Of all the classic early PC games that many people enjoyed, I’ll quickly admit that Minesweeper absolutely wasn’t one of mine. I understood the strategy element and, to some degree, the process of elimination that it made you consider, but I simply didn’t have the patience for it. Worse, I didn’t even find success in it to feel at all rewarding. With that in mind, who knew that now, probably 40 years later, I would finally have a game able to take that ball and run with it quite a bit. Simply by adding on a variety of character-driven challenges and some roguelike unpredictability, it makes for a pretty compelling combination.

The central gameplay revolves around you working through a series of stages that are all made of tiles. Your goal in each is to eventually reveal the position of the king who will be somewhere along a hidden winding road. But you’ll need to be careful, since he’ll also have a variety of guards positioned around the stage on the road as well who’ll sap your health. Where the Minesweeper angle comes into play is that each revealed tile will have a number on it, which corresponds to the number of adjacent tiles that are part of the road. Of course, there are also tiles that have chests with loot in them, as well as spots for a variety of vendors, so you’ll need to manage your priorities to figure out how long to risk lingering on each screen.

The critical element that will help you manage these challenges and survive will be tied to the hero you choose, with each representing pretty wildly different styles of play. Your initial hero is a bit less subtle to use, possessing a punch that will reveal and do damage to any enemies on the tiles surrounding him. Using that attack will require that you then reveal some additional tiles before it will recharge, so you’ll have to use it effectively. The first hero you can then unlock, Shadow, plays in a completely different manner, far more focused on stealth and trying to anticipate enemy positions. Through effective play you’ll be able to unlock additional heroes, each with some variation in their skills and attributes, which helps to extend the game’s addictive pull if you’re willing to put the effort into understanding and mastering each of them.

This all comes together to make for a challenging, unique, and varied mix of puzzle and strategy elements, then supercharged with some roguelike unpredictability for good measure. Every run will be different, and every hero you unlock will help to transform the rules and strategies just enough to keep things interesting for quite some time, as long as you’re willing to adapt and embrace their challenges. Throw in a generally whimsical art style, sometimes quirky sense of humor, and gameplay that’s simply in a category all its own and it’s a great option for puzzle and strategy fans looking for their next fix.