Honorable Mentions for Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year

There were over twice as many votes cast this year; and while the winner and runner up were conclusively ahead of the pack, four further roguelikes stood out.

Incursion: Halls of the Goblin King is a D20 based fantasy roguelike by Julian Mensch that features deep game mechanics and a 'next-gen' religion system. It's possible to win this game as everything from a warrior or summoner or assassin or even a diplomat, and starting characters are considerably more powerful than many other roguelikes. For fans, you'll be glad to hear John Harris has just featured Incursion in his column @ Play.

Doom: the Roguelike, or DoomRL, was runner up in 2007, and had almost the same number of votes cast for it this year. A self-described 'fast and furious coffee-break' of a game, not so much inspired by Doom as an overhead ASCII remake of the original game. DoomRL comes complete with the original Doom MIDI files for that authentic experience and features everything you'd want from the original game. John Harris also featured DoomRL in an @ Play column.

POWDER is the premier portable roguelike, developed originally for the Gameboy Advance but ported to multiple portable and cell phone platforms. While the name is a play on the frequent mispelling of rogue as rouge, the game play comes in tactical bite size chunks winnable in an afternoon. John Harris on POWDER @ Play.

Legerdemain is a roguelike in Java set within the hallucinogenic realm of Phenomedom, that has proved to be endearingly popular, as well as available for purchase in a plastic zip loc bag. John Harris discusses this and more on the @ Play column featuring the game.

For a list of the top ten, as well as further discussion, feel free to meander over to Temple of the Roguelike or comment below.