From skilful scrambling to slot-car madness during this Tiny Teams. Set to be coming out this September, developer Mheep brings The Loopler. A roguelike deckbuilder set on a slot-car racetrack, this is a game about chasing ever higher points goals. Utilising whatever is provided to reach those goals. Thanks to Yogscast Games, I got a code to test drive The Loopler’s playtest for myself.
Things seem easy enough on a first run. Get taken to the run screen, where the first half of the events are visible. Choose one on the first tier, and simply get a measly 200 points. Of course, it wouldn’t be a roguelike without building up a load of bonuses, and that starts right from the very beginning. Each event has a reward that will be given upon completing the goal, with some even providing one just for choosing it, too.
On the track, there’s no such thing as an easy time. This car has fuel, and it will run out quick. On each loop, the car will gain speed. Modifiers for both improving fuel and the speed of the car exist, along with cards that will help with both. If I fail to reach the points goal once the fuel has run out, durability decreases by ten, the car is refuelled, and it will continue racking up the points.
There are four distinct forms of modifiers in The Loopler. The gates that can be placed on the track. The cards that form the deck. The charms. And the garage. All of them can be given as rewards, but they can also be bought from the pitstop. On every third event, the pitstop can be accessed to buy new modifiers with the money earnt from completing events. Modifiers for the garage are rare, however.
The garage can be accessed at any time on an event screen, where new modifiers can be bought for each of the five parts of the car. It is these parts that show up in the pitstop or as rewards. The starting rusted parts only have two slots and no base modifier, so it pays to upgrade when possible. Though any additional modifiers on the original part will be wiped in that upgrade. It is one large part of the strategy for getting to the end of a run. All modifiers can be upgraded, which helps a lot in the later stages of a run.
Speaking of the end of a run, the final event will be on the 12th tier. Where the option to leave or continue will be given once completed. Choosing continue activates infinity mode, where the points goals increase to insane levels. Either choice will eventually bring up the run results screen, where XP is given and unlocks are provided for levelling up. Those new unlocks come in the form of harder modes, new starting modifiers, and new modifiers to choose from during a run. The loadout of which can be changed before starting one.
If I had to describe The Loopler in its simplest form, I would call it a high-octane high-score chaser. There’s a good amount of challenge here, where the randomness of the modifiers doesn’t completely destroy a run. All my runs have seen me complete the 12th tier event, even one on the silver difficulty. It looks as though there’ll be plenty of tracks to choose from in the full game, and plenty more modifiers. From what I’ve seen so far, I’d be giving the full game an easy recommendation when it releases. Just be aware that the high speeds it can reach mean a lot of flashing imagery.
The Loopler is part of this year’s Tiny Teams, a week-long festival of celebrating games from small studios. With sales on games already released, new games and major updates for games releasing, and demos for games yet to release. Running all week from 6-13/August, check the Tiny Teams page on Steam, and maybe you will find a new favourite game from one of many small studios.
Images Taken From:
The Loopler | PC
