Flick Shot Rogues Review Overview
What is Flick Shot Rogues?
Flick Shot Rogues is a turn-based strategy indie game about flicking your heroes at enemies to deal damage and find what riches hide within the island. Built almost entirely around a physics-based gameplay loop, Flick Shot Rogue combines aspects of real-world games like Carrom and Pool with the replayability and randomness of rogue-lites.
Flick Shot Rogues features:
⚫︎ 5 playable heroes, with two usable per run
⚫︎ 8 starting trinkets to unlock
⚫︎ 9 Doom levels to add modifiers to each run and increase difficulty
⚫︎ 7 main levels with branching paths
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
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| $14.99 |
Flick Shot Rogues Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Cool Idea Themed Well Difficult, But Fair |
Repetitive Music Low Enemy and Boss Variety |
Flick Shot Rogues Story - 7/10
Flick Shot Rogues’ story is lighthearted and relatively simple, but it’s effective and not at all obtrusive to the gameplay’s execution. The core mechanics aren’t really explained in-universe, but there’s some lore to be had in the setting itself, even if the characters are little more than mascots.
Flick Shot Rogues Gameplay - 7/10
Flick Shot Rogues’ gameplay is as entertaining as it is unique, even if it isn’t the first rogue-lite out there to try the Pool formula. What it succeeded in doing, though, is giving it a lot of synergy and implementing many unique mechanics to go with its relatively shallow central premise. I just wish it had more variety in enemies and boss fights. Nothing to the level of Hades, but more than 2 to 3 bosses per world sounds reasonable.
Flick Shot Rogues Visuals - 7/10
What this game’s visuals lack in realism, it more than makes up for with its unflinching style. Sure, the characters don’t really have names and are mere mascots, but they sure do stand out with their vibrant storybook designs. It’s giving impressions of a classic pirate story about buried treasure in Neverland.
Flick Shot Rogues Audio - 6/10
Not that the game’s audio is at all awful, it gets very repetitive, though. And with how difficult the game could get, and the complete lack of voice-acting, you’re going to be replaying the same levels a lot and hearing the same tunes.
Flick Shot Rogues Value for Money - 8/10
$15 is a perfectly serviceable price for this game, considering its replayability, charm, and challenge. It’s an indie game at an indie price, although it really isn’t a steal at this point, just a cut above acceptable for its pedigree.
Flick Shot Rogues Overall Score - 72/100
Flick Shot Rogues is a deeper and much harder game than it seems, but it’s no less fun for either of those qualities. Quite the opposite, it’s made much more engaging and replayable by its precision, physics-based, pool-inspired gameplay.
Its storybook charm, unique mechanics, and high synergy all create a tightly implemented and addictive loop that’ll have you trying for another run in no time, if you don’t mind the middling-to-low variety in bosses, enemies, and endings.
Flick Shot Rogues Review: Harder Than It Looks, But Is It Fun?
They really are just making rogue-lite versions of anything nowadays, aren’t they? Throw a stick in a game room, and it’ll land on something that has at least 5 roguelite adaptations on Steam. That really sounds dismissive of Flick Shot Rogues, and I promise it’ll get a fair shake in a bit, but that’s the vibe I got from this game when I first saw it.
Upon playing it, though, it’s very much unlike those other shallow roguelites that have one novel idea but are otherwise forgettable. Flick Shot Rogues has a bit more depth to it, a bit more difficulty and challenge to go with its simple but fun premise. Not too much depth, mind you, but enough to set it apart.
I know my roguelites, and it takes some elbow grease to make something worth noticing. Let’s see if Flick Shot Rogues has what it takes.
Marooned on a Treasure Island as a Band of Roguish Misfits
So, let’s talk about the game’s setting first, because the gameplay will need its own dedicated section to fully grasp. Flick Shot Rogues is set on a classic storybook treasure island, complete with a volcano for good measure.
You play as a band of misfit treasure seekers trying to make a killing by finding pirate booty somewhere on the island, but a rogue storm capsized your ship and scattered your crew across its beaches and jungles.
Your job, hence, is to gather your crew and use your various combat styles to chop a way through a beach filled with huge crustaceans, a jungle filled with oddly-intelligent apes, a mountain crawling with chimeric abominations, and to ascend to the volcano to claim your treasure prize.
Right from the get-go, this premise immediately screams simplicity and charm. It sounds like something straight out of the Neverland brand of pirates rather than the grimy goons we’ve come to know from the Caribbean. It’s a completely banal goal with a relatively PG quest leading up to it—crab genocide and graverobbing notwithstanding—that reads like a storybook.
I love it. Not everything has to be edgy or realistic; sometimes things can just be silly, vibrant, colorful, but no less intriguing, and that’s this game’s narrative in a nutshell. Though I will say, while the story, setting, and narrative all have that charm, the characters are pretty much empty shells with singular goals and not much depth.
Such is the standing of a storybook pirate, I suppose, but having them be actual people with names and goals instead of being mascots for an archetype would be better. Speaking of archetypes, it’s time we got into this game’s core gameplay because it’s something else.
Buccaneer Air Hockey Meets Pool and Carrom
It’s hard to pin down exactly what this game is, but the title is very apt. "Flick Shot Rogues" is about as on the nose as it gets because that’s what you’re doing. This is basically a dungeon crawler, but instead of a dungeon, it’s Treasure Island, and instead of crawling, you’re sending your heroes careening towards your enemies by flicking them at the bad guys.
Think air hockey, but instead of pucks, it’s rogues that smack their enemies while being launched at Mach 5. The core gameplay loop is as follows: you have two rogues that you can switch between, each with a unique way of dealing damage as you flick them toward a target. Your goal is to make it to the final stage of seven, and you do that by defeating all enemies in your path, and your rogues help you do that in myriad ways.
The first two you get are great introductions to the game’s concept because they’re as direct or indirect as one would expect from a game about flicking heroes at baddies. The Swashbuckler deals damage directly on hit and usually relies on precision and bank shots to clean house. The Klabautermann (no idea what it means either) doesn’t deal damage when colliding with foes, but instead deals great damage in an area wherever he ends up, making you want to be conservative with your shots instead of just sending them downtown.
Already we’re seeing the pieces fall into place about this game’s high synergy, but we’re not done with the basics yet. Enemies find different ways to deal damage right back at you, be it by crashing into random directions, bombarding areas with tracking mortar shots, or just straight up teleporting in your face. It’s this fine line between lining up the perfect shot and staying out of danger that keeps the game interesting.
Then there’s the roguelite aspect of it all, because every stage has a Slay the Spire-style branching path of choices that force you to plan out your journey to each one. As you get through combat, you earn upgrades for your rogues’ kits, which change how their attacks and effects work. You can also heal, earn EXP, earn trinkets, and level up your base stats just like you’d be able to in any normal dungeon crawler.
This all boils down to a core loop about precision and patience, because going buck wild isn’t an option, even if you have unlimited shots, because losing your HP to careless flicking is a surefire way to send you back to the start.
Now, as a roguelite, there has to be a metagame aspect to this game, and, indeed, it does have one. No need for any metagame currency this time, however, as it’s all level and achievement-based, meaning all you have to do is play, and you’ll eventually unlock everything, including new heroes and equipment, and that’s where this game truly shines.
Great Synergy with Bright Ideas
Although the core gameplay itself is fun, it’s in how the game opens up after a few unlocks that the going really gets good. Take the first hero you can unlock, for example: the Frogomancer. Yeah, not what you expected, isn’t it? Instead of dealing damage on collision or when surrounded, the Frogomancer has you collect frogs around the board at the start of combat, with each frog being a separate attack that you can use when you tag enemies as you pass by them.
Combine that with new equipment like the option to spike your frogs with brambles, so enemies take damage from any collision. Pair that with multiple procs from multiple frogs, and hey, there’s a combo. I won’t spoil what else this game has by way of unlocks because that’s half the fun, but trust me when I say that there’s no end to the synergy you can get from the upgrades, equipment, trinkets, and rogues.
Harder Than Its Cutesy Facade Would Imply
This isn’t a bad thing per se, but this game is not what it seems. Yes, it’s a very straightforward concept-wise, but it’s the difficulty that doesn’t show itself immediately. It’s a very synergy and precision-based game that requires careful understanding and predictive prowess to master—not that the visuals and vibe would ever indicate as such.
Deceptive? Not at all, but definitely subversive. If you really thought it’s as simple as it looks, you’re in for a rough time, and there’s not even an option to make it easier, only harder. My advice? Take your time with this game and expect to be challenged, because you will.
Poor Enemy and Musical Variety
For all the variety this game has with its rogues, trinkets, and upgrades, it completely lacks in its enemies, bosses, and worlds. There are 7 levels to get through—two for each of the three biomes and a final level—and that’s all you’re getting. No branching paths in that regard, only within each of the aforementioned levels.
Each level has a boss at the end, and the pool of bosses in this game dries up very quickly, especially when you consider that the average Joe will mess up a lot to start. The enemies are also rather repetitive themselves, though they do differ from level to level, which fixes that issue a little bit.
What really irks me about this game’s low run variance in terms of stages and enemies is its music. You’ll be hearing the same few tracks again and again, failed run after failed run, and it becomes grating before long. It’s not awful, far from it, it’s just…repetitive. I found myself playing on mute before long.
Cool Idea Executed Well, With A Few Missed Shots Along the Way
Overall, Flickshot Rogues is a great game with a solid mechanical gameplay core executed well. High run synergy between its many moving parts works to enhance an enchanting visual style to good heights, but low variety in some parts of its making drags it back down some.
The game is in desperate need of content additions, be they new levels, new trinkets, or even new heroes to use. It’s good as it is, but in this case, the more the merrier!
It’s a lot harder than it looks, though I welcome the challenge very much. At the very least, it’s no less fun for it.
Is Flick Shot Rogues Worth It?
Not A Steal, But Worth the Price
Coming in at a decent $14.99, Flick Shot Rogues isn’t exactly a steal, but I don’t picture anyone regretting this purchase. It’s a low enough price at the indie standard that it’s not really too big an issue if you end up not liking it, but a touch too high to be something you absolutely won’t regret.
Considering the replayability and visual charm, it’s a good price to have this game at.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
|||||||
| $14.99 |
Flick Shot Rogues FAQ
Is Flick Shot Rogues Getting More Content in the Future?
Maybe. According to the game’s devs, Flick Shot Rogues could still get content updates in the future, but the team is currently more focused on patches and updates to improve the game’s base state.
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Flick Shot Rogues Product Information
 |
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| Title | FLICK SHOT ROGUES |
|---|---|
| Release Date | September 17, 2025 (Steam) |
| Developer | Noodlecake |
| Publisher | Noodlecake |
| Supported Platforms | Steam |
| Genre | Indie, Roguelite, Strategy |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Flick Shot Rogues Website |
