Review of VRmageddon: Rogue Pinatas

The landscape of roguelike games is overflowing on PCs and consoles, yet the world of virtual reality is still a bit sparse in this genre. While there are a handful of solid VR roguelikes available, there’s still a lot of unexplored territory. Enter Rogue Pinatas: VRmageddon, a fresh contender with players facing off against never-ending waves of lethal pinatas. Despite this intriguing premise, the game doesn’t quite measure up to other VR roguelikes.

Rogue Pinatas heavily borrows from the acclaimed Vampire Survivors, a standout in the roguelike genre, while also drawing questionable comparisons to Dead Rising. Although the latter parallel feels off, the influence of Vampire Survivors is unmistakable. Players earn candy from defeated pinatas, which serves as the currency for leveling up and unlocking an arsenal of weapons and gadgets. Similar to Vampire Survivors, one can collect power-ups that magically sweep up all the missed candy on the stage, triggering a cascade of dopamine-fueled upgrades. Furthermore, players can combine weapons and gadgets to create significantly more formidable versions—again echoing Vampire Survivors’ approach.

This beloved upgrade system powers an addictive gameplay loop, which Rogue Pinatas embraces fully. However, the game shoots itself in the foot by handing players the best weapon right from the beginning, thus stifling any real motivation to experiment. Starting with an incredibly potent bat that can morph into a Vampire Bat when combined with a healing gadget, players can recover large chunks of health with each hit. Used strategically, this combination renders players virtually invincible.

By wildly swinging around when pinatas closed in, the Vampire Bat effectively negated any damage dealt, even when surrounded. Pair this with a gatling gun, and any challenge the game offers quickly vanishes. This isn’t to say there’s no fun to be had—if mindless action is what you’re after, Rogue Pinatas ticks that box with ease.

The game earns points for varied levels and missions. Players embark on different objectives across each stage—from surviving pinata onslaught in a neighborhood for 15 minutes, to restoring power in a generator-laden desert, and even escort missions. The diversity of pinata enemies adds to the fun, from laser-shooting floating eyeballs to llamas. Nonetheless, a certain type of earsplitting, explosive pinata mars the experience by making replays of some levels less appealing. Despite the variety, the limited six-level offering means things can become repetitive fast.

The ease of progression in Rogue Pinatas misses the essence of what makes roguelikes tick. Players can earn XP to buy permanent enhancements, theoretically making stages easier. Yet, given that many levels can be cleared single-handedly from the get-go, these upgrades feel redundant. In other roguelikes, upgrades reward players with tangible survival advantages—something Rogue Pinatas fails to replicate.

Upgrades are handled in a garage where players also manage multiplayer sessions and character selection. New characters unlock by finishing challenges, each wielding distinct starting weapons. But with the bat’s overwhelming power when upgraded, there’s little incentive to experiment with different characters, especially as other weapons are acquirable and dual-wieldable in missions.

Rogue Pinatas’ difficulty is laughable. When the game throws something difficult your way, there seems to always be a way to avoid it. Take the second level’s boss fight—once an intimidating duo of rodent pinatas joined by smaller foes, they simply glitched into a wall, becoming easy targets. Even escort missions, initially tough given the relentless RV-attacking pinatas, become easy by simply positioning yourself far enough away, tricking the spawning mechanics.

The issues extend beyond gameplay too. Stuck characters and broken AI interactions are rampant in Rogue Pinatas’ vibrant worlds. My character found themselves wedged into the scenery more than once, frustratingly so. Most occurrences happened with the teleportation movement option, making continuous movement the better alternative despite potentially slower speed.

Add to that the annoyance of frozen UI elements and terrible draw distances, distracting players as enemies blink in and out of existence. On the Meta Quest 3, while the game manages massive pinata hordes without lag, it sacrifices visual clarity, especially on expansive stages.

In just under three hours, I cruised through all six levels of Rogue Pinatas with minimal setbacks—quite an anomaly for a roguelike game. While playing with friends might yield some entertainment, solo players may not find much value. With plenty to unlock, like achievements, new characters, and permanent upgrades, the core gameplay, however, fails to captivate. The idea of a first-person roguelike inspired by Vampire Survivors has promise, but Rogue Pinatas: VRmageddon falls well short of delivering.