Play Roundguard

Roundguard
by Wonderbelly Games
Released: Apr 23
$6.99

Roundguard reimagines the dungeon-crawler as a sort of pachinko or vertical pinball machine where you launch characters down onto pins made of treasure, potions, monsters, and more. As you clear rooms of enemies, you’ll level up, unlock new loot, and venture deeper into a dungeon where you aim to defeat the big bad guy and also net a high score.

Why you should play it

Roundguard was one of the standout releases on the Apple Arcade subscription service, and now that it is no longer tied to a recurring payment structure of dubious value, there’s no reason not to get it. There’s a ton of variety between character classes, gear, daily challenges, etc. and it is one of those games that figured out a smart new way to reapply familiar and fun video game genre conventions to a new kind of game in a mobile-friendly way.

Why you might not play it

Despite the fantasy trappings, Roundguard isn’t concerned with storytelling so much as it is with you scoring points, so don’t pick this up if you are hoping for some kind of overarching narrative or grand adventure. This truly is an arcade game with role-playing bits tacked onto it in clever ways, not the other way around.

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