Alright, so first off, I have to say that Turtle Riders has grabbed me in it’s beak and won’t let go. I’ve been upgrading the roguelite system with runs because I found that once I beat the main mode for the demo and unlocked endless…I could make a decent go of the leaderboard. I ended my first night at 8th, and I’ve slipped to 10th, and damnit, I really feel like I can get a good run and go for top 5 at some point.
You start off in the story mode, working through level points, trying to escape the darkness and it’s baddies creeping up on you. You have the option to aim manually, or, take control of gathering, but not both. Generally the auto-targeting when you’re in gathering mode isn’t that bad, and resources are vital to upgrading your turtle for survival. In a run you’ll want to add on extra towers for more rangers to sit and shoot, increase resource drops or stop bad drops from happening, and increase the time it takes to gather. Additionally, you’re gaining XP, which gives you a random set of options to pick upgrades from, be it for your rangers and turtle (fire rate, power, multishot, health, etc) or elemental magics (fire, ice, poison, air, lightning). The former also unlocks extra talents at 3 of the same type for the ranger upgrades, and 5 for the elemental magics. In the standard story mode, the charge up for the big blast from the elemental power took too long to charge to be useful, but it’s nice in endless mode, as a tip.
You also get orbs as a general currency, sometimes used for rerolling powers, or shops in the story mode, and also the roguelite upgrades between runs. Upgrades run from more apples and orbs, to upgrading your turtle or ranger, to weapon and turtle unlocks.
Overall, I’m hooked, but mostly because I want to keep/move up the leaderboard, and I have to remember I have like 30-40 other games already picked out for this Next Fest and it hasn’t even officially started yet. Turtle Riders just has the right sort of vibes to hook me with it’s quasi tower-defense, idler, roguelite…something. You can find the demo here, and if you’re challenging the leaderboard, good luck.