Loop Hero: boring roguelike name, sick deep-fried visuals

If you want to get on Devolver's short list of games it publishes, you better be fresh, and you better look sick AF. And Four Quarters' Loop Hero is on Devolver's short list for all the right reasons. Well, inexplicably boring name, but deep-fried visuals that trigger something primal in my 8-bit brain, and branching gameplay that isn't just roguelike, isn't just card battler, isn't just dungeon crawler, and isn't just medieval SimCity.

The Lich has thrown the world into a timeless loop and plunged its inhabitants into never ending chaos. Wield an expanding deck of mystical cards to place enemies, buildings, and terrain along each unique expedition loop for the brave hero.

I'm going to be honest with you, card games start at a deficit with me. You've really got to be something special to even make me turn my head in your direction if you're a card battler. Not because I'm a connoisseur of cards, but because I can't be bothered. I've dipped my toes into some of the biggies. I've sampled Hearthstone, I've sampled Gwent—both in and out of The Witcher 3, I've sampled The Elder Scrolls: Legends, and I even bought a tabletop copy of Wingspan just yesterday, in fact. I go neither deep nor wide in this particular genre.

Doesn't matter. I saw the trailer and had to get my hands on Loop Hero. There's something different going on here that I'm not seeing in the average card battler, and I want to figure out what it is. 

 Loop Hero (still looks sick, still a boring name) launches March 4. Our full review is on the way.