By Steven Andrew 
Riot Games just announced that 2XKO, their upcoming tag-team fighting game, will include a roguelike-adjacent mode alongside the traditional competitive fighting. For rogues players, it’s not that common to find a straight up fighting game that intends to blend the chaotic nature of roguelikes in a genre has been stubbornly resistant to structural innovation. Usually we see these shifts in indie games, but in this case a major publisher is willing to graft roguelike progression onto their fighter and that signals something shifting in how the industry thinks about these games.
From what we can see in the video and the news announcement from the official site, the Climb concept is tantalizing. Rather than the usual arcade ladder or story mode grind, 2XKO will let players wade through increasingly difficult fights where runs can end in failure, offering progression rewards along the way. It’s a format that thrives on replayability and variable difficulty scaling, which are both things that roguelikes are known for, and what fighting games have historically struggled to justify outside ranked multiplayer.
This isn’t pure roguelike territory, obviously. We’re talking roguelike-ish, which means Riot is probably tempering the format’s punishing elements with fighting game conventions, or more skill based nuances. Nobody wants their combo timing invalidated by bad RNG. But the inclusion suggests developers see real potential in blending the genre’s run-based structure with one-on-one combat systems.
For you, dear rogue-lover, this is either a welcome breath of fresh air or proof that roguelikes have become so commercially viable that every genre wants a taste. Probably both, frankly. 2XKO was already positioned as an accessible entry point to fighting games, and adding a forgiving single-player mode with progression hooks might actually accomplish that. It also isn’t the first time Riot has dipped their toes in the roguelike pool. Still, its awesome to see.
Aimee Rogers