Gloom Gate

Gloom Gate is my favorite soulslike since Another Crab’s Treasure. On any system, full stop.

It’s a parry-based dungeon crawler with 1-on-1 battles and a huge world to explore, even if that world from the top kind of looks like the Super Mario World overworld map. Games with this kind of combat used to be a dime a dozen on consoles, but no one had ever tried concentrating it onto a system with only one bit and two buttons. It apparently takes some heavy inspiration from Infinity Blade, which I missed the boat on and — now that Apple and Epic are locked in a forever war — I will never have the chance to play. I did play the Punch-Out!-inspired Rage of the Gladiator on WiiWare, though, and Gloom Gate reminds me a lot of that. Each enemy has its own moves, timing, and weaknesses, and when you level up a bit and get good at reading their tells, you’ll be a machine that won’t even take damage anymore as you delve to the deepest parts of the dungeon.

It does another thing that’s pretty rare in the Playdate realm: an open world. There are a few doors that you need to find the keys for first, but from the start you can pretty much wander wherever (at least until you find an enemy that’s too tough; then you know you went the wrong way). Still, the world isn’t SO huge that you get lost a lot, and the save points where you can spend your points to level up and change equipment are juuuust far enough apart to keep the pressure on. There’s no overall map, either, so you’ll either be pulling out the ol’ graph paper or do what I did and just play the whole thing in such concentrated sessions that you remember where everything is.

This is a real GAME game, and where it shines the most is the combat (which is good, because that’s the meat of it). Enemy encounters are 1-on-1, over-the-shoulder affairs, and you’ll be managing a stamina bar as you look for an opening. You can attack with your sword, or roll to the side, or block, or parry, or do a slow-but-worth-it charge attack, and that’s it. You have healing potions that can only be used in between battles, and — in classic soulslike fashion — will be refilled at bonfire save points. And when you die, that’s right: you’d better make it back to where you fell to recover your level up currency, or it’s lost forever.

One thing Gloom Gate does better than maybe any soulslike I’ve ever played is feeling FAIR. You can parry any attack except when the enemy flashes first (those big boy attacks, you have to dodge), and the parry window makes sense to my brain. You can stagger enemies with enough parries, and each hit of a combo does more damage. However, you can’t just keep swinging away because enemies won’t be staggered by just any old hit. You take your time, look for an opening, and counter. It’s exactly how I liked to play Skyrim, so this works perfectly for me. There isn’t a magic system or any fireballs to cast, though, so sorry to all the wizard/sorcerer/warlock players out there.

Successfully nailing the parry timing on a tough boss literally brought a smile to my face. And exploring every nook and cranny of this world, finding additional potions or ore for the blacksmith to improve your equipment… it really made me feel like I was in this perfectly sized, detailed world. It’s a bit like playing Batman: Arkham Asylum. There is no wasted space or energy, and I’m pretty sure I forgot to blink during some of these battles, too.

Oh, and it’s just beautiful. The artistic direction is so good and what this developer can do on this platform will make you wish more Playdate games — nay, more GAMES in general — would look like this. It punches above its weight and feels great to play. The only problem I had at all was that it did crash my console at least a half dozen times during my maybe 4-hour playtime. But, the saves are so frequent and generous that I was always able to just pop back in where I left off. And I always did, immediately. I was hooked.

It doesn’t use the crank much, but you can use it to point yourself around the map. That felt a little awkward to me so I defaulted to the d-pad pretty quickly. With a game that requires such tight precision, though, it was the right choice. Buttons still feel more precise than touchscreens or crank control to me in almost every case (not you, Be Kind To Yourself — you’re special), so I’m glad that this is the control scheme. This could’ve been the best NES game of all time if it had come out decades ago. I’m lucky I get to experience it now.

(Released October 8, 2026, as part of Season Three.)