Addictive casual puzzler with RNG
Star Vikings Forever is a port of an iOS game, but don't let that deter you. It's the upgraded version of Star Vikings.
It's a throwback to 80 Saturday morning cartoons with silly dialogs and characters and a clever puzzler.
You're the Star Vikings and get elbroiled in a weird story involving space snails and Ragnarok (because of course) because of an idol mistaken for a table wedge.
In each level, you have to clear a path for your vikings, each is on their own lane and must move forward, but enemies can and will attack. Some vikings can switch lanes using a special power though, which can help find shortcuts.
You can have up to 5 vikings on screen and and their powers can synergize in interesting ways, setting up and racking big combos for extra XP. XP is used to level up, gold to buy items, skills and recruit new vikings.
Every level is has RNG based NPC placement (which can be reset by exiting back to the map and re-entering) and some levels use extra modifiers (more enemy health or damage, random damage on screen, traps even later on) to keep you on your toes. The mission can be defeat X waves, kill X enemies, open X chests and so on. Mission is per level and doesn't change. The game also has daily missions for extra XP/gold/fuel (which opens chapters and allows to roll for hats later on -hats which grant extra boons you'll want like more energy, XP increase or damage boost). The recruitment stations reset every 24 hours, so new charactrers with interesting perks can always be found.
While the gameplay is simple, clearing a screen is always satisfying and the game has that click that makes you want to play one more level. The various classes and their different builds also keep things interesting. If anything, favour monobuilds (ie if you get a certain upgrade, double down if available) to increase you chances of passive bonuses.
For the price you'll get hours of a very fun timesink with neat mechanics and fine jokes.
I've been going back to it regularly.