You guys, I have a problem.
I’m hopelessly, unapologetically hooked on old-school traditional roguelikes. Yeah, you heard me right, in this year of banger modern releases, I am obsessed with some old business. There’s just something about descending into a hostile crudely drawn, randomized dungeon, knowing that one wrong step, one cursed item, or one unlucky roll can wipe out all my progress, that modern roguelites simply can’t quite replicate. The permadeath stings, the RNG is often painful, and that’s exactly why I keep coming back for more. No meta-progression treadmill, no hand-holding, no second chances, just you, your wits, and a dungeon that wants you dead.
And I get it! This sounds like NOT ME! This sounds like a souls-like adjacent thing to be into! The permadeath and hardcore difficulty. But what can I tell you. Here I am.
Lately I’ve been bouncing between Caves of Qud with its absurdly deep world-building and mutation system, Quest of Dungeons for that clean, pick-up-and-play dungeon crawl quality, and OneBit Adventure when I need a quick fix on my phone. (It’s also quite good on Steam.)
Each one scratches a different part of the same itch, but none of them has fully satisfied it yet. Qud offers near-infinite possibility but demands serious time investment. Quest of Dungeons is tight and accessible but leaves me wanting more depth. OneBit is perfect for short bursts but obviously limited by its minimalist design.
What really gets me is how these games carry forward the spirit of Rogue, NetHack, Angband, and ADOM while still feeling fresh in 2026. The genre never died, it just kinda went underground, evolving while everyone else was busy with other things. There’s a whole ecosystem of developers keeping the flame alive, and I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. The Traditional RogueLikes subreddit might be one of my favorite ever.
No meta-progression treadmill, no hand-holding, no second chances, just you, your wits, and a dungeon that wants you dead.
And here’s the thing that baffles me: 2026 has been absolutely stacked with massive AAA releases and prominent titles. My backlog is overflowing with the biggest, most polished games the industry has to offer. Yet somehow, instead of diving too deeply into any of those shiny potential game of year winners, I’m sitting here squinting at a grid of crusty pixel characters, genuinely thrilled when I find a scroll that might not even be cursed. I could be playing more of the most talked-about games of the year, and instead I’m min-maxing a character build in a game that looks like it was made in 1987.
So now I’m on the prowl. I want to know what the absolute best traditional roguelike of 2026 is. Whether it’s a brand new release, an underrated indie gem, or a modern take on the classic formula that I’ve somehow missed, I need recommendations. That includes stuff on the release horizon. What’s the deepest, most rewarding, most brutally fair dungeon crawler out there right now? What should I be playing next? Or, if you prefer, please make fun of me for all this. I know I would. :) See you on CORE this week! - Scott