Dead Cells
Ranked 12 of 12 roguelike games by recommenders
Recommended for its polished gameplay, controls and progression that feels rewarding; critics note it slows in hectic fights.
Recommended for its polished gameplay, controls and progression that feels rewarding; critics note it slows in hectic fights.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Polished gameplay and controls
“Playing dead cells on Apple TV is awesome. But it does tend to slow a bit in more hectic fights”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “New Apple TV 4K” “absolutely exquisite controls/gameplay and graphics”
Comment from 31 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Loreline, narrative language transpiled via Haxe: C++/C#/JS/Java/Py/Lua”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slows in hectic fights
“Playing dead cells on Apple TV is awesome. But it does tend to slow a bit in more hectic fights”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “New Apple TV 4K” Did not hold attention long-term
“I've played a little bit of Dead Cell's but it hasn't stuck with me yet.”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “How we made hit video game Prince of Persia”
Other roguelike games people recommend
The four most recommended other roguelike games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NetHack | 60 | 7 | 90% | 11 | 26 yrs6 owners | Approved |
| Chess-Inspired Roguelike | 33 | 3 | 92% | 1 | — | — |
| Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup | 16 | 6 | 73% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Xs of Y | 14 | 5 | 74% | 1 | — | — |
| Dead CellsThis page | 6 | 1 | 86% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Playing dead cells on Apple TV is awesome. But it does tend to slow a bit in more hectic fights”
“I've played a little bit of Dead Cell's but it hasn't stuck with me yet.”
“You can see if Dead Cells's parrying mechanic works for you.”
“absolutely exquisite controls/gameplay and graphics”
“Indy companies producing games like Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, and Stray are good”
“it "helpfully" minimizes itself when it's no longer the foreground window”
“I don't mind repeating if game makes feel I am making progress and getting something in return which dead cells do amazingly well.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.