I drip-feed roguelikes into my gaming schedule: one too many total resets and my brain could break beyond repair. I always knew this wasn’t an unusual approach but I didn’t ever think it would be an opinion I’d share with one of my favourite filmmakers, Guillermo del Toro. But the world is a strange place.
Thanks to a new interview with IGN we now know that Guillermo del Toro isn’t just a gamer, and one with excellent taste I may just add, but also a fan of Dead Cells—with a small caveat.
“Dead Cells was really interesting to me, I just hate respawning,” Guillermo del Toro explains. “You get 35 levels in and then you start again, you get faster, but please do a version without respawning for the older, for the elderly players. I’m available, you contact me and send it to me, please I beg you. Because I like the world, great design.”
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It may go against the entire point of a roguelike—and Dead Cells’ very specific promise of “no checkpoints”—but honestly, I get it. Some of the best worlds in videogames exist in roguelikes, they can be so beautiful to wander through, while also being excruciatingly painful.
Dead Cells isn’t the only good example of this, there’s also Hades, Noita, Wildfrost, and Binding of Isaac, among many, many others. So the idea of having an easier way to explore and experience these worlds does sound pretty nice, although I do also think the difficulty is what makes exploring these games so rewarding.
Other than suffering through Dead Cells, del Toro also shares the other games which hold a special place in his heart. “BioShock is a world I could get lost in for ages,” alongside Journey and Monument Valley. “I love Left 4 Dead, Death Stranding made me cry, Shadow of the Colossus made me introspect about so many untangible things.”
Hell yeah, excellent choice Guillermo. Shadow of the Colossus is one of my all-time favourite games, its setting, musical score, boss design, and subtle story are all absolutely outstanding—it’s one of the few games I always love to replay.
All of the above are pretty standard del Toro games, but then he throws in something of a last minute curveball: “Every day of my life, every moment I have free I’m still playing Angry Birds—I’m really good at it.” You know what, hell yeah again. I remember Angry Birds as being a good bit of fun back when I played it a lifetime ago. I’m glad someone’s still finding joy in it, I guess.
