Forced Showdown

I recommend this game on sale to people who enjoy twin stick shooters & card elements while comfortable with roguelite elements. I wanted to love this game more, but I feel kinda friendzoned by it because of how slow card-earning progression feels at random times. I do NOT recommend DLC unless you can beat the first two regular "shows". Here is what you need to know:
+The fantasy world gameshow look & feel is well done and mildly amusing
+Card mechanics of playing before each of 8 levels within a "battle" are plenty varied and work well, including enemies who can play cards after the first "show"
+Killing enemies and different champion abilities are satisfying
+Gameplay loop is mostly decent of: Playing as far as you can through a "show", earning coins to "spin" for random cards, update deck(s), pick a show and its modifiers
+Duplicate cards turn into shards that can be used to buy random cards from one of three tiers of cards.
-Number of coins earned in later shows seems weak per battle (half a spin or less per battle)
?People may hate the RNG on battle-specific modifiers - I have a love/hate relationship with them. Some battle stages let you pick from 4 different sets of modifiers, while others you are stuck with the modifiers they give you. However...
+Each battle modifiers is balanced in how each one either adds enemies, removes enemies, or doesn't change enemy counts to counteract whether the modifier has the potential to benefit or hurt you.
-Season mode (competing against others via leaderboard?) no longer works.
-No co-op mode
?KB+M was easier to use than controller for some reason, perhaps because of greater aiming precision at distance
+Decent variety of champions and abilities

Got this is a giveaway anywho...
Slay the Isaac, if you will.
Imagine a Roguelike shooter like The binding of Isaac or Enter the Gungeon. Only instead of finding items and weapons in the dungeon you have a deck you draw cards that represents all of your upgrades, consumables and one shot buffs. Deckbuilding is awesome in this game with cards having plenty of synergies, including magic: The gathering style keywords and cards often have unique twists to them: for example a consumable might summon a unit to help distract the enemy for one stage, that gives a permanent damage buff if it survives.
runs are fairly quick and each stage can have any of a number of random gimmicks to keep things interesting. The only drawback is earning cards can be a bit slow, as instead of packs they're earned one or occasionally two cards at a time in a weird roulette thing that wouldn't feel out of place in a free-to-play mobile game, though note this game has no microtransactions and there are mechanics to help speed things along as you earn more cards.
Worth a look if you want a unique roguelike shooter. Especially if you're a fan of Hand of Fate and want to see a different take on combining card and action games.

Good game but not very rewarding. It feels like there's not enough as it's the same thing over and over. Probably best to get it on sale unless you're a big fan of Dota and LoL but don't wanna pvp.