Ahh the joys of arcades. Flashing lights, games of skill and chance, competitive playfulness, and of course, tickets and prizes. With all this goodness going for it, there have been a bevy of arcade-y games released over the years. In fact, arcades are often chock full of virtual machines. Dungeon Clawler takes that formula and merges a loved arcade game with a loved genre, combining a dungeon crawler roguelite with a claw machine. Yes, it is as fun as it sounds.
The gameplay concept for Dungeon Clawler is unique and exactly as the title implies. Your “turns” consist of using a claw machine to grab items that are dropped into a big open space with the goal of taking out any enemies in the room with you, while also keeping you alive or giving you health to keep the run going. These items are then picked up and dragged over into a “prize slot” that then uses every item that manages to make it into the slot. Items can do a bevy of things, including damage to enemies, adding block to your character, activating perks, affecting the size or effectiveness of remaining items in the stage, and adding debuffs to the enemies, just to name a few of the many possibilities. After you complete a stage, you move your character through a simple dungeon map that branches off over the course of 20 levels, allowing you to choose what kind of challenges you’ll face and rewards you’ll be able to receive.
Each character and run has its own bonuses and strategies to think about. In fact, as you play, there are tons of ways to unlock new characters to play as, each with their own special reward when you finish a run with them. You get their chopped off paw or hand as a little trinket, which makes more difficult runs a little less dangerous (or more exciting!) It was fun getting to experiment with which powerups and items I chose throughout the runs. The inclusion of some items which could have negative or positive effects, depending on your strategy, made things concurrently frustrating and intriguing. I would often choose a new item just because it piqued my curiosity at its effect, only to wind up screwing myself over by making other items inaccessible because of a radical effect on the items thrown into the big claw machine. The more I played the more I refined how I directed my choices to maximize the ones I chose early in the run, which I love to see in roguelike games. Sometimes the most you get from a previous run is knowledge, and that’s okay! Each run at full length is about an hour or so, and you can then proceed into “Endless” mode if you so desire. If you’ve built a ridiculously powerful set of perks and items, this can be fun to try.
I’m surprised it has taken this long for a developer to take advantage of the claw machine craze of society in general, and it never gets boring using those claws over and over. In fact, the game uses a variety of different “claws” throughout, including magnets, tentacles, spears, and more. Each one can be a run-changing addition, and as such, things like extra claws or really powerful items are made harder to grab by being bigger in size and rarer to drop into the machine. The skill of positioning your claw exactly where you want it to drop, including factoring in how it’s swaying back and forth as you move it, feels exact and precise. Yes, sometimes some items will fly off or bounce weirdly, but those occasions are very rare, and overall it all feels very fair and well programmed. Even when things like liquid, sludge, honey, or other elements start getting involved, and items start jumping around possessed or sticking together, everything still feels good and tightly calculated.
Dungeon Clawler can be played as a PC or mobile game, and it really feels like it's made for quick game sessions and casual play. With the simple controls of left, right, and activate, it’s very accessible. The characters are all cute, slightly gothic rabbits or other fluffy critters, each with their own stats and reward upon finishing a run. This art style is also reflected in the NPCs, enemies, and bosses, where each bops around with a simple animation. The graphics aren’t meant to be the focus, the gameplay is, and they do a good job of making sure the items and objects in the levels are sharp and precise, which is what you’re looking for in a claw machine, too! The sound work is also decent and works for what they’re going for. It’s arcadey and fun, but not too much so.
In Summary
To summarize, Dungeon Clawler is a concept that has everything going for it and does it well. For a 2D version of a claw machine game, it tackles the goals it sets out to accomplish admirably. I’d love to see a fully 3D version of this type of game done, but for now, the many items and combinations that are possible within the game make things exciting and fun for a few dungeon runs during your day. The game is also available on mobile, and it plays perfectly on Steam Deck.
