Crypt of the Necrodancer busts a launch trailer

Crypt of the Necrodancer

Crypt of the Necrodancer scores points just for its wonderfully clever title, but it sounds like a pretty clever game, too. It's been available on Steam Early Access since last summer, but developer Brace Yourself Games announced today that it will go into full release on April 23.

It's a roguelike, turn-based as they tend to be, but by moving your character to the beat of the music—either the original Danny Baranowsky soundtrack or your own MP3s—you increase your gold multiplier and thus the speed at which your character advances. You can get a better breakdown by way of our first look from late 2013, but the short version is that the game strongly encourages players to "dance" through the dungeon—with the tradeoff being that you'll have to think quickly if you want to avoid being eaten by a Grue, or whatever it is that happens to be crawling around.

The final release will include the last zone, with new enemies, traps, secrets, and minibosses, unique final boss battles for the three main characters as well as story cinematics for completing each zone, a new, "insanely difficult" character named Coda, new achievements, a "technique trainer," and of course polish, tweaks, bug fixes, and "some musical surprises we can't yet reveal."

If you don't want to wait until April 23, you can still snag Crypt of the Necrodancer on Early Access; if you'd rather poke around a bit first, head over to Necrodancer.com.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.