Mewgenics is as different from The Binding of Isaac as you can get, though both roguelikes from creator Edmund McMillen have gotten under my skin for the same reasons. Mewgenics is a cat-breeding tactics RPG, whereas The Binding of Isaac is a Zelda-like dungeon crawler with twin-stick shoot 'em up controls. Both, however, thrive on a bold love of chaos that few other roguelikes are bold enough to court.
Over 20 hours in, I'm still uncovering new combinations of cat powers, and stumbling across events that can help and hinder my strategies unexpectedly. I've still barely touched Mewgenics' Act 2, instead focused on perfecting my runs through its earlier zones (and getting ripped to shreds – sometimes literally – by super bosses in the process). Every time I talk to a fellow player, we've got new anecdotes of surprise discoveries, or bizarre synergies we managed to put into play once only to never be seen again. From one of my best fighter cats temporarily disappearing down a hole, only to come back painfully messed up but more powerful, to a tank feline able to convert damage into a legion of sentient rock allies. There's a reason we called it "a dense, detailed, and hugely varied strategy roguelike" in our Mewgenics review.
