Rainbow Laser Disco Dungeon – Dance to the Beat!

Introduction

Rainbow Laser Disco Dungeon is a twin stick shooter and roguelike game with rhythm elements, by the developer of Byte Driver. Taking place in the year 2084, Earth has been turned into a dystopia by extradimensional evil robots who quickly outlaw dancing and music! But underground, Dr. Dysco has found the robots could be destroyed by music, but before he could finish the ultimate Rainbow Laser weapon, he vanishes. Now it’s up to you to find the Rainbow Laser, save Dysco, and survive the Dungeon!

Outlawing music? No way!

The controls are for the most part simple: move with the left stick, shoot in the desired direction with the right stick, and use the triggers and bumpers of the left or right side to change that hand’s weapon. You start the game with the basic set of the Pulse Pistol and Syncopistol, but as you fight your way through, you can gain other guns with limited ammo such as the dual-shot Stinger, or the defensive Back Bumper.

Rainbow Laser Disco Dungeon features a vast number of rooms you can visit and clear, each with their own hazards, robots, and other things such as teleporters or traps. Resource management with the collectible weapons is key to surviving many rooms, as you will be overwhelmed by the number of enemies. Unlike other roguelite games, there are no permanent upgrades that carry from one playthrough to another, so every time you get eliminated, you effectively start again from scratch.

Let’s dance!

Aside from the ability to add custom music, there are plenty of features to make the experience easier and more accessible. You can reduce special effects and even adjust the coloring of the game to something you’re more comfortable with, or you can play the game one-handed. In addition, two kinds of Easy modes are included that allows you to continue exploring the dungeon even after losing all your health, without losing progress.

It is worth noting that the game is best played with a controller instead of the keyboard and mouse, especially as aiming with the mouse feels unnatural with the shooting being locked to 12 directions. The gamepad setup screen that appears when you start the game for the first time is unintuitive but was quickly mitigated by using the mouse to assign the correct buttons, after which you’re ready to go.

In Conclusion

There’s something strangely satisfying about Rainbow Laser Disco Dungeon. Although I never managed to save Dr. Dysco, Rainbow Laser Disco Dungeon grew on me after a few playthroughs. The blinding flashiness of the visuals, the lighthearted dystopian plot, the weird yet charming vintage text-to-speech voices, and of course the groovy disco music by various artists, all make up one intense yet fun package.

Giveaway Time!

In conjunction with this review, we are giving away a Steam key for Rainbow Laser Disco Dungeon courtesy of Vector Hat! For more details and your chance to win (or just to chat about indie games), simply join our friendly Discord server and check out the announcements!

Seeking some other roguelite hits?
Fury Unleashed – Shortest Trip to Earth – Distrust

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