As I recently noted in the review for Black Jacket, it has been really fun to see the various gambling-oriented roguelikes arriving on the scene, no doubt hoping to get a piece of the success of the incredible Balatro. We’ve now covered poker, claw machines, coin pushers (though Raccoin still hasn’t come to Switch yet), and blackjack, so why not give slot machines their time in the sun as well? 

The premise is pretty simple, you’ll be working the slots in order to try to defend yourself against an onslaught of varied fantastic enemies, trying your best to hold them off for as long as you can through whatever means you can get your hands on. While you’ll have the option of working with more straightforward weapons and defensive items, giving you greater consistency, the further along you go you’ll have additional options that will throw timing and skill-based mini games into the mix, that give you a solid taste of risk and reward. What you’ll end up with on each spin isn’t completely left to chance, since you’ll be the one choosing when to press the button for each spot to stop, but at least until you work out the specific timing to try to game the system, for the most part your results will effectively feel random.

It’s in terms of longevity where the experience kind of falls apart though. While there’s something simple and at least a little satisfying about every virtual pull of the handle, it can also make the part you play outside of some strategy for what to buy in shops, or unlock in the meta game, feel somewhat inconsequential. The result is it all just starting to feel like a grind, working to keep unlocking more to help you in the next run, but not feeling truly in control of your fate either. In the event you are able to game the timing you’re then left with the opposite problem though, with a greater guarantee of consistent success ruining any sort of thrill to go with it. There’s potential here, it just feels like the developer didn’t know what to add in order to take it to the next level.