Slots and Daggers Switch Review

Slots and Daggers Switch Review
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch 

Despite playing the pokies being a rite of passage here in Australia when you turn 18, I’m not much of a gambler. Still, when I saw Slots & Daggers coming to the eShop, I was immediately intrigued. The idea of a roguelite hack-and-slash game crossed with a slot machine is quite possibly one of the most unique setups for a game I have ever heard of, so naturally, I had to check it out. What’s It Like? Select your equipment, collect some coins, and may the luck forever be in your favour as we review Slots & Daggers on Nintendo Switch.

Slots & Daggers sees you journey across the land to defeat Lord Slotor and his band of evil minions. The story is told through small text entries at the start of each level, which is a nice touch, but Slots & Daggers does not really rely on narrative to drive it forward. Each level consists of a set number of enemies that you must defeat one by one before finally taking on a boss. You begin with three slots and three items, and from there, you must spin to win using attacks, armour, and coin-generating abilities pulled from the reels. For the most part, you only have to tap A to stop the slots spinning, trying your best to line up 3 in a row for a critical attack, although later, you will unlock abilities that you can use to help turn the tides of battle. The game starts off slow, and you will fail… a lot. Thankfully, every defeat rewards you with chips that can be used to unlock new skills, passive abilities, and fresh items to add to your rotation. These range from physical and magic attack buffs to additional health and, eventually, extra slots, bringing your total up to five. Thankfully, you never have to stress too much about investing chips into the wrong upgrades, as the game lets you completely reset your skill tree at any time with no penalty, encouraging experimentation with different playstyles. Personally, I reset all of my points and grabbed the two extra slots as soon as I had enough chips invested, and I never looked back.

Much like other roguelites, Slots & Daggers is all about discovering combinations and builds that can carry you through a run. My first successful setup revolved around poison daggers, stacking damage over time that ignored armour while using shield abilities to survive increasingly powerful attacks. Unfortunately, that strategy completely fell apart in the Red Desert, the game’s third area, where enemies started using magic attacks that ignored armour as well, quickly whittling away my health and forcing me into another failed run. After cashing out my chips and trying again, I eventually discovered a build that only used three items: a coin generator, a small attack, and a heavy damage ability. Both the generator and weaker attack had reroll effects attached to them, meaning they would continuously spin until finally landing on the heavy attack that lacked the reroll stat. In practice, this resulted in turns that chained together multiple attacks before ending in devastating five-slot mega crits. I genuinely thought I had broken the game… until new enemy types started disabling random abilities, instantly rendering the build ineffective.

I think that is where Slots & Daggers truly shines. The game constantly makes you feel clever for creating what seems like an unstoppable build, only to throw a spanner in the works and force you to adapt. Sometimes that means limping through an encounter and desperately adding new items before the next fight. Other times, it means cashing out your chips and starting all over again. I finally defeated Lord Slotor after roughly six hours of playtime, immediately boosted a few more stats, and jumped straight back in for another run. Despite the gameplay largely revolving around tapping A to stop spinning reels, there is a surprising amount of nuance and strategy mixed in with the RNG, and that combination makes Slots & Daggers incredibly addictive to play.

It is not just the gameplay that draws you in, but the retro-inspired aesthetic and bizarre enemy designs as well. The best way I can describe the art direction is Balatro crossed with Ball x Pit, and there is a strange sense of satisfaction that comes from landing a critical attack and watching the screen explode with lights and fireworks. Coins fly across the screen whenever you earn them, seemingly operating on their own little physics engine, which is a really nice touch, especially once they start piling up across the play area. Spell effects also manage to dazzle and delight, and I constantly found myself wanting just one more spin to see how a run would play out. All of this is backed by the familiar pings and clanging of coins as well as cheers and gasps by offscreen onlookers watching your game that really add to the immersion. This is also backed by a handful of synth-heavy hip-hop tracks and deep bass beats that somehow never seemed to wear thin. It is all really well done, and during my non-stop eight-hour session with the game, I experienced no performance issues whatsoever. I’m not proud of that eight-hour session… but I’m not ashamed of it either.

While I was completely absorbed in the game, my biggest issue with Slots & Daggers is that I simply wanted more of it. Completing the game unlocks an Arena Mode, which essentially acts as an endless battler against waves of enemies, and I did jump back in for a few more runs, experimenting with magic builds and newly unlocked items, which was fun for a while. At under $10 AUD, I think getting around eight hours out of the main game is still excellent value for money, but expectations do need to be managed going in. Once you complete the main campaign and unlock everything, there is a chance you may feel tapped out before really diving deep into Arena Mode.

For my slot warriors looking into accessibility, there are a couple of visual options available to reduce screen shake and camera motion. You can also enable a fast mode that allows you to stop the slots with a single press of the A button, making it much quicker to burn through runs if you prefer a faster pace. As always, I recommend doing further research to see whether Slots & Daggers suits your personal accessibility needs.

As mentioned before, Slots & Daggers is short and sweet, but it is also an absolute blast to play. What makes the game even more impressive is that it was made by a solo developer, Friedemann. Between its unique premise, satisfying presentation, and incredibly addictive gameplay loop, Slots & Daggers kept me glued to my screen far longer than I ever expected. By somehow turning a pokies machine into a strategic roguelite, Slots & Daggers manages to feel completely fresh in an overcrowded genre.

So, What’s it Like? Slots and Daggers is like Balatro, crossed with a slot machine.

In the interest of full disclosure, a review copy was provided by the publisher, but this doesn’t influence my score.

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