Bing in Wonderland Review

Bing in Wonderland is a 2D action-roguelike developed by Wanba Studio, known for their previously released Wanba Warriors. Bing in Wonderland is just as strange but is a very fresh and entertaining take on the oversaturated roguelike genre.

Bing in Wonderland has basically no discernable story, which is definitely not a bad thing in this case. The prime design philosophy behind this title seems to have been a back-to-roots, simplistic yet still deep roguelike, with a pure focus on gameplay and progression. Exploration is completely non-existent; each level has 13 stages, which are just simple combat arenas with different enemies, bosses and rewards to break up the monotony. Combat is also incredibly simplistic, with a choice of five weapons: Bow, Spear, Cannon, Lyre and Axe. Despite this, they all have distinct playstyles, allowing for a good amount of gameplayriety, which is enhanced through the use of Items and Boons. Throughout the stages, the players gain access to shops to purchase different upgrades: Boons are designed in a similar vein to Hades, each set focusing on a specific type of upgrade, from thunder damage to unique status effects like "footed" which stuns enemies in certain situations, while Items are much more generalised upgrades. This brings me to the currencies of the game: Gold, Yellow Beans, and Naan. Gold is used during levels for purchasing items; however, you can also "beg" for items, yet if you beg too much, you'll gain increasingly bad negative effects. Yellow Beans and Naan are used for this game's meta-progression system, which I'll talk more about later. Each level culminates in a boss fight, which is very creative design-wise, such as giant fish with spears or a giant monkey throwing thunder-infused poop. It's odd and crude, yet still incredibly charming. Upgrades give a nice, tangible power increase yet don't affect how you'll play the game strongly, which is most definitely an area for improvement.

Meta-progression is also incredibly simple; Yellow Beans can be used to unlock new weapons and personas (playable characters with unique passive bonuses) and to upgrade them also, while Naan is exclusively used to upgrade your overarching stats, which affect each persona. As you progress through the game, you'll unlock up to five persona slots, which allow you to mix and match the passive skills, allowing for an incredibly deep amount of customisation due to the frankly incredible number of different personas. Experimentation is highly emphasised, yet I do sadly feel like the difficulty and level design could do with some work to make this feel much more worthwhile. There is a Heat system, allowing the player to pick from a set of modifiers to increase the difficulty, yet none of these add an interesting or unique form of challenge: it simply increases the amount of enemies, enemy damage, etc. More unique modifiers would make the challenge much more interesting and make replaying much more fun instead of simply a method to obtain more Naan and Beans. Both the visuals and the soundscape are fantastic; using a calligraphy-esque art style along with utterly gorgeous music makes for a very fun and pleasant vibe.

Simplicity really is the games biggest focus, and it really works out here, making feel like a genuinely fantastic roguelike even in its incredibly early state. If you enjoy the roguelike formula but hate the bloat many newer titles have, this is a worthwhile purchase!