Roundguard Review

Roundguard came out on March 13, 2020 and was developed by Wonderbelly Games. Overall, it has quite a unique concept, mixing Peggle with roguelite mechanics. But let’s see how it holds up gameplay and execution wise.

At first, when you start a new run you’re prompted to choose a character between 3 different classes: The Warrior, Rogue and Mage. Each of them start with different stats (HP, Mana and a special attack). Mana is used for the special abilities that your character performs. The basic mechanics are that of Peggle, where your character acts like a pinball but they’re also mixed with roguelite progression and randomized loot.

Graphics are quite cartoony and they have a unique look to them. All the characters look really charming and even the enemy designs don’t lack the quirky look that the game has. The animations and graphics overall are really colorful and wholesome and give off really good vibes.

Onto the gameplay, the pinball-like mechanics are implemented perfectly in a rogue-lite. Your main goal is to get the most gold possible while defeating all the enemies in each level and beating the game. The combat works like any game of Peggle but with it’s own little twists and turns. To kill the enemies you have to bump into them a number of times depending on your attack points (which also differ depending on the character and items you’re holding). The best part about this is that every character is very unique and different from the other. They get their own special abilities that vastly change the game and their own items like weapons, armor and traits. The weapons and armor, except for changing the character’s appearance also boost their stats massively depending on the item’s rarity. In addition to the normal gameplay loop, you’re gonna have to complete additional quests related to another character in the game which are always fun to pull off. The enemies are overall pretty varied, whenever you bump into them you damage them as well as get damaged yourself. Some enemies or obstacles in different levels can also deal damage via other effects like poison, bleeding, etc. One of the best ways to avoid extra damage is by landing in the platform at the bottom and avoiding the spikes that are laid out there. After each completed run based on the gold that you’ve acquired you’re rewarded with a random item that you’ll keep for the next run. It also features some permanent upgrades that you can get. The main runs are split into different acts that each have their own boss and mini-bosses. There’s also an online element present in Roundguard as players with the most gold get ranked on a leaderboard. Combat in this one is super fun and I’d really recommend anyone to play through it as the starting difficulty is not that steep.

Replayability is also great as you can play multiple rounds of the game without it feeling stale or boring. The switch in characters makes the experience completely different for different runs. As a roguelite, it’s hugely replayable even if you only want to get all of the loot.

Sound design is great, most characters sound really cartoony and hilarious at times. The sound effects are those you’d expect from this sort of game with many pinball-like effects.

Accessibility wise, anyone can play this game. The mechanics are really easy to learn and you can get pretty far even on your first run. The controls are super easy to learn and get used to and they mostly only require the mouse.

Overall I think Roundguard has a great concept followed up by a great execution which is very rare these days. The gameplay keeps you hooked on the game for at least a couple hours and the loot and unlocking different traits can increase your playtime hugely.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.