Have you played… Loot Rascals?
Put on your Space Shorts, we're going looting.
Loot Rascals let's you travel the cosmos beating up enemies with names like Lunk, Web Jock and Pool Beast in an effort to rescue your mate Big Barry from The Thing Below. You'll do so with items such as the Vortex Bin Lid, Satnav Teatowel and Space Shorts.
It's an excellent strategy game, where you collect and manage a deck of cards which can be improved or destroyed in an instant. There's that trademark risk-reward flavour employed by roguelikes at the core of Loot Rascals, addictive and infuriating in equal measure. Really though, these oh-so-clever mechanics are overshadowed by the art-style, which sits somewhere between Adventure Time and Katamari. The cutscenes are glorious, filled with oddball space adventurers and monsters in the throes of existential crises.
I think Loot Rascals may have been the first game I reviewed professionally, and I remember being initially put off by the boilerplate summary I was given by my editor at the time. Procedural generation, deck-building, roguelike elements: it could not have been less my thing at the time. It's not like I still play it to this day or anything, but I had an absolute blast with Loot Rascals for the few days that I was obsessed with it.
If you're into stuff like Hades or Spelunky, where you're working with a different selection of resources each run, you'll love Loot Rascals. Even if you lose your most powerful cards you'll be back up to speed in no time. Be warned though, it's a tough game to master - tougher than its colourful and zany aesthetic might initially suggest.