As a true lover of pretty well any and all things roguelike, at least when they’re good, I’ve seen a ton of different takes on how they can be implemented. When it comes to roguelike shooters, my tendency is to prefer the twin-stick variety, putting me in full control of my fate, though I have come to appreciate auto-shooters along the lines of Vampire Survivors for just having a different flow. If you’re a fan of titles that go their own route, Mechaconda may have some base appeal on its side. That said, while a challenge can be appreciated, not all of them hit the same way, so every detail tends to matter.

To the game’s credit, nothing else plays quite like it. It may be easiest to think of it as a variation on the classic Snake, just instead of merely your body getting longer when you eat something, you’ll be slowly adding on weaponry instead. Since this is a roguelike your options will vary, helping each run to at least have the potential to feel different, but in general the layouts of enemies and elements like spikes will be in the same positions, at least if you play in the campaign mode. Additional options like the roguelike and boss rush modes are also available, obviously cranking up the intensity more quickly, but regardless of what you choose, this proves to be a fair challenge across the board.

That gets into the pity of it all though, which is that a big part of what ends up being frustrating here is the very constricted movement, essentially only able to make 90 degree turns. When you’re given free reign to move however you like, it can be pretty incredible what you’re able to avoid. Adeptly weaving through a ridiculous number of bullets is just a core skill that shooting fans just have hard-wired into their brains. The issue is that when you are moving continuously and there’s no nuance or subtlety to your turning, most of those skills go out the window. That made my level of interest for all of the different combinations of weapons and configurations you could have pretty low unfortunately. Instead, I was almost constantly feeling like I was fighting the controls and wishing they weren’t so rigidly locked in, choosing to make the game much harder and ultimately less enjoyable than it possibly could have been just with more freedom. If you’re looking for a different type of challenge, it will give you that, it just feels like it’s all for the wrong reason.