RoguedexPart 3 (Apr 2025) · #14 of 17 in that tierWatch the moment (2:35:05)
Pogo Rogue
- Developed by
- Bounce Back Games
- Published by
- Bounce Back Games
Free
Bounce to the top in this skill based, roguelite action-platformer! Collect powerful items, pick unique weapons, and fight off a variety of enemies while navigating around with a fun, difficult, and unique movement system. Are you up for the challenge?
Consensus
B70.8/100
Steam players92% positiveVery Positive213 reviews
VG Insights estimate ↗≈22.2K copies · ≈$0 gross
What creators say
What players say
A free, student-made 2D roguelite action-platformer where you ascend a factory by constantly bouncing on a pogo stick, using procedurally generated weapons, passives and active items.
Pogo Rogue is a small, free Windows-only game from Bounce Back Games, made by University of Utah Division of Games students. It has a Very Positive Steam rating (196 positive of 213 reviews, about 92%). Players praise the tight, skill-based pogo movement, the addictive one-more-run loop and the fact that it costs nothing. The main friction is a steep learning curve for the movement and early difficulty, plus modest content length. It left Early Access in November 2024 with a final content drop, and the team said most members had moved on, so only occasional bug fixes were expected. Community discussion is sparse and there are no critic reviews, so the picture rests mostly on a few hundred Steam reviews and forum posts.
Players love
- The pogo-stick movement system is distinctive and, once learned, feels natural and very satisfying (wall jumping and speedrunning get specific mention)
- Addictive one-more-run loop; several reviewers say they lost hours unexpectedly
- Variety of weapons, passive items, active items and synergy items keeps runs different thanks to procedural generation
- Bosses are singled out as a highlight by long-time players (one reviewer with several hundred hours)
- Free to play, and reviewers say the quality is well above what a free student game should be
- Runs well on low-end hardware, Linux via Proton and Steam Deck; tiny install (around 100MB, i3 and 4GB RAM minimum)
Common complaints
- Steep, unforgiving early difficulty; one reviewer dropped after many deaths following only two boss kills
- Movement takes a long time to learn before it clicks, and the tutorial does not fully explain it
- Some players get stuck on level-navigation obstacles (for example a reviewer who could not work out how to get past a metal ceiling in the first area) and leave a negative review
- Reports of bugs on the Steam forum: a solid-box hive item breaking, and the Constructus enemy leaving its arena
- Occasional lag spikes reported on Steam Deck despite generally good performance
- Windows only on Steam (no native Mac or Linux build)
Can feel tedious
- Dying repeatedly while learning the movement before the game starts to feel fun
- Hitting a difficulty wall at the boss stage after the early areas
- Confusing early-level navigation without clear guidance
- Early Access-era difficulty was high enough that the developers removed bats from area 1 and raised starting health in October 2024 patches
- Bugs with certain item interactions
What's unique
- Entire movement is built around a constantly bouncing pogo stick, which makes it closer to a precision platformer than a typical combat-first roguelite
- Skill-based difficulty: player execution matters more than build luck
- Synergy items that combine active items, with free switching between a synergy item and its components
- Hub area with NPCs such as Pogosmith and a Traveling Salesman, plus unlockable characters
- Factory setting and a student-team pedigree from the University of Utah Division of Games
- Free release with no monetization
Players want
- Better onboarding and tutorials for the pogo movement and first-area obstacles
- Control scheme options and more rebinding and controller-related settings were requested on the forum
- Ability to swap active items, requested by players
- More content: at least one reviewer calls it a little short
- Balance fixes for exploits; a forum thread discusses a game-breaking strategy
- Continued bug-fix support, since active development ended with the full release
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
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Tier list Part 3 (2025)
Pogo Rogue is a free action roguelike where you ride a pogo stick up through levels, using your weapon's recoil to propel yourself. He first played it in early access, found the precise controls too hard and the game too thin, and expected to give it a C. After replaying the full release he found it much more forgiving, with more roguelike content and a big hub. He places it in B tier as a small, charming game with a unique twist, and praises the developers for making it approachable.
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