The fundamental conflict surrounding how I feel about roguelike I Wanna Be a Hero ($2.99) is that the game owes a huge debt to Crypt of the Necrodancer, and if you’ve played that game, then a lot of what this is trying to do makes sense. Of course, Necrodancer isn’t on mobile quite yet, so if you’re just a mobile gamer, then perhaps you’re only used to this. Still, I Wanna Be a Hero does a lot that is interesting and it’s not a bad game, but it’s definitely lacking.

So, IWBAH is a grid-based roguelike, but it’s not turn-based. It’s kind of in a weird space where everything has a particular rhythm to how it moves, and you can only really do so many actions at one time, but there’s no really defined way to how all these systems work. Now, see, this is kind of where things get messed up for me. Necrodancer made sense with its quasi-turn-based system because there were rules and structure to it. The beat would change, but everything was always aligned to the beat. Here, enemies move at certain intervals, and there’s kind of a rhythm to get used to, but it’s not really a structure that defines the game. Instead, it just kind of feels weird, because grids usually mean turn-based, but you can move freely. It just never quite feels right.

But it’s still a unique system and actually pretty cool among roguelikes, because it does a good job at combining the feel of grid-based roguelikes with real-time action. Your movement is grid-based and you can only act in the cardinal directions, but you have to act like the clock is ticking, because while enemies might wait out what you do, you still have to act and react as things are happening. Patience is an option too, as you can stand around and wait for mana to recharge, you don’t have to be constantly bopping about. You also have to make sure you never get crowded by enemies, as it might just be your doom. Also, the game has a system I enjoy, which is the random skills upon level up. I like it because it forces you as the player to perhaps play with abilities you don’t like, and makes you explore the styles you’re using. If you want an active skill, you have to know that you only have limited slots, and maybe an ability you’d like better would come along later in the game.

The difficulty does a good job at curving upward as you go along. The early levels start out easy enough, and teach you to be smart with your health and mana, as it takes time to refill mana and health doesn’t come along often. Your healing spells will help, but come at great cost for little gain, so just playing intelligently and avoiding damage is the smarter play. You also learn how you can use enemies against each other; enemies that leave freeze tiles will freeze other enemies if you learn how to goad them onto those tiles. Enemy attacks and projectiles will hurt each other. And the trap abilities wind up being useful as you can play evasively and set enemies up to take themselves out. There’s a lot of options to the combat that are set up not through specific options, but by how you choose to play, and the game offers you ways to feel clever for trying to excel at your chosen style.

I think the game also does a good job at being very mobile-friendly. The game is playable in portrait mode, and mostly one-handed, though the abilities are on the left side of the screen, and your movement is on the right. Yes, there needs to be an option to switch sides for us lefties, but that’s apparently coming in an update, according to the developers. Regardless, the game does work very well on the go. And the game’s structure of having 10 levels to play through is short enough that you feel like the end is attainable. Regardless, the game’s continue function works well if you need to drop what you’re doing and go do something else. This is a problem that many games don’t seem to address, and it annoys me with Downwell ($2.99) that I can’t just drop it and do something else without worrying about losing my progress. I could see where you could cheat with the system, as IWBAH lets you start from the beginning of the level you quit at, but still, usability concerns trump cheating concerns on mobile.

So yes, I Wanna be a Hero apes from other roguelikes, particularly Necrodancer, and I wouldn’t say that some of its changes necessarily make for a better game. But it’s still pretty darn fun, has a lot going for it, and does some things right that other games don’t do. It’s a solid game, and while you will notice its shortcomings, it’s overall a worthy use of time.