Ice hockey goes roguelikelike in this early access indie game
Tape To Tape is out now
Arcadey ice hockey action slams into roguelikelike runs with Tape To Tape, out now in early access. Imagine 'NHL 94 meets Hades' and you have a vague sense. Across a run, you travel a strange land playing hockey matches and earning upgrades to boost your team with better stats and whole new abilities. It's an interesting idea and quite a silly game, with a daft tone and some cheery ultraviolence.
So, it's ice hockey. You and your pals take to the ice to bash a puck around, and bash the opposing time if you think you can get away with it. Tape To Tape matches play a lot like ye olde ice hockey games of yore, sweet and simple. Then it gets a little more complicated when you smoosh in the roguelikelike elements.
Along a run, you find items, upgrades, and abilities to power up your team. Some offer new special moves, some boost your players' stats, and some outright cheat the rules of hockey. Some violently cheat the rules of hockey. Many violently cheat the rules of hockey. And your opponents might break the rules right back at you. Across runs, you unlock new stuff for future runs and such. You know, roguelikelike things.
Tape To Tape also has cooperative and competitive multiplayer, for local play or over Steam Remote Play, including co-op in the campaign.
The devs say Tape To Tape in its initial early access state is "essentially complete and can be played from start to finish". The plan is for early access to last "until the end of the year" while they finish up, though this of course could shift. They want to use this year for new features like manual goalies and a fighting mode, working on quality-of-life stuff, adding more items, powerups, and teams, polishing the campaign, and so on.
Tape To Tape is now available in early access on Steam for Windows. A 10% launch discount brings it down to £15.07/€17.55/€17.99 until Wednesday the 10th. It's made by Excellent Rectangle and published by Null Games.
I think I'll wait for the full launch. Some of what I've seen and heard suggests the roguelikelike side is a bit perfunctory and the AI wonky. But I'm certainly curious how it might shape up over the coming months.