Dark Scrolls Review – A $9.99 Soulslike Side-Scroller Worth Every Cent

Dark Scrolls, the indie Soulslike side-scroller from Doinksoft, lands on Switch at $9.99 / £8.99 — and at that price, it's a surprisingly easy recommendation.

Doinksoft, the studio behind Gato Roboto and Gunbrella, drops you straight into the action with minimal setup. You pick one of three characters and go. The game blends Soulslike difficulty with roguelike structure and, oddly, a dash of Sonic the Hedgehog energy in its movement. One of the starting characters, Pigeon — a Link-looking knife-thrower with a silly name — moves and attacks noticeably faster than the others, with long jumps and rapid projectile tosses that make him an immediately appealing pick.

Dark Scrolls doesn't try to be a sprawling epic. The world isn't huge, the systems aren't especially deep, but the game knows exactly what it is: a tight, replayable side-scroller built for short sessions. The kind of thing you fire up on a train ride and put down 40 minutes later feeling satisfied.

At under ten dollars, it's hard to argue with the value. If you're after a breezy but punchy Soulslike you can dip in and out of, Dark Scrolls earns its spot on the Switch.