Gambonanza

Chess and roguelikes sound like a great combo. Much like gambling and roguelikes, it's a pairing that's become increasingly popular in recent years. So here's another roguelike with a neat chess theme, testing your strategy skills, forward thinking, and luck through a variety of modifiers that can turn your bishops into absolute badasses.

Gambonanza combines two of my three favourite things: chess and roguelikes. Naturally, I was bound to love it, right?

The third thing is tall vampire mommies. Sadly, there are none of those here.

Timeloop Chess, With Neat Little Gambits!

The biggest strength of Gambonanza is how it transforms the complexity of chess into a short, approachable formula that evolves while retaining the ruthless strategy of the original game.

Players find themselves trapped in an intergalactic battle of wits against strange interdimensional beings, all settled through deadly games of chess. Like any good roguelike, the goal is simple: learn, adapt, unlock new tools, face defeat, and try again. Every run teaches you something new, and success comes through smart decisions, calculated risks, and a willingness to experiment.

Each run begins with three random pieces, ranging from pawns and rooks to queens and kings. If you know chess, you'll already understand the strengths and weaknesses of each piece. For those who don't (you've never played chess? Now's a great time to start), it's worth remembering that even the humble pawn can become one of the most powerful pieces on the board when used correctly.

Chess is a game of planning, sacrifices, and thinking several moves ahead. Gambonanza preserves those foundations while streamlining them into something faster and easier to digest.

Each round, level, and opponent gradually raises the stakes. You'll encounter larger groups of enemies, stronger pieces, modifiers, and environmental hazards such as tiles that crumble after a set amount of time. While the encounters themselves remain largely the same from run to run, Gambonanza keeps things engaging through the sheer variety of ways you can approach them.

Victories reward coins, which can then be spent on new pieces, Gambits, and modifiers that expand your tactical options. The result is a solid gameplay loop that allows for intense strategic thinking while remaining quick and accessible enough to encourage repeated runs.

Despite its approachable nature, Gambonanza can be surprisingly ruthless. One poor decision can quickly spiral into disaster, especially during later encounters and boss fights. Unlike some roguelikes, where powerful upgrades can compensate for mistakes, Gambonanza still expects you to think like a chess player first and foremost. Smart positioning and careful planning matter far more than luck.

The Gambit Is Strong With This One

I found myself sinking many hours at a time into Gambonanza, but I also appreciated that it worked just as well in short bursts. It's the kind of roguelike where you can jump in for ten minutes or lose an entire evening without even noticing.

Better still, you can stop at any point, and your progress is saved. Surprisingly, a lot of modern roguelikes still don't offer this level of convenience, so I genuinely appreciated that Gambonanza respected my time if I needed to step away mid-run. I also appreciated just how approachable everything feels. Even if you've never played a game of chess in your life, Gambonanza does a fantastic job of easing players into its systems without overwhelming them.

So Gambonanza has a strong foundation. It has enough variety to keep runs feeling fresh, a low barrier to entry, and an excellent gameplay loop that remains engaging throughout.

I also enjoyed the presentation, even if the soundtrack could have used a few more tracks.

There's only one? What the hell?

Thankfully, the colourful pixel-art visuals, bizarre bosses, and charming aesthetic create a memorable identity that remains enjoyable to look at throughout.

My biggest issue with Gambonanza is its approach to progression and permanent unlocks.

Every roguelike handles progression differently, but some sense of long-term advancement is usually what keeps me coming back. Gambonanza does feature unlockable Gambits that can significantly alter gameplay, but I often found myself wishing there were more. New starting pieces, permanent modifiers, additional bonuses, or systems that gradually expand your options between runs all feel like natural additions that could have deepened the experience.

Even relatively simple roguelikes manage to include unlocks that meaningfully alter future runs. Here, progression is almost entirely tied to RNG and the Gambit system.

The Gambits themselves can be excellent, but many are difficult to encounter consistently, meaning some of the most interesting unlocks rarely become part of your strategy. It would be like if Hades removed weapon selection and much of its permanent progression. The core gameplay would still be enjoyable, but you'd lose a lot of the long-term investment that keeps players returning for dozens of hours.

Money remains fairly limited even after multiple runs, and while some Gambits can increase your income, their requirements are often restrictive enough that I rarely found them worthwhile. I also felt there was room for additional progression systems, whether that be levelling pieces, upgrading Gambits, or unlocking passive bonuses between runs.

One thing I found particularly interesting was how Gambonanza changes the way you think about chess itself. Traditionally, sacrifice is a huge part of the game. Giving up a piece can create opportunities later, allowing you to gain positional advantages or set up a winning sequence several moves ahead.

Here, because your pieces carry over between encounters, every loss feels far more significant.

Combined with the compact boards and enemy placements, a single sacrifice can quickly snowball into a much tougher run. It creates some wonderfully tense moments, but there were occasions where it felt like the roguelike systems were discouraging the high risks that chess normally rewards.

The fairly static encounter layouts also contribute to this feeling. While Gambits, modifiers, and different starting pieces create variety between runs, the underlying levels rarely change. After enough attempts, I found myself recognising solutions rather than discovering them.

That's not necessarily a dealbreaker, as the core gameplay remains enjoyable throughout, but it does limit some of the unpredictability and excitement that make the best roguelikes endlessly replayable.

In the end, Gambonanza is a fantastic game to pick up and enjoy, but the lack of meaningful long-term progression prevents it from becoming something truly absorbing.

It's less Hades and more Solitaire. That's not necessarily a criticism, either.

Sometimes it's refreshing to play something that doesn't demand weeks of your life. Gambonanza is easy to jump into, easy to understand, and consistently enjoyable in short bursts. I simply found myself wishing there was a little more waiting beneath the surface.

Despite those shortcomings, I still enjoyed Gambonanza immensely. I understand that not everyone will agree, especially when permanent progression and long-term investment are such important aspects of the roguelike genre. But honestly, something is refreshing about a game that simply lets you sit down, think, play, and enjoy yourself for a while.

Overall?

Gambonanza is a clever little roguelike that respects your time, delivers plenty of strategic decision-making, and somehow manages to make me feel smarter than I actually am. The chess theme, surreal presentation, and approachable design make it easy to recommend, even to people who've never touched a chessboard before.

Its progression systems could have been expanded, and the repetitive encounter structure begins to show after extended play sessions. However, those shortcomings never stopped me from enjoying what the game does well.

Gambonanza isn't trying to be the next hundred-hour roguelike obsession. It's more like a confident, modern version of Solitaire: something you can jump into for ten minutes during a work break or lose yourself in for an entire evening. And honestly, there's something quite refreshing about that.

Plus, it lets you tell your friends you play legitimate chess without technically lying.

++ Highly approachable roguelike that doesn't waste your time
++ Cleaver twist on the game of chess
+ Nice presentation
+ Simple, yet engaging gameplay and roguelike elements

-- Lacking in meaningful and impactful permanent progression
- Needed a couple more layers for the roguelike formula
- Core tactics of chess feel underwhelming, or obsolete here

The publisher provided a review key of Gambonanza