As a huge fan of twin-stick shooters in general, and then pretty well anything roguelike, I have pretty high standards of expectation in those subgenres on the eShop. While there’s always room for some variety in terms of the general look, feel, and theming of these titles, it’s also clear that there’s a high bar developers will need to be reaching for in order to distinguish themselves.

Dead Estate, to its credit, at least does manage to just have its own sense of style. While gunning down the undead is hardly something unique, the more restrained style here does help to set it apart from the higher-speed or more intense competition. With its more claustrophobic spaces you’ll be operating in, to some degree it actually reminds me of The Binding of Isaac, though it isn’t quite as outlandish and bizarre either. Just rather than being a larger arena-based shooter, or one with bigger environments that give you some comfortable space to work in, here you’ll really need to be careful not to let yourself get cornered.

Holding up not just The Binding of Isaac, but pretty well all of its more accomplished peers, what more quickly shows its limits here is with build variety. Where you could normally have a fair number of different base characters, and diverse weapons that can make different runs almost feel like they’re from a variety of games, the options here feel far more vanilla, giving the game quite a bit less potential for longevity. I’d also consider the included alternate mode to be somewhat baffling as it feels poorly realized, and is simply not up to the same standard of play of the base game. There’s some personality and fun to be had here, but it has limitations compared to its better peers.