Happy New Year, Dear Reader! We’re kicking off 2026 by rounding up all the exciting rogues you won’t want to miss this January.
Whilst historically it is a quieter month, there are a few highlights that shine through, including Cult of the Lamb’s Woolhaven expansion, Hungry Horrors, and Rogue Factory.
While this is my first of these monthly round-ups, I will, as usual, be skipping past all the AI-heavy projects, demos, and anything that looks too derivative.
Anyway, with the usual disclaimer out of the way, let’s dive into the first pick, Space Trench.
Space Trench | Del “DeeDave” Huband | Jan 2 | PC (Win)
Dead Space the roguelike on the PS1, is how I’ll forever refer to Space Trench. This survival horror roguelite has you fending off nightmare-inducing alien threats in claustrophobic environments while scavenging scrap to upgrade your arsenal and buy unique weapons. It sounds intense alright, but let’s hope the final product lives up to its premise.
Death Machine | Philip Froelich | Jan 6 | PC (Win)
You don’t get much more metal-sounding games than Death Machine. This pixelated metroidvania features a roguelite item system, tasking players with navigating a perilous mechanical world, striking deals with ancient demons, and harvesting the skulls of fallen foes unlock strange, powerful items.
Pneuma | Intarsia | Jan 6 | PC (Win)
The premise for Pneuma also sounds absolutely badass. This fast-paced hack-and-slash roguelite puts you in the shoes of Zoe, Death’s apprentice, as you battle to reclaim fragments of your soul from the 7 Deadly Sins. Each Sin is said to serve as a unique, high-stakes boss encounter with its own personality, mechanics, and arena.
Oddcore | ODDCORP | Jan 7 | PC (Win)
This absolute fever dream of a roguelike shooter gives you just five minutes to stylishly explode yourself through hordes of corrupted entities. Inspired by classic shooters of the 90s, it has 13+ unique weapons, 70+ stackable items, and 50+ playable arenas, meaning each short burst of action should feel completely different.
Fairy Tail: Dungeons | ginolabo | Jan 7 | Switch
The first new console drop on our list is Fairy Tail: Dungeons, a roguelite deckbuilder featuring characters from the Fairy Tail series. This cutesy rogue sees players collect Magic Cards based on moves from the series to build powerful decks and take down deadly monsters. PC players aren’t left out in the dark either here, as the Switch version debuts alongside the game’s first major content update since launch.
Bail Force: Cyberpunk Bounty Hunters | SeblaccSoft, YSY Softworks | Jan 16 | PC (Win)
This neon-soaked action roguelite has a pretty unique hook at its core. Here, the dangerous criminals that you’re tasked with hunting down can analyse your preferred fighting style and evolve to counter it. If you favour ranged weapons, for example, they will close the distance, and if you dodge and dash a lot, they will try to pin you down. This Adaptive Combat is pretty intriguing indeed, and I’m interested to see it in practice.
Broomsweeper | Bandwidth Games | Jan19 | PC (Win)
If you grew up with an unhealthy addiction to Minesweeper, then this cozy little rogue about cleaning an office full of giant bunnies and pink tentacles might be worth a closer look. Inspired by the original desktop time sink, Broomsweeper offers an engaging blend of whimsy and tactical challenge. Still, it’s also crystal clear that this is made with real reverence for the original, so check it out if you fondly remember clicking on tiles and hoping for the best!
Hungry Horrors | Clumsy Bear Studio | Jan 19 | PC (Lin, Mac, Win)
Our collective bellies have been rumbling for Hungry Horrors ever since we caught up with the game’s developer, Clumsy Bear Studio. This culinary card-based adventure sees you battle against legendary monsters from British and Irish folklore using cooking instead of combat. Your goal is to satisfy their cravings or risk becoming a meal yourself.
Carnedge | OneShark | Jan 19 | PC (Win)
Another personal favourite pick from the month ahead is Carnedge. This moody-looking dark fantasy RPG is set in a world where one brave warrior must make the annual pilgrimage to carry the Lantern of Eternal Flame across its decaying world. In typical deckbuilder fashion, players can choose their cards, equip powerful items and relics, and shape their hero each run to increase their odds of survival. Looks promising to me.
Blightstone | Unfinished Pixel | Jan 20 | PC (Win)
Those after a more tactical take on the roguelike formula should keep an eye on Blightstone. This challenging turn-based RPG ditches grid-based combat in favour of a dynamic battlefield where terrain and weather can be used to your advantage. You’ll also find and recruit new heroes across your journey that come with their own abilities and companions. I know Mike has plans to play this one, so keep a lookout for coverage later this month.
Bug Bane Survivors | The Cipher Ink. | Jan 21 | PC (Win)
Playing as a furious mutated plant, Bug Bane Survivors puts you at the top of the food chain, fending off swarms of hungry bugs. Each run offers unique upgrade paths, biome-specific challenges, and hundreds of enemies to manually target and destroy, while a high-risk reward system forces split-second decisions with every level up.
Fishing Mega-Game | Peep | Jan 21 | PC (Win)
Fishing Mega-Game has quietly reeled me in with its charming premise. It expands the concept of a simple fishing mini-game to include creature collecting, bullet heaven gameplay, and roguelike style leveling. There’s even a Pokémon-like shiny hunting mechanic, expanding the fun long after players have caught all of its 60 unique fish.
Lort | Big Distraction | Jan 21 | PC (Win)
Close your eyes and picture Risk of Rain 2 in a medieval fantasy setting, that’s essentially Lort, the next game on our list. This co-op action roguelike draws heavy inspiration, but adds a few of its own twists. Up to eight players can join the fray, and for those chasing ultimate power, an all-powerful “God run” is possible with the right set of synergies.
Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven | Massive Monster | Jan 22 | iOS, PS4, PS5, PC (Win, Mac), Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series
January is often a dry patch for gaming, but one heavy hitter landing this month is Cult of the Lamb’s first paid expansion, Woolhaven. Packed with as much content as the base game, Woolhaven picks up after the events of the main story and is set in the freezing ancestral homeland of the lambs. The expansion recently made the cut on our most anticipated rogues of 2026 list which you can check out here.
Dead Engine | Chocolate Dungeon Games | Jan 22 | PC (Win)
Launching on the same day as Woolhaven is a little bit of a risky move, but this survival action roguelike looks interesting enough to hold its own. Featuring a striking hand-crafted pixelated look, Dead Engine sees players fight against intelligent zombie threats. The undead work together to hunt you, so you’ll need to set clever traps, recruit other survivors, and upgrade your base to stay one step ahead.
Catch & Defense | Betaking Studios | Jan 22 | PC (Win)
Also releasing on 22nd January is Catch & Defense, a tower defense rogue with monster-collecting mechanics. To defend yourself from 70+ unique creatures, you must strategically place turrets and expand the surrounding terrain, forcing enemies to take more challenging paths. You can even catch these creatures yourself, unleash them in battle, and combine their abilities to create unstoppable synergies.
Winnie’s Hole | Twice Different | Jan 26 | PC (Win)
Think Blood and Honey was disturbing? You clearly haven’t seen Winnie’s Hole. This nightmarish adventure casts you as a virus spreading through the mind and body of everyone’s favourite honey-loving bear. It plays like a body-horror film you can take control of, capturing cells to mutate and placing virus blocks to spread throughout your host’s body.
Rightfully, Beary Arms | Daylight Basement Studio LLC| Jan 27 | PC (Lin, Win), Xbox Series
After almost three years in Early Access, this cuddly bullet-hell roguelite is receiving its full 1.0 release on PC and Xbox Series. Players battle through punishing runs by augmenting weapons to craft unique builds and manipulating the game’s rules via runtimes and calamities. The 1.0 release expands the experience with new weapons, additional narrative beats, and a formidable final boss.
The Spirit Lift | prettysmart games | Jan 27 | PC (Win)
After how brilliant Inscryption turned out, I’m surprised there aren’t a lot more survival horror deckbuilders. The Spirit Lift aims to fill this void, following a group of teenagers lost in a haunted hotel after a graduation party. The hotel changes depending on the boss you face, and the trio of teenagers you choose affects your starting deck and the dialogue as they solve riddles and uncover their own backstories.
Chrono Ark Deluxe Edition | Al Fine | Jan 29 | Switch
The third and final console release on our list is Chono Ark Deluxe Edition, which is heading to Switch at the end of the month. Containing both the High Roller and Summer Twilight DLCs, this anime-inspired roguelike blends deckbuilding strategy with party-based RPG combat. The game already has a ‘Very Positive’ rating on Steam, so it’s worth checking out if this kind of game is your jam.
RLLL: Tower of Choices | Team5D | Jan 30 | PC (Win)
Our penultimate game this month is RLL: Tower of Choices, a cutesy blend of party-based RPG, deckbuilding, and roguelite elements. A fun-sounding aspect to this one is its class advancement system. Each character has their own unique skill tree, and after learning enough skill,s you can advance them into different classes.
Net.Crawl | Everyone is Solid | Jan 30 | PC (Win, Mac)
There’s a certain relaxing aura that I get from the trailer for this deckbuilding puzzle roguelike. Playing as a rabbit trapped in an unfriendly cyberspace, you build on a hexagonal grid, placing nodes that trigger different effects. Blue nodes give you data, yellow nodes credits, red nodes are hostile, and green nodes have effects ranging from basic defense to creative rule bending.
Sleepy Cat| Hangzhou 7yogo Network Technology Co., Ltd | Jan | PC (Win)
An action roguelike starring an adorable, sleepy-looking feline protagonist, do I need to say more to pique your interest? Set within the magical world of Septora, Sleepy Cat seems to offer two distinct modes: by day, players are adventurers and explore a stress-free environment, and at night, they face fiercer enemies to earn greater rewards.
The Archives!
December 2025: Reflecting on the final month of 2025, it was The Rogue Prince of Persia landing on Nintendo’s consoles that was my personal highlight. Some other fun additions included the mobile version of CloverPit as well as the soulslike deckbuilder, Death Howl.
November 2025: Scanning back through this article reveals a great line-up of games, including Forestrike and a winning DLC for Risk of Rain 2. I’m going with Dog Witch as my personal pick for the spotlight, though, as I found this quirky little deckbuilder to be most enjoyable.
October 2025: When we look back it’ll probably be Ball X Pit that we remember as the standout game of October, but the new beat ’em up, Absolum, was also really good. In fact, there were loads of fun games out this month, so hit the link and find something awesome to play.
September 2025: Thanks to the release of two massive indie games, September was one of the busiest imaginable. Silksong dominated the headlines in the first half of the month, but it was Hades II that had my attention for most of September. On top of that there’s Towa, Moros Protocol, Ratatan, CloverPit, MegaBonk and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor – truly one of the best months ever for roguelike enthusiasts!
August 2025: I’m mentioning it here because Jupiter Hell Classic isn’t actually in the August round-up – it dropped late in the month. However, it’s bloody great and I wanted it to get a mention here one way or t’other.
July 2025: An eclectic month by any measure, with the standout games including co-op platformer Neon Abyss 2, the well-received action-roguelite Hell Clock, strategy games like He is Coming and Lost in Prayer, and even a Pac-Man inspired survivors-like (Maze Mice).
June 2025: There were several big announcements this month due to Summer Game Fest and all that, but one or two great rogues slipped out at the same time, including Lost in Random: The Eternal Die, Battle Train, and Soulstone Survivors. The port of Against the Storm for consoles also proved quite popular, at least based on the activity I saw here on the site.
May 2025: May was an absolute belter of a month, with more games than we could reasonably keep up with. Hit the link for all the latest on a month that ended with Elden Ring: Nightreign and started with Maze Mice, with a stop off at Monster Train 2 and Into the Restless Ruins along the way.
April 2025: I didn’t expect Blue Prince to deliver such an astonishing single-player experience; I finally got to check out the roguelite mode in The Last of Us: Part II after the remaster hit PC; I was surprised when Lonestar left Early Access, but very pleasantly so; Soulslinger and Kiborg both delivered decent mid-budget roguelite actioners; Approaching Infinity made an appearance before the month’s end!
March 2025: This March there was a dizzying array of promising roguelike releases. Highlights included Knights in Tight Spaces, Rogue: Genesia, Schism, Metal Bringer, Voids Vigil, 33 Immortals, Reignbreaker and Nordhold. Phew (and there’s more that I could have included, so hit the link for a healthy selection of new games).
February 2025: With highlights including Die in the Dungeon and Sworn, this February is very respectable with a diverse selection of rogues to choose from. I think my favourite game this month, however, is Rift Wizard 2, a hard-as-nails turn-based roguelike about growing a spell book capable of taking on all sorts of gnarly monsters.
January 2025: The year has kicked off with a decent selection of games, so hit the link for highlights that include a gritty shooter called Cruel, bullet heavens such as Jotunnslayer and Pinball Storm: Lokanta (both very different games), and OMG Words, a fun little word rogue that have quite enjoyed. There is also the not-so-small matter of the new campaign mode for Darkest Dungeon II, Kingdoms, which also released in January along with new DLC.
November and December 2024: This double bill of archived articles is crammed full of excellent games. The standout game is undoubtedly Caves of Qud, which is finally ready after years in Early Access. However, there’s more going on than just that, with Battle Shapers, Ballionaire, Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop, and Magicraft all launched, too.
October 2024: This was a really solid month thanks to the release of [REDACTED], the Early Access launch of Windblown, and a surprising little gem by the name of DICEOMANCER. Lots of caps lock in October, and there’s even some roguish robots in disguise.
September 2024: What an excellent month for new roguelike games, with the highlights including deckbuilders Shogun Showdown and Pyrene, the FPS blaster otherwise known as Wild Bastards, and there was the mobile release of Balatro. Rogue Waters delivered pirate-themed turn-based tactics, and I also really enjoyed both Realm of Ink and Halls of Torment (the first of which landed in Early Access and the second of which just left it).
August 2024: The August archive boasts highlights including the blackjack-themed deckbuilder Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers, a co-op update for Cult of the Lamb, plus excellent games including Peglin, Terminus: Zombie Survivors, Knock on the Coffin Lid, and Nova Drift all left Early Access. Plot twist: Risk of Rain 2’s latest DLC launched to very mixed reviews.
July 2024: Headline acts this July included the console release of Darkest Dungeon II, and Lost Castle 2 releasing into Early Access. The original Epyx version of Rogue has finally been ported to Nintendo Switch, with one or two improvements that no doubt explain the delay. Finally, shout outs to Arc Seed, because I do love a giant mecha battle, and Wastelander, because I’m a sucker for sci-fi strategy games.
June 2024: This month got better as it went on. June closed out with a tetromino-powered tower defense roguelite by the name of Emberward, a turn-based western rogue called Guncho (wanted dead or alive, apparently), the quirky auto-battler otherwise known as Million Monster Militia, and the early access exit of Champion Shift. All of them landed in the back nine of the month, so keep on scrolling.
May 2024: Hit this link for some of the very best launches of the year, including the Early Access release of Hades II, the wonderful turn-based roguelike Path of Achra, and a big crossover as Contra comes to Vampire Survivors. Plus stellar shooters Robobeat and Mullet MadJack both dropped in May, and there’s a certain Prince from Persia who arrived before the end of the month, too. Phew.
April 2024: One of my favourites in April was peaceful puzzler Planetiles, which certainly contrasts the grimy first-person horror of Buckshot Roulette. Traditionalists will note the release of Story Mode in Dwarf Fortress as a milestone, while console owners finally got to savour the delights of Dave the Diver. Finally, I want to highlight Against Great Darkness and Inkbound; two indie gems out this month.
March 2024: Mortal Glory 2 dropped in March and it’s an excellent tactical turn-based roguelite about fantasy gladiators. The always brilliant Crypt of the NecroDancer got a big multiplayer update by the name of Synchrony. Two very different magic games were released into Early Access this month, with third-person actioner Vellum landing alongside turn-based spell-simulator Rift Wizard 2. Finally, the wonderful dice roller Slice & Dice made an appearance on Steam.
February 2024: An earlier iteration of this format – February’s round-up is a bit of a mess. Nevertheless, it was a good month for games with the release of Balatro on PC and console, which has been my most-played game of the year by far, and Shiren 6 finally arrived on Nintendo Switch. Other highlights include the full release of Inkulinati, and the Early Access launch of Deep Rock Galactic: Survivors.
January 2024: The first month of the year is usually pretty quiet across the industry (except for at Capcom for some reason) but we did get some good rogues, too. Lonestar is my personal pick, but Go Mecha Ball landed on PC and console, and the unofficial Indiana Jones parkour simulator otherwise known as Phantom Abyss left Early Access. Finally, BlazBlue Entropy Effect also left EA.
November and December 2023: It was still early days for Rogueliker and the formatting is all over the place, but if you want even more games, I’ve got a few from late 2023 to tell you about. Picayune Dreams is one of the highlights, as is Against the Storm, two of the year’s best games, in fact. Other top-tier titles to drop before the end of the year include Cobalt
