deck with items and spells, Monster Train instead takes responsibility for the hellish minions of an entire train.

You see, Hell has frozen over as a result of a catastrophic war with the angels of Heaven. The henchmen of Hell are trying to re-enlighten the heart of their dark realm, but to do so they must transport a powerful artifact called Pyre while navigating a dangerous trail infested by the sacred minions of Heaven. During each new “run” in Monster Train, the player who acts as the train overseer leads the train along a series of alternating routes before leading the battle to various mini-bosses and bosses at specific checkpoints.

These mini bosses and bosses each have their own strategies and unique skills. So it’s up to the players to expand and refine their decks to ensure that their hellish minions win the day. When it comes to deck functionality, Monster Train feels less like a hero-based RPG and more like Magic: The Gathering, where you can play both spells and units to guard the train.

There are five “clans” that a player can choose from when selecting his deck. These clans are each assigned a specific color and overall strategy (with a greater focus on the topic of “Magic: The Gathering”). At the beginning, players only have access to two clans. the Hellhorned (red) and the Awoken (green), but when they hit different meta-goals over multiple runs they eventually unlock the other three. Since each deck is made up of two different clans (a primary and a secondary clan), there is great potential for synergies and combos once players unlock new clans.

Each clan also has a unique hero unit that further fits into that clan’s overall strategy. The Hellhorned, for example, use a powerful warrior named Hornbreaker Prince who can attack twice in a round, complementing the clan’s direct attack approach. Of course, in what is perhaps the biggest deviation from Slay the Spire’s combat setup, how many units a player spends, how * where * they place those units, isn’t as important. In Monster Train, players have to manage not just one series of combat encounters at the same time, but three.

Come to my level

Every battle in Monster Train takes place in a large car with four stacking levels. In each new round, a new group of enemies enter the car from the lowest level, and all enemies that survived the last round move up one level. If an enemy reaches level four, which is where the pyre is, they can damage them (although the pyre’s ability to counterattack high damage means standard minions are unlikely to stand against it for long). When the pyre’s health is reduced to zero, the run is over.

This multi-level approach brings additional levels of micro-strategy into the overarching deck-based macro planning of Monster Train. Only a certain number of allied units can be accommodated in each level of the car. Therefore, in each new round, players have to carefully decide which cards to play where. The fact that enemies are constantly improving levels when not activated increases the subtle but invigorating pressure on each round of combat, as does the fact that the player only has a limited amount of “embers” (i.e., mana) that he can spend on cards during a game turn.

Where the player places their champion unit at the start of the fight may also take into account their eventual victory or defeat. Depending on the specific type of enemies they are facing, it may be better to unleash the champion at the lowest level to act as a powerful opening salvo. In other cases, it is better to put the champion on the third tier so that he can act as a kind of “boss” that must be overcome before enemies can reach the stake.

Speaking of bosses: Real boss fights in the Monster Train stack the pressure even more by unleashing their boss-specific skills not only during the normal Minion vs. Minion rounds, but also during the final mano-mano confrontation in which the boss slowly moves from one level to the next. Once a boss has solved a level in its final form, it freezes it completely, creating a tense do-or-die final score where the player has to deal as much damage as possible and hopes it will be enough to pre-boss the boss the stake to kill falls.

Granted, players will most likely lose their first dozen Monster Train runs, which is perfectly fine. Playing through multiple runs and learning the nuances of different deck strategies and synergies is part of the fun. Good Shepard ensures that the fun is constantly increased through a generous range of progression features, alternate game modes, and in-game modifiers.

Keep coming back

Along with the meta-goals associated with unlocking other Clan Decks (which are guaranteed to take at least a couple of runs), Monster Train goes out of its way to appeal to virtually every type of deck builder / roguelike fanatic. As they progress through the game, players will climb up clans and unlock new clan-specific maps as well as neutral “clanless” maps to further experiment with each clan’s play style.

There are also optional combat-based paths that empower the enemies of a single encounter for a powerful reward (assuming the player survives). Later on, a ‘Covenant Rank’ meta-progression system increases the proverbial heat even more and offers players a balanced difficulty curve to work through. Players who really want to try hard (or just want to grapple with the rules a little) can also take part in daily and custom challenges, and there is even a competitive multiplayer mode called Hell Rush, where eight players see who is a preset scenario Can best master of maps and enemies.

Again, Monster Train can have a little bit much going for it at first, especially for those brand new to the rogue deck-builder genre. However, there is so much content in the game and so much potential for replay value thanks to its random components that players who stick with it are guaranteed to get their money’s worth. The thrill of performing a perfect card game combo or winning a tough boss encounter with the skin of your teeth makes for a game that embraces the mantra of “Just One More Run” and much more.

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Deck of Ashes isn’t my first deckbuilding title in recent past (there have been a few), but it’s my second foray into the genre. Since Slay the Spire was one of my favorite games of the past few years, I was pretty excited to play another title in the same vein.

I also have to praise developer AY Games. It almost feels like they took visual cues from Darkest Dungeon, mixed them with mechanics from Slay the Spire, while giving them their own unique twist. The result is a pretty solid title.

The graphics

As much as i love Kill the towerDeck of Ashes really nails the aesthetic. This is a dark world where four characters have unleashed a curse on the land during a quest for power. These antiheroes are the main playable characters who seek redemption for the curse they have left on the world.

The character and enemy models are much more detailed than the card game mentioned above, which makes Deck of Ashes a joy to watch. Bright, saturated colors emphasize the dark, desolate world and give all character models a good contrast to the surroundings.

Like most roguelites, however, the story is not the focus here. The real joy is pushing boundaries and moving forward with each run. There is a lot of context and reason to move on, but that won’t be your driving force. Fortunately, each character has their own story which helps keep things fresh once you inevitably switch to another character to see how they play.

The gameplay

To start a new game, players either choose a pre-built deck or draw a new deck. On my first try, I started with a pre-built deck to learn more about the game, but when I got a little more understanding, I decided to go for a draft deck. When drawing, players can choose one card from a set of three and then choose another single card from a set of three. This continues until you have a deck of ten.

You spend a lot of time learning how cards interact with each other. So I probably wouldn’t recommend drawing until you’ve had the opportunity to learn how it works. This is a deck builder, so building a balanced deck is critical to success. If you can find good synergy between the cards, you can move forward further.

Players have a limited amount of mana that they can spend to cast cards each turn. Once that is used up, you will have to wait until your next move to spend more. While it seems like a good idea to only have really powerful cards in your deck, spending all or most of your mana on one card every turn is probably not the best call.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q29hledVBSI

To be fair with how different each character plays, it might work decently for a few runs, but I doubt you’ll find much consistency. Once you have used up all of the cards in your deck, you will need to expend some health to get cards back that have already been thrown.

There’s an Overworld map to explore when you’re not in combat. Areas discovered earn resources that can be spent on permanent upgrades or maps. Keep in mind that these upgrades and cards are only for this playthrough as this is a rogue elite. However, resources rewarded after a run can be spent on new cards that can be earned in all future runs. So keep in mind which cards worked well on each run to keep an eye on the next time.

I just wish the battles had gone a little better, especially in early runs. The battles often go back and forth. Because of this, I was afraid to bring up Deck of Ashes for the first few days I owned it.

However, once I got the hang of it, it seemed a little better. Still, everything felt very grumpy, even when I defeated enemies a little faster. Most enemies just act as damage sponges that you pump cards into, and I was often not threatened by normal enemies.

Conclusion

I liked Deck of Ashes in general. I wish the overworld were more interesting and the encounters a little less difficult, but the somber art style kept pulling me back. I think there’s a certain spot for this alongside other games like Slay the Spire, but a couple of balancing updates might be due.

Above all, the art style is more interesting than its competitor, but the blatant balance problems let it hang a little. I love card games in general and learning how different synergies work is very rewarding in itself. Despite its lack, I had a good time with Deck of Ashes.

Game Freaks 365 received a free review.

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