Dungeons aren’t usually associated with intense gunslinging and bullet hell. Swords, shields, goblins and flying fireballs are more suitable for the location. The subversion of this tradition isn’t the only reason Enter the Gungeon is remarkable, however.
It also has one of the best-implemented pixel-art in the roguelike genre, offers excellent, engaging action, and each run is full of surprises and emergent builds. It’s exciting, fun, and is vibrant and colorful without being visually noisy. Add to that tons of guns ranging from reasonable to silly (hello, Elimentaler), and definitely un-serious premise, and you have a joyful experience.
It is, however, a good idea to shake things up every once in a while, to keep things fresh and exciting. You don’t even need to leave the roguelike-adjacent genre to find many different experiences. Bullet hells, shoot’em ups, an even a surprise at the end, they are all ready to join the ranks of your favorite games and refresh the appeal of Enter the Gungeon at the same time.
So if you’re wondering what to play next, here come a few options similar to EtG.
| Game | Release | Genre | Developer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Streets Of Rogue | 2017-03-10 | Action & Shooter | Matt Dabrowski |
 | Children Of Morta | 2019-09-01 | Adventure | Dead Mage |
 | Dead Cells | 2017-05-10 | Action & Shooter | Motion Twin |
 | Dungreed | 2018-02-14 | Indie | TEAM HORAY |
 | Slay The Spire | 2019-01-23 | Indie | Mega Crit Games |
 | Wizard Of Legend | 2018-05-15 | Indie | Contingent99 |
 | Nuclear Throne | 2015-12-05 | Adventure | Vlambeer |
 | The Binding Of Isaac Rebirth | 2014-11-04 | Action & Shooter | Nicalis, Inc. |
 | Patch Quest | 2023-03-02 | Roguelite | Lychee Game Labs |
 | West Of Dead | 2020-06-18 | Roguelike | Upstream Arcade |
 | Rogue Genesia | 2022-09-19 | Bullet Hell | Huard Ouadi |
 | Gunfire Reborn | 2020-05-23 | Roguelite | Duoyi Games |
 | 20 Minutes Till Dawn | 2022-06-08 | Bullet Hell | Flanne |
 | Revita | 2021-03-03 | Action Roguelike | BenStar |
 | Tiny Rogues | 2022-09-23 | Action Roguelike | RubyDev |
 | Neurovoider | 2016-08-31 | Action & Shooter | Flying Oak Games |
Binding of Issac: Rebirth
| Release date: | 2014-11-04 |
| Genre: | Action & Shooter |
| Developer: | Nicalis, Inc. |
The Binding of Isaac was one of the first modern roguelike games, but it couldn’t truly flourish on Flash.
It could, however, on the engine used for the remake, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. One of the aspects of the original that got improved was a stronger presence of the bullet hell elements in addition to the upgraded roguelike gameplay that made the game popular in the first place.
The Binding of Issac drops you, a young child, into a filthy dungeon populated by weird creatures, because that sad fat is still preferable to being sacrified by his mother. The game isn’t as intense as Enter the Gungeon in terms of projectile density (except for some boss battles), but it is a fantastic, infinitely replayable top-down shooter all the same.
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Nuclear Throne
| Release date: | 2015-12-05 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Vlambeer |
Nuclear Throne is a brightly colored, fast-paced roguelike shoot’em-up with more than a few intensely bullet hell moments waiting for you.
There’s about a dozen characters available to unlock through progressing through the game, and a few hidden characters unlocked through more obscure means. The roster is pleasantly weird, too, ranging from weird chickens to a blob of eyes.
While the maps are generated randomly in terms of their layout, you’re locked into linear progression through biomes, looping around with higher difficulty after you defeat the final boss. As it’s a roguelike, so most of your progress gets reset after you die, but some things, like discovered game-modifying crowns, carry over between runs.
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Exit the Gungeon
| Release date: | 2020-03-17 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Dodge Roll |
You’ve entered the Gungeon already, you’ve done what you wanted, now it’s time to leave.
Unfortunately for you, it will be as difficult as going in. Unlike the top-down predecessor, Exit the Dungeon is a side-scrolling platform game. But the bullet hell aspect and intense action remain intact, even if its perspective is shifted.
Much of the game is spent in elevator racing up from the depth of the collapsing gungeon, but it’s not a cozy Mass Effect ride. Enemies will gladly give you hell, and the very limited space makes each fight more exciting and tense. That includes boss fights, of course, and defeating bosses can yield additional forms your starting gun might evolve into, if you’re good enough.
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Brotato
| Release date: | 2022-09-27 |
| Genre: | Action Roguelike |
| Developer: | Blobfish |
In Brotato you play as one of many heroic, or at least determined, potatoes capable of wielding a disturbing array of guns and other implements of destruction.
You don’t even have to shoot, the cute little fellas you’re controlling do it on their own, you just need to make sure to maneuver around enemies and appropriate upgrades to ensure you survive the onslaught.
Each of the impressive roster of potatoes has different traits specializing them towards specific playstyles. Most characters need to be unlocked, and if you beat the game with them, they grant access to their unique item, such as Power Fist from the Brawler, or octopus from the Mutant. There are over forty potatoes to beat the game with…so get started!
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West of Dead
| Release date: | 2020-06-18 |
| Genre: | Roguelike |
| Developer: | Upstream Arcade |
West of Dead doesn’t have EtG’s volume of stuff happening on screen, but it makes up for it with the deepened tactical aspects and precision.
The game puts you in the role of one William Mason, a man who woke up in limbo and decided that whatever force is making the purgatory into a mess cannot be allowed to interfere with the dead any longer. Time to get your six-shooters involved!
Of course, the path to justice isn’t an easy one, which in WoD’s case mean a lot of exciting, cover-based, twin-stick shooting taking place on procedurally assembled, 3D maps. Thankfully, you’re not left without support, and you’ll be able to unlock plenty of helpful upgrades and weapons to make your personal crusade against injustice a little bit more manageable.
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Streets of Rogue
| Release date: | 2017-03-10 |
| Genre: | Action & Shooter |
| Developer: | Matt Dabrowski |
If you don’t vibe with the dungeons as your playground, perhaps you’d like a more urban setting for your action game?
This is where Streets of Rogue comes to shine. It brings several levels of a procedurally generated city, plenty of enemies to deal with, and, to provide a little bit of extra motivation, a whole bunch of open-solution quests inspired by immersive sims.
You begin with just a handful playable characters, but there’s a bunch more waiting to be unlocked through completing various gameplay goals, some more likely to occur organically than others. Such unlockables include a gorilla, a zombie, and even the dreaded investment banker. Just remember it’s a roguelike: don’t get attached to past failures, get excited for future runs.
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Children of Morta
| Release date: | 2019-09-01 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Dead Mage |
The Bergson family has stood guard of Mount Morta for a long time, but now darkness threatens what they hold dear.
Time to take up arms and defend their home! Children of Morta is a story-driven roguelike RPG with several playable characters, such as the classic sword-and-board fighter John, Apan the healer, or pyromantic Lucy. They are strong on their own, but truly mighty in co-op.
The typical run in Children of Morta sends you into the dungeons overrun with monsters, and what follows is lots of fast-paced combat powered by character-specific abilities. The runs aren’t too long, but they will test your reflexes and understanding of the chosen character. Between each delve, you’ll be able to explore the house and interact with family members to push the plot onward.
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Dead Cells
| Release date: | 2017-05-10 |
| Genre: | Action & Shooter |
| Developer: | Motion Twin |
To be frank, Dead Cells has a bit more in common with Exit the Gungeon than Enter the Gungeon, but it feels rude to write about roguelike games and not mention DC somewhere.
The game dumps you into the sewers under a prison holding a ton of various weirdos, and as a blob of cells capable on animating a randomly found corpse, you definitely don’t stand out much from the crowd.
Dead Cells is a side-scrolling roguelike metroidvania set in an evocative, but not entirely serious, dark fantasy setting. Your job? Escape from the prison. Your tools: a chosen weapon, a mix of persistent and temporary upgrades, and a tight, responsive combat system. Put all of that in the cauldron with very cool pixel-art, and you get one of the best games in the genre’s history.
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Risk of Rain 2
| Release date: | 2019-03-28 |
| Genre: | Indie |
| Developer: | Hopoo Games |
We’ll cap this list with two games that look nothing like EtG but have some aspects of that gameplay’s DNA despite a fundamentally different form and experience.
The first of those is Risk of Rain 2, a 3D action roguelike sending you out into an alien world and throwing waves and waves of enemies at you. Good luck!
Of course, you’re not entirely helpless. There’s about a dozen different unlockable character classes to pick from, and during a run you’ll get to earn upgrades such as passive and active items. Each level-up will increase your general stats. Between the steadily increasing difficulty, overwhelming waves of enemies, and boss encounter you’ll need all the help you can get.
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Slay the Spire
| Release date: | 2019-01-23 |
| Genre: | Indie |
| Developer: | Mega Crit Games |
This one isn’t even adjacent to action.
Still, it is about exploring a danger-filler megastructure with one of several characters/classes, collecting upgrades and equipment along the way… and resetting back to a slightly improved square one if you die. The thing is, this game is a turn-based deckbuilder, not an action-packed bullet hell.
The important bit is that Slay the Spire is exceptionally good and might consume your life even if you don’t usually enjoy deckbuilders. The decks are tightly designed, you almost always know what action your enemies will take next turn, and you have some insight into what’s waiting for you further up the Spire. It’s also singleplayer, so the stress of PvP card games doesn’t apply.
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Welcome to the Jun-gun!
This concludes our list of games which might be worth trying out if you want a break from Enter the Gungeon, but not necessarily from the genre and/or style. Hopefully, something caught your eye and now you’ll have another exciting time-sink to enjoy.