Slice & Dice

They will lie to you. They will stand behind your throne, whisper in your ear. "Slice & Dice is a roguelite" Listen not to the Wormtongues, the viziers.

Here's what it actually is: 20 waves of enemies, with a random choice to make after each wave, either between two items or two class-ups. There's no permadeath here, not anymore than there is in Pac-Man. Nothing is procedurally generated. Everything is stellar.

Here's more of what it actually is: tightly designed, wonderfully balanced luck-pushing runs where practically every turn can feel impossible at its start and incredible at its end. Generous, with nearly 20 distinct modes, over 100 heroes, 350+ items, all of which are balanced but breakable. Addictive, with a dirt-simple gameplay loop that can lock you in for hours at a time. Cheap, with the itch.io version coming with both the PC and Android version.

But none of that works without the undo system. Combat is a puzzle in Slice & Dice, and the centerpiece of that puzzle is that you can undo every single action up to but not including your most recent reroll. Hit a spiky enemy without thinking and got your fighter killed? Undo. Need to figure out the exact sequence of attacks to make the math add up to keep everyone alive by a single pip of health? Undo, and again until you get it right. It makes combat fun, a little puzzle box to fiddle with until your turn is just right, rewarding you for experimenting, encouraging you to min-max without punishing you while you learn to do so. Great stuff, 11/10, not a roguelite.