New "platform fighter roguelike" dubbed 'Hades meets Smash Bros' hits full release, immediately tops Steam trends chart

Spiritfall is a new Steam game that's been described as a combination of Dead Cells, Hades, and Super Smash Bros., and it's soared straight to the top of Steam's charts.

On February 28, Gentle Giant's brand new game, Spiritfall, launched after a period of early access. The game's trailer, which you can watch for yourself below, shows the player character bounding around a vibrant arena to strike foes off the edge of the stage and downwards to their doom.

It's actually an action-roguelike game, where you have to battle your way through waves of enemies on a single stage with whatever gear you've been granted. At the end of every stage you'll be presented with a chest that grants various abilities and boons, any of which can drastically alter the way you approach the game, as well as your own powers.

If this is reminding you of a few hit games in particular, you're not alone. On Spiritfall's Steam page, glowing reviews have compared the game to the likes of other hit indies from the past few years, including Dead Cells and Hades, which is huge praise. Some have also drawn comparisons to Super Smash Bros., given you're duking it out with enemies on 2D multi-level stages.

"This game asks the interesting question: what if Hades was Smash Bros?" reads one user review. "Very satisfying gameplay, different blessings and weapons make each run play very differently. If you like Hades you'll love this one," reads another very positive review. After nearly 700 user reviews, at the time of writing Spiritfall has an overall rating of 'Very Positive.'

As the tweet below from developer Gentle Giant shows, Spiritfall has been a bit of a hit on Steam, because just a matter of hours after exiting early access, it topped Steam's 'New and Trending' chart. It beat out other new games like indies Minami Lane and Dicefolk, as well as Nightdive's great new Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster. 

Spiritfall looks like just the latest small-time surprise hit on Steam. Just earlier this week, card-based deck builder Balatro overtook Slay the Spire in terms of all-time concurrent peak player counts, and we've had the likes of Sheepy: A Short Adventure rocket to the top of Steam's best-rated games chart. 2024 has been a great year for indies so far, and long may it continue.

Read up on our upcoming indie games guide for a look ahead at all the other great indies we've got to look forward to this year.