News of Slay the Spire 2 is still ringing in our ears, yet there are plenty more contenders to the roguelike deckbuilder throne waiting in the wings. After the huge success of Balatro, the next challenger has now arrived in Zet Zillions, a stylish, satirically sinister space strategy game from Ota Imon and Raw Fury where you’re fighting literal planets. If you’re in the mood to deal out a fresh hand of cards, Zet Zillions has just landed on Steam, and it’s certainly worth your attention.
The setup for Zet Zillions is as simple as it is stratospheric: You are Foam Gun, the shark-toothed, sadistic captain of the planet-ship Baby Violence. It’s your job to travel the vast reaches of space in search of a new home for humanity as you flee a terrorizing intergalactic entity known as Thanatos. Unfortunately, you’ll have to contend with all manner of hostile planets, asteroids, and other space detritus along the way, which is where the core of this card-based roguelike game comes in.
The staple of your deck is the population cards – that’s right, your people are your core resources, and Foam Gun spares no time in gleefully deploying them to explosive ends. Faced with a dangerous enemy planet, you can quite literally load it up with your population of ‘trash’ and ‘volunteers’ and then use other cards to detonate your target, dealing increased damage based on the population you’ve filled it with.
Much like beloved roguelike space game FTL and its pursuing rebel fleet, you’ll need to stick one step ahead of Thanatos at all times in Zet Zillions, lest you be dragged into more dangerous battles against elements of the ever-encroaching entity. Of course, the more locations you can stop off at along your journey, the more helpful buffs, upgrades, and traits you can pick up to help you survive.
On top of all that is Zet Zillions’ trump card, the fusion system. By combining cards in your deck, you’ll be able to discover powerful new effects to help you succeed. Or you might just end up with an embarrassing dud; these are experiments, after all. But what’s a good roguelike deckbuilder without a little splash of delicious risk/reward decision making?
Zet Zillions is out now on Steam, with a special 10% discount for launch through Thursday May 30 – expect to pay $8.99 / £7.64 (down from $9.99 / £8.50) for the base game, or $11.68 / £10.70 for the Full-Trash Edition, which includes the soundtrack and exclusive wallpapers. Ready to traverse the galaxy in search of a new home? Just head right here.
Alternatively, have a shuffle through the best card games on Steam for plenty more fantastic options at your disposal. We’ve also picked out the best indie games to play in 2024, so be sure you haven’t missed any potential classics.
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