Roguelikes are a dime a dozen on PC and consoles, but they are harder to come by in the virtual reality space. While there are a few great roguelike games readily available for the various virtual reality headsets on the market, there’s still plenty of untapped potential when it comes to VR roguelikes.Rogue Pinatas: VRmageddonis the latest attempt at a VR roguelike game, featuring seemingly never-ending hordes of deadly pinatas for players to smash and shoot through. Unfortunately,Rogue Pinatas: VRmageddonis one of the weaker roguelike VR games.
Rogue Pinatastakes clear inspiration fromVampire Survivors, one of the best roguelikes ever made, and also compares itself toDead Rising. TheDead Risingcomparisons don’t really track, butRogue Pinatasdefinitely hassome ofVampire Survivors' DNA. As players kill pinatas, they are rewarded with candy that levels them up and unlocks new weapons and gadgets. LikeVampire Survivors, players can grab a power-up that summons all the missed candy in the stage to them instantly, resulting in a rush of dopamine and multiple level-ups in a row. Also likeVampire Survivors, weapons and gadgets can be paired together so that if players have the right combination of gear and level them up enough, their weapons will evolve into significantly more powerful forms.
This is a tried-and-true upgrade system for roguelikes that helps foster an addictive gameplay loop, which is no different inRogue Pinatas. The problem is that the game gives players access to the best weapon out of the gate, which ultimately discourages experimentation. Players startRogue Pinatas: VRmageddonwith a bat that, when paired with the healing gadget, eventually evolves into the Vampire Bat. The Vampire Bat heals great chunks of health upon making contact with enemies, and if used correctly,Rogue Pinatas: VRmageddonplayers can effectively make themselves invincible.
By swinging my arm wildly whenever pinatas got close, the Vampire Bat instantly nullified any damage they were dealing, even in situations where I was dogpiled and couldn’t move. Throw the gatling gun into the mix, and all the challenge is effectively sapped from the game. Now, that’s not to say there isn’t some fun to be had with this; it’s mindless action, and those looking for that will certainly find it withRogue Pinatas: VRmageddon.
Rogue Pinatasalso gets props for stage and objective variety. Each level offers something different. The first stage has players exploring their pinata-infested neighborhood with the goal of surviving for 15 minutes. The second level is about restoring power to generators dotted around the desert, while the third level is an escort mission. There is also plenty of variety in the pinatas that players face off against, from llamas to creepy floating eyeballs that shoot lasers. Most of the pinatas are fun to smash, though there are obnoxiously loud, screeching explosive ones that make replaying certain levels an unappealing prospect. The bigger problem, though, is that there are only six levels total, and so, despite the variety, things can still get repetitive pretty quickly.
Rogue Pinatas Has Some Serious Problems
Progression is also an issue due to how easyRogue Pinatasis, robbing the roguelike of one of the key elements of the genre.Rogue Pinatasplayers can earn XP to purchase permanent upgrades to make runs easier, but when multiple levels can be completed solo with no upgrades, it makes the upgrade system almost pointless. Earning these upgrades inother roguelikesis rewarding because they offer meaningful improvements that greatly increase one’s odds of survival, but the same can’t be said forRogue Pinatas. The upgrades only make an already easy game even easier.
Upgrades are purchased in the garage that players visit between rounds. This is also where online multiplayer sessions are set up and characters are selected. Players only have access to one character when they first startRogue Pinatas, but new ones can be unlocked by completing challenges. Different characters have different starting weapons, but the bat is so powerful when it’s upgraded that there’s no real compelling reason to swap, especially since the other weapons can be acquired during missions anddual-wieldedanyway.
Rogue Pinatas is Too Easy and Too Glitchy
Rogue Pinatasis simply too easy, and whenever the game presents something that may be challenging, there’s almost always a way to cheese it. For example, the second stage ends with a boss fight against two massive rodent pinatas joined by endless swarms of bees, lizards, and llamas. This was intimidating at first, but then the two bosses started walking into a wall and never stopped until they were dead. The aforementionedescort missionwas a bit tricky at first, as the pinatas relentlessly attacked the RV that players protect. But then I figured out that walking as far away from the RV as possible made the mission ridiculously easy. The pinatas only seemed to spawn near me, effectively saving the RV from taking any damage. That mission ended with another boss fight against an impressive-looking creature that also got stuck on a wall and ignored me for the rest of the round.
This boss stared at this wall for the entire fight.
Pinatas are not the only ones at risk of getting stuck in walls when moving aroundRogue Pinatas' colorful, cartoony worlds. I became stuck in the terrain on multiple occasions, and while I eventually was able to get free, these situations were always irritating. It seemed to happen a lot more when using teleportation movement versus continuous, and so I highly recommend anyone that buysRogue Pinatasditches teleportation immediately. Teleporting will help players move across theRogue Pinatasbattlefields at a faster rate, but it’s not worth the chances of getting stuck.
Besides getting stuck in the environment and dealing with wonky enemy AI,Rogue Pinatasplayers also have to contend with frozen UI elements and the game’s abysmal draw distance. As far as the UI goes, there was one instance where the level meter froze and stayed that way until I reset the game. I was still able to level up, but it was impossible to tell how much more candy was needed to do so. The draw distance, meanwhile, makes the more open levels look downright ugly, with enemies phasing in and out of visibility, almost like a fog of war situation. The game does manage to fit a dizzying number of pinatas on screen at one time with no slowdown, but it seems to have come at the expense of the draw distance, at least when played on theMeta Quest 3 headset.
It took me about 2.5-3 hours to beat all six levels in Rogue Pinatas. I only failed a couple of times, so it was more or less a straight shot through the game, which is unusual for a roguelike.
Rogue Pinatas: VRmageddonis occasionally entertaining, and it’s likely more fun to play with friends, but solo gamers aren’t likely to get much value out of it. The game does have a great deal of content to unlock through achievements, new characters, and permanent upgrades, but the core gameplay isn’t nearly compelling enough to keep players hooked. The idea of aVampire Survivors-inspiredfirst-person roguelike certainly has potential, butRogue Pinatas: VRmageddonfalls well short of hitting the mark.
