The charmingly violent AK-xolotl–one of the best roguelike shooters of the last few years, and easily among the most overlooked games from the utterly packed 2023–has just hit its peak potential with a new update, so there’s now no excuse to ignore it.
AK-xolotl, a twin-stick experience that places you in the role of a homicidal and revengeful axolotl on its quest to rid its world of gangster-like faunal scum, started as a relatively no-frills experience, but its brilliance shone through. With subsequent updates, it became even more challenging and polished, and this latest patch from developer 2Awesome Studio adds couch co-op and an additional raft of extras–catapulting it to the heights it truly deserves.
AK-xolotl firmly deserved its top-five place in my best indie games list for 2023, and dozens of extras across PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch will hit the mark with regular veterans, returning fans like me, but crucially those who are yet to dive into its weird and wonderful pond for the first time.
AK-xolotl’s 2024 co-op major updates
- A whole new biome with its own boss, “Killer Calves”;
- 20+ new weapons;
- 15+ new items;
- 13 new enemies; and
- 10 new room types.
The game also gets a few system overhauls, including improvements to the “Axolittles” baby-collecting scheme, plus refinements to cooking and weaponry. An additional 27 weapon mods and a new player status system gives players even more ways to customize gameplay–and it’s even introducing quirks.
AK-xolotl was the talk of the town at Gamescom, and for good reason: it’s a game you just can’t put down, and publisher Playstack has a real habit of snapping up the good ones on this front, as I currently live with a crippling compulsion to discover every card in this year’s indie darling Balatro.
I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad thing to say this, but if you want to lose yourself in a game–to the point you can’t think about anything else in life until you beat it, and then some–this is the twin-sticker you’ve always wanted. What’s more, you can share that force majeure with a friend on the same sofa–not that you’ll be talking to one another much.
