Loop Hero is still one of my favourite games of 2021. After launching back in March, this curious indie roguelite from Devolver Digital and Four Quarters enraptured fans all over the world in a way that felt oddly different from other recent staples of that genre – Hades, Slay the Spire, Monster Train, and Spelunky. Perhaps the one it’s most similar to is Hades in that you need to end the loop in order to meaningfully start it again – and yet Loop Hero is nothing like Hades because it is grim and gritty and grisly, as opposed to basking in the style and silky sleekness of Supergiant’s smash hit.
Loop Hero is dark. It is weird and mysterious and pervasively dreadful, but it is also oddly optimistic in that it successfully appropriates ambiguity as a mask for nihilism. There is, on the most basic level, no point to anything in this desolate and depraved world. Monsters roam random routes to nowhere, confined to single loops as inherently defeatist as an ouroboros. No matter how many buildings you construct, monsters you slay, or resources you gather, all loops must end – but as with the ouroboros, each ending is a new beginning, especially when the circle is contorted into new and unfamiliar shapes.
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For what it’s worth, Loop Hero is great on PC. I’ve often sat here after hours researching pieces with a windowed tab set to the upper right corner of my screen, automatically micromanaging my progress while reading up on critical theory or the latest viral shitpost. This is Loop Hero’s most prominent strength: it is in these involuntarily perpetuated sessions that this game truly shines, because your laissez-faire attitude to playing serves as a perfect mirror to the world’s masterful monotony. It is mundane in the most brilliant sense of that word, in that there is no overwhelming deluge of colour or noise or overbearing exposition – it is as fascinating as a loop can be, which is simultaneously not fascinating at all and yet somehow fascinating beyond belief.
This is why Loop Hero is the perfect Switch game. Yes, you can dock your Switch and play Pokemon Sword or Breath of the Wild on a great big screen and appreciate Nintendo’s hybrid machine as a good and proper home console, but the Switch’s real magic will always be found in its handheld side. I would much rather lie in bed with my Switch acting as the only light source than turn the volume up to 100 and watch less-than-stellar visuals play out on a 32-inch screen. Atmospherically, this is already inherently automatic – you’re lying in bed, tired and switched off, going through the motions in an enjoyable but mostly unconscious way. Plenty of games are perfectly suited to this mode of playing, but precious few of them are a fraction as fitting as Loop Hero. It is, in and of itself, the perfect game for playing without needing to invest too much time or energy into concentrating on the actual act of doing so.
Realistically, I’d play Loop Hero on anything. As I mentioned earlier, this is already one of my games of the year, nestled comfortably alongside the likes of Persona 5 Strikers and New Pokemon Snap. If there was anything that could provide Loop Hero with the ability to usurp those powerhouses, though, it would be a Switch port – now that’s been announced, I’m curious to see if there’s anything else due to launch this year capable of topping it.
Whether you’ve played and loved Loop Hero already or are approaching it with fresh eyes, I can’t recommend picking up this phenomenal game for Switch enough. Turn the lights off, grab a cup of tea, and trundle around the loop while your thoughts wander elsewhere. It’s meditative, melancholy, and magnificent in equal measure. With every loop that closes, there’s a perfect opportunity for another to begin.
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