Dancing Duelists doesn’t have the depth of Slay the Spire, but it’s still a rockin’ good time

Unity’s game engine has historically been popular with indie developers, but recently announced fee changes sparked massive backlash. They eventually walked back some of the changes, and the CEO stepped down, but most game devs aren’t interested in working with Unity in the future. What can they do? Well, if you’re Mega Crit, the team behind Slay the Spire, you can spend three weeks learning a new engine and put out an awesome free deck-builder.

Dancing Duelists has a pretty simple concept. You play as one of ten dancing fighters, each with a unique selection of cards and abilities. Once you’ve chosen your fighter, you compete in seven auto-battle dance-offs. While I couldn’t pick the cards I wanted to play, I could choose new cards and abilities between each round.

I spent most of my time playing as Jazzy Jasper, a horn-playing flower that has some powerful healing cards in its arsenal. Jasper wasn’t always a match for his opponents when it came to raw damage, but since he was constantly healing himself, he could almost always outlast them. I got a little nervous when I faced off against another Jasper, but thanks to my superior deck-building skills, I still wound up on top.

Jasper was definitely my favorite character, but every single character was a blast to play around with. There’s Boom Boxer, a portable stereo with ridiculously powerful punches, Metal Marty, an axe that gets more dangerous as he takes damage, and Scorching Sylph, a living flame that’s basically untouchable. Some characters are stronger than others—Disco Dan and Hardcore Harry don’t have much staying power—but they’re all entertaining.

You shouldn’t go in expecting the strategic depth of Slay the Spire—remember, this is an auto-battler that was thrown together in three weeks—but Dancing Duelists is an addictive little game with a surprisingly awesome selection of cards. It’s not that complex, but there are still ton of deck-building strategies to explore, and that makes experimentation a ton of fun.

If nothing else, Dancing Duelists is proof that devs don’t need Unity to make a great game. It already has over 35,000 downloads, which is pretty incredible for a game jam title that isn’t  on Steam. If Meta Crit was able to make a game this solid with just three weeks of practice, I can’t wait to see what their next full game looks like.