Part 5 (Jul 2026) · #2 of 2 in that tierWatch the moment (1:51:30)
Mewgenics
- Developed by
- Edmund McMillen, Tyler Glaiel
- Published by
- Edmund McMillen, Tyler Glaiel
$29.99
Build the ultimate cat army through tactical breeding and send them into deep, challenging turn-based adventures. Draft abilities, collect items, and manipulate genetics across generations in this roguelike tactics game from the creators of The Binding of Isaac and The End is Nigh.
Consensus
S83.3/100
Steam players89.9% positiveVery Positive54,494 reviews
Metacritic ↗88/100Users: 8.1/10
VG Insights estimate ↗≈2.2M copies · ≈$48.5M gross
What creators say
Ranked Jun 2026 · #8 of 9 in that tierListen to the episode
Scored 8.33/10 · tier derived from the score
Ranked May 2026 · #5 of 8 in that tierWatch the moment (0:13:45)
Ranked Mar 2026 · #4 of 5 in that tierListen to the episode
What players say
A turn-based tactics roguelite from Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel where you breed mutant cats across generations, equip them with class-based abilities and items, and send them on long, permadeath-flavored runs.
Mewgenics launched on Steam on Feb 10, 2026 (full release, not early access) to very strong reception: Steam sits around 90% positive (Very Positive, ~54k reviews) and Metacritic shows a Metascore of 88 from critics with a user score of about 8.1. Critics (Eurogamer Germany, Games.cz, Multiplayer.it, Siliconera and others) call it dense, endlessly varied and addictive, with early game-of-the-year talk; Wikipedia reports over 1 million copies and roughly $23M in the first week. Player criticism concentrates on the meta-layer rather than the combat: house/breeding management has little sorting or filtering, UI and ability descriptions are inconsistent, and Act 3 difficulty and run length feel punishing to some. The developers have kept patching (a 1.1 balance and breeding update, four new languages, console ports on Sept 8, 2026, and a small free update and first DLC in progress), so it is actively supported.
Players love
- Extremely deep tactical combat with 1,000+ abilities and 900+ items, producing wild synergies and build variety; players compare it to Final Fantasy Tactics crossed with Magic-style drafting and combo-building
- The cat breeding and genetics layer (mutations, birth defects, inherited traits) creates emergent stories and strange, hilarious builds
- Soundtrack widely singled out as a highlight, in some Steam reviews the best part of the game
- Huge content volume: 200+ hour campaign, 100+ bosses, many unique enemies that each demand a specific plan; reviewers with 60+ hours say they had seen under a third of it
- Strong Edmund McMillen personality: grotesque humour, charming art style, and a true Binding-of-Isaac-style sense of discovery
- Highly addictive loop; multiple reviewers describe ragequitting then sinking dozens of hours anyway
- Acts 1 and 2 are frequently described as engaging and easy to jump back into
Common complaints
- House and cat management is clunky: no way to sort or filter cats by stat, no simple way to clear accumulating poop, and extra rooms unlock very late
- UI problems in battle: easy to misclick, cannot see other cats' items and abilities mid-fight when it is not their turn, and ability descriptions are inconsistent or omit ranges
- Act 3 is a difficulty spike; several reviewers say runs turn stressful rather than fun, and losing a run can mean losing cats you spent a long time breeding
- Hidden or unclear information forces knowledge checks in a turn-based game, which some find fair in Isaac but annoying in a tactics game
- Some events offer a trivial upside against severe downsides (for example money versus injuring a cat), which reads as unfair
- Humour does not land for everyone: a KonsoliFIN critic called it often grating and dated, and another reviewer called it criminally unfunny
- Display options at launch: no borderless fullscreen and no 16:10 aspect ratio support, per a popular positive Steam review
- Heavy RNG can frustrate players wanting a purely skill-based challenge (noted in critic consensus)
- Drafting abilities without being told what you are choosing between or what they do in context, which several top negative reviews cite as poor onboarding for TBS players
Can feel tedious
- Managing a growing population of cats in the house: clicking through every cat to compare stats, with no list or filter
- Runs that last an hour or more, then a long management step after each run
- Stockpiling items to take into later runs, which some see as a cop-out to justify harder late enemies
- Grindiness noted by several reviewers, especially chasing unlocks and finishing the later acts
- Losing a run late can erase many hours of breeding progress, which makes Act 3 feel stressful
- Sorting which items to keep after each run via a large grid with very limited filtering
What's unique
- Fuses Isaac-style chaotic item roguelite design with a FFT-like tactics grid, a deck-building-flavored ability draft, and a genetic breeding sim
- Permanent cat lineages carry traits, mutations and defects between runs, so your breeding house is effectively the meta-progression
- Every cat has a voice and personality, and disorders, parasites and injuries are mechanical features with absurd effects (for example a corpse-eating trait that also eats teammates)
- Ridiculon soundtrack and performances tie into the marketing, with live Gamescom performance
- Long gestation: announced in 2012 as a Super Meat Boy follow-up, cancelled, then rebooted in 2018 with Tyler Glaiel into the current tactics design
Players want
- Add sorting, filtering, labeling or renaming tools for cats and a faster way to handle the house (breaking poop, bulk actions)
- Streamline the post-run breeding/management loop so it takes less time between runs
- Improve battle UI clarity: safer click targets, view all allies' abilities and items on any turn, consistent ability text with stated ranges
- Let players preserve or test more items or builds so late-game is not fully at the mercy of roguelike drops and stockpiling broken items
- Smooth Act 3 balance and reduce the feeling that hidden content is gated behind borderline annoying runs
- Better display support (borderless fullscreen, more aspect ratios); the developers have since added four languages and console ports
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
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Tier list Part 5 (2026)
Mewgenics is Edmund McMillan's follow-up to The Binding of Isaac: a board-centric, turn-based strategy roguelike where you command a squad of cats with very different play styles. He treats it as deserving its hype, with enormous content (100+ hours and he still hasn't hit the true ending), endlessly varied fights, and runs that feel fresh every time. He still has gripes about breeding opacity, shops and equipment restrictions, but they matter less after 100 hours. He calls it an easy S tier.
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