Every time I think I've had enough of the Vampire Survivors formula, some new roguelike will pull me right back into wave after wave of chaos. Enter: Wanderburg, a bullet hell roguelike about piloting rickety castles turned war machines through medieval battlefields. Developer Randwerk of Abriss fame put out a demo in this week's Steam Next Fest, and I had to physically stop myself from playing it long enough to write this article.
The brilliance of Wanderburg, so far, is how temperamental it is. You are not a perfectly controlled instrument of war weaving effortlessly through crowds of enemies. You're a top-heavy tower of stone and wood screaming across grassy fields at Mach fuck. Learning to pilot your castle – how you turn, how your movements affect weapons aimed from the side or rear, and when to deploy the video game-mandated nitro boost – is a huge part of the battle, and it's immediately fun in a profoundly silly way. This is a rare instance of keyboard and mouse controls seriously elevating a game like this, because keeping track of your perspective and what left means adds to the lovable jank.
