Regardless of what you might think about this list, and more importantly, the games that haven’t amassed enough reviews to get a score here, there are some seriously excellent games below.
I’ve made my own list of the best roguelike games, as broad as that might be, and a lot of the games below are detailed on that page; however, my toplist is based on my own personal experiences, none of the games are scored, and I’m not bold enough to even think about putting them in order.
In terms of inclusion, the list below includes games that are primarily considered roguelikes and roguelites. Furthermore, they all have enough scored reviews to have a meta-score, but it’s this caveat that rules out so many great roguelike games that haven’t attracted enough interest from the wider gaming press. That is ultimately the flaw that renders this list unreliable and a bit of a curiosity. There are too many great roguelikes missing for it to feel conclusive.
Finally, there are so many great games out there that I’m sure I have missed something. Apologies in advance for that. This article started when I was messing around with the collection functionality in my Steam account. Following that, I spent time sifting through tons of pages on Metacritic, but after a while, my eyes started getting tired. That’s why I decided to stop at 85.
Overall, it’s an interesting list full of great games. I still prefer mine, but I’m biased. The Meta-list does kick up some interesting results, though. Hades and Hades II are the best-ranked action-roguelites; Dwarf Fortress is the best-rated turn-based roguelike I could find; and the lovely Cobalt Core is not only joint top with 94, but it’s also the best-performing deckbuilder, ahead of Slay the Spire and Balatro!
- Hades II 94
- Cobalt Core 94
- Hades 93
- Dwarf Fortress 93
- Blue Prince 92
- Against the Storm 91
- Caves of Qud 91
- Balatro 90
- Dave the Diver 90
- Into the Breach 90
- Spelunky 90
- Mewgenics 89
- Dead Cells 89
- Nuclear Throne 89
- Slay the Spire 89
- Halls of Torment 88
- Rogue Legacy 2 88
- Megabonk 88
- Mullet MadJack 88
- Shogun Showdown 88
- Absolum 87
- Crypt of the NecroDancer 87
- Monster Train 2 87
- Sunless Skies 87
- Spelunky 2 87
- Astral Ascent 86
- Monster Train 86
- Vampire Survivors 86
- Returnal 86
- The Binding of Isaac 86
- Deep Rock Galactic Survivor 86
- Wildermyth 86
- Cult of the Lamb Woolhaven 86
- Inscryption 85
- Risk of Rain 2 85
- Buckshot Roulette 85
- StarVaders 85
- Astrea Six-Sided Oracles 85
- Rogue Legacy 85
- Roboquest 85
