Strategy roguelike 9 Kings finally has 9 kings, though a new perk lets you revert it to 8 kings if nine kings proves too many

An image of the King of Time - a clock-faced automaton wearing a top-heat - as the central picture o a King of diamonds playing card. Several other cards are depicted in on the left hand side of the image.

Roguelike strategy 9 Kings certainly played its cards right on its early access debut earlier this year. Developer Sad Socket's concept of using cards to place and upgrade units and buildings was so compelling that it even convinced deckbuilding sceptic Fraser Brown of the genre's merits. "Runs are brisk, the mechanics are simple, but there's actually a whole lot to dig into, he wrote back in August. "And honestly, I just love watching my pixel-sized troops going to war."

For all its strengths, however, 9 Kings was missing one small feature...nine kings. Up until this week, 9 Kings only had eight kings available to play as, using their unique decks to construct your base and fend off enemy forces. Talk about an embarrassing oversight! If I were making a game called 9 Kings, I would ensure it had the requisite number of monarchs befitting its title from the start!