Mewgenics review – Edmund McMillen's cat tactics roguelike is an instant classic

Mewgenics has landed on Switch 2, and if the PC release earlier this year wasn't enough of a signal, this port makes it impossible to ignore one of the most original strategy games in years. Edmund McMillen – the mind behind The Binding of Isaac – spent 13 years building up to this, and somehow it delivers.

The concept sounds unhinged on paper: you breed genetically mangled cats at home, then send them into battle in a roguelike tactical RPG that pulls its classes, stats, and mechanics straight from Dungeons & Dragons. Co-developed with Tyler Glaiel, who worked with McMillen on The End Is Nigh, Mewgenics is macabre, wildly inappropriate, and frequently hilarious – and underneath all that chaos sits a genuinely phenomenal strategy game. The reviewer calls it their second-most played game on Steam, behind only The Binding of Isaac itself.

McMillen once described The Binding of Isaac as a warm-up – a basic roguelike to get comfortable with the genre before tackling Mewgenics. That's a bold claim given Isaac's reputation as one of the greatest roguelikes ever made, but Mewgenics appears to back it up. The tactical layer adds meaningful depth that Isaac never attempted, and the breeding system creates the kind of emergent, unpredictable runs that roguelike fans chase.

For Switch 2 owners looking for a meaty, replayable strategy game with genuine personality, Mewgenics looks like the easy answer. The Nintendo Life review pulls no punches – this is a must-play.