Crypt of the NecroDancer was a beloved hit following its desktop launch back in 2015. The mashup of old-school turn-based dungeon crawler with rhythm game sounded wacky on paper but worked incredibly well in practice. The game was turn-based anyway, so why not make every movement and action sync up with an incredibly awesome soundtrack? The results were fantastic, and I always thought Crypt of the NecroDancer would be a perfect fit for a mobile game. Developer Brace Yourself Games thought so too as they released a mobile port way back in June of 2016, and just as everyone figured it was a total treat on mobile. Then in December of that year Brace Yourself announced plans for new content for the game subtitled AMPLIFIED which would tell a prequel story to the main game while adding in some new characters, new songs, and new surprises. They planned to launch AMPLIFIED on desktop in January of 2017, which they did, with the additional content coming to other platforms at a later date. Well that was more than two years ago but they did finally make good on that promise as NecroDancer: AMPLIFIED ($4.99) has finally launched on iOS.

Unlike on desktop where AMPLIFIED is paid DLC that requires you owning the base game, NecroDancer: AMPLIFIED on iOS is a separate release from the original game and actually contains all the content from that game plus the new AMPLIFIED content in a single app. Best of all is that unlike the original Crypt of the NecroDancer, AMPLIFIED supports the full screen of the latest iPhone X devices (and I’m assuming the new iPad Pro models, but don’t have one to test). The original game is one I’ve had in my “hope this gets iPhone X support someday" folder on my phone, so with that as well as all the new AMPLIFIED content I’m more than happy to throw another five bucks down. If you missed out on the original game then you can check out our full review as well as our Game of the Week writeup from when it released.

While it sounds like just a gimmick, I always felt like the rhythm aspect to NecroDancer significantly evolved the roguelike dungeon crawler formula by forcing you to keep moving and reacting on the fly. That’s generally a genre where you want to take your time and plan out your moves well, so it’s definitely refreshing and fun to have the rhythm part shake things up. Plus, you can always just play as the Bard which has no rhythm requirement and play NecroDancer like a regular old dungeon crawler. This really is like the ultimate roguelike dungeon crawler with a little something for everyone, and NecroDancer: AMPLIFIED feels like the definititve version for mobile so definitely consider checking it out.