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Sometimes, a short game hits the spot
Gaming Close Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Gaming Entertainment Close Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Entertainment Games Review Close Games Review Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Games Review Sometimes, a short game hits the spot Slots & Daggers, out now on consoles, is a low-key roguelike that you can finish over the course of a few days. Slots & Daggers, out now on consoles, is a low-key roguelike that you can finish over the course of a few days. by Jay Peters Close Jay Peters Senior Reporter Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Jay Peters May 30, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC Link Share Gift Image: Future Friends Games Part Of The best indie games we’re playing right now see all updates Jay Peters Close Jay Peters Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Jay Peters is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme. Slots & Daggers , a low-key, fantasy-themed slot machine roguelike, was one of my favorite games last year. That may sound like a complicated description, but the game mixes ideas from deckbuilding roguelikes with slot machines to create an engrossing loop, and there’s steady meta-progression that helps you push further with just about every run. Perhaps the best part is that Slots & Daggers is short: Solo developer Friedemann describes the game as a mini roguelike, and I completed it, including all 12 achievements, in just under six hours. This month, Slots & Daggers came out on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X / S, and it’s been the perfect excuse to revisit it. Slots & Daggers has a game-within-a-game perspective. On your screen, you’re looking down at a seedy table littered with things like a drink, cards, dice, a knife, and a cigarette on an ashtray, and in the middle of the table there’s an electronic machine, which is the thing you actually interact with. At the beginning of a run, you pick three pieces of equipment to kick off the quest, like a rusty dagger or a poison blade or a shield. Image: Future Friends Games Each turn, you’ll see three spinning slot machine wheels (or up to five with upgrades). You press a button to stop the wheels, and each wheel will stop on a symbol from the equipment you’ve picked up along the way and then do something depending on the symbol. So, for example, if the wheels stop on a dagger, a poison blade, and then a shield, you’ll hit the enemy, apply poison to them, and then get some shields for yourself. Getting three of any symbol in a row lands a critical hit with a celebratory burst of lights and sounds, much like hitting a jackpot on a real slot machine. You’ll also get items that let you respin wheels, which quickly become crucial (and very satisfying) tools to get more opportunities to hit your foes. Over the course of runs, you’ll also accumulate poker chips that you can spend on modifiers, which are cleverly represented as little things you plug into the “machine” you’re playing the game on, like additional wheels, improved attack and defense, and even a revive. At times, Slots & Daggers does feel artificially difficult, as if you have to lose and upgrade your modifiers to advance. And while I like to feel as if I have some influence over the wheels, at the end of the day, you’re still playing a slot machine, so there’s a fair bit of luck and randomness involved, which can be frustrating. Image: Future Friends Games Jumping back in to Slots & Daggers on the Switch, though, I remembered why I liked the game so much the first time around: Because you’re constantly getting poker chips after each run, you’re constantly able to buy new modifiers that make you stronger, but usually only strong enough to get just a little bit further. Before you know it, you’ve finished the game, left wanting more instead of completely tired out. The journey there is an engrossing loop — and it gives you the dopamine of gambling without any actual risk. Slots & Daggers is out now on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X / S. Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates. Jay Peters Close Jay Peters Senior Reporter Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Jay Peters Entertainment Close Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Entertainment Games Review Close Games Review Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your home
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- Follow Follow See All Games Review Sometimes, a short game hits the spot Slots & Daggers, out now on consoles, is a low-key roguelike that you can finish over the course of a few days.
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