Bit Dungeon brings together The Legend of Zelda’s top-down dungeon stomping, Diablo’s loot lust, and the unforgiving difficulty of roguelikes within a slick retro-style quest. Fresh from developer Kinto Games, this hack-and-slash action RPG distills the allure of classic gaming into an addicting mobile adventure.
You begin in a lonely dungeon beside a simple treasure chest containing your first piece of loot: a weak melee weapon. Pushing onward into the first dungeon reveals numerous baddies, with the enemy roster feeling like a who’s who of common game villains, including zombies, wizards, demons, and skeletons. The final room of every dungeon – accessed through an ominous red door – contains a massive boss. Some enemies fire projectiles at you; others cast spells, teleport, or fight with physical attacks. The varied assaults keep the combat feeling fresh throughout, even if the sights and structure all seem like familiar relics from past greats.
Playing Bit Dungeon is simple, perhaps to a fault at times, as the core mechanics revolve around tapping to move, attack, loot, and open doors. The mechanical simplicity allows you to strategically dodge enemy attacks, but easy tasks like swapping loot or walking through a door can require too many wasteful touches. A context-sensitive "open" button would have been a welcome addition.
True to its roguelike roots, death is permanent in Bit Dungeon. You can save the game after beating a boss, but akin to the "bookmarks" of Fire Emblem, your save is deleted the moment you resume play. In other words, be prepared to lose your Phase Hammer of Rejuvenation for a starter sword over and over again. The game could also benefit from a quick tutorial, as your character has attributes like "Proc," "Chop," and "DeathStrike" that go completely unexplained. The definitions exist online, but expecting a player to research your game for simple details is unreasonable.
The bottom line. Bit Dungeon treads charted ground, but it absolutely owns its retro roots, and making stat numbers larger is a joy as old as gaming itself. If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, then consider golden-era gaming red in the face.
iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 4.0 or later.
Loot grind is addicting. Nice variation in enemy design. Classic visuals and chiptunes.
No explanation about character stats or how to use magic. Touch controls can be unresponsive in non-combat situations.
