9 Kings, a strategic roguelike deckbuilder with a regal twist, just hit Steam

Part empire builder, part roguelike deckbuilder, 9 Kings is certainly an intriguing proposition. Your pixelated kingdom needs to expand and defend itself against enemy factions, but instead of harvesting resources, growing your population, and teaching them new skills, its fate lies in your hands – your hands of cards, that is. Looking to become the next hit strategy game from Hooded Horse, the publisher behind the likes of Manor Lords and Cataclismo, 9 Kings has just hit Steam Early Access – and it’s going down a storm already.

In 9 Kings, you begin with a blank grid and a starting hand of cards, and you place each card onto a square. A card could contain a building – such as a castle – that will expand your settlement, a unit that can battle for you at the end of each turn, or items that will give you buffs and benefits. Once you’ve placed your cards, an enemy force from a rival kingdom will charge up to your settlement walls – as this is a roguelike game, one of the randomized twists in each match is the type of factions that you’ll face, so you need to be prepared for several eventualities.

Your army will then spring into action in what feels like a mini tower defense or autobattler style fight, but you can also help turn the tide by controlling any defensive buildings or items that you may have placed. For example, you can mark a spot where you want your castle’s catapult to fling a boulder. Initially, the battles will be on a small scale and might feel a bit timid, but as runs progress (especially at higher difficulties) things get a lot more chaotic, with what looks like hundreds of units on screen at once. The flurry of damage numbers is pretty mesmerizing when you do get to those bigger battles.

As the name suggests, there are nine Kings to choose from, each with a different themed deck to take into matches. However, if you want to switch up your playstyle a bit as you progress through a run, you can loot the other Kings’ forces that you slay in battle to steal some of their unique cards for your own deck.

While this is just 9 Kings’ early access launch, it’s already lured in a decent amount of players on its opening day – a concurrent peak of just over 8,000 on Steam is not to be sniffed at. What’s even more impressive is that it’s already hitting the sweet spot, which is an incredibly encouraging sign for an early access game. At the time of writing, a flurry of early reviews sees it sitting on a ‘very positive’ 94% user rating. If it can maintain that, it’ll be one of this year’s best-rated new roguelikes for sure.

9 Kings is out now in Steam Early Access, and up until Friday, June 6, you can get this already affordable game even cheaper thanks to a 35% discount, making it just $9.74 / £8.44. You can grab it for yourself right here.

If you’re not quite sure about 9 Kings just yet, here are some other brilliant strategy games and card games to sink your teeth into instead.

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