Bing in Wonderland – Hands-On Pinup Win Impressions

• Bing in Wonderland follows a simple roguelike structure: choose a character and weapon, then complete 13-stage levels with no exploration between stages.

• The game emphasizes fast, streamlined gameplay with short runs, unlike longer roguelikes like The Binding of Isaac.

• Players choose between two stage paths, leading to different rewards like Treasures, Shops, or Boons.

• Combat-focused, featuring smooth 2D action with various weapons (e.g. Bows, Spears, Cannons).

• Defeating bosses unlocks new levels, characters, and abilities.

• The “Heat” system allows replaying levels with higher difficulty for greater rewards, similar to Hades.

As a Pinup Win roguelike, it also contains a simple but incredibly effective system for meta-progression. Upon progressing through stages and defeating bosses, you’ll obtain both Yellow Beans and Naans, which can both be spent on increasing your power. Yellow Beans are primarily used for unlocking and upgrading both weapons and characters, while Naans are used exclusively at the Bonfire for increasing passive stats, such as damage, health, defense, etc. Bing in Wonderland keeps meta-progression simple but effective, which seems to be its prime design philosophy. Each weapon has a unique moveset and skill, which all help define playstyle, in the limited way Bing in Wonderland manages, but despite this simplicity, they manage to be incredibly distinct in the way they’re designed. Up to five Personas can be equipped once unlocked, which makes for fantastic levels of creativity and customisation, as there is an impressive amount of them to unlock, which allows for some great experimentation to find which Personas synergise well with each other, alongside with which weapons and Boons.