I was initially skeptical of the wave of imitations that followed last year's excellent bullet-hell horde-mode shooter Vampire Survivors. I like the original! However, great examples of the genre like "Picayune Dreams" and now "Boneraiser Minions" have changed my mind. The latter was released from Early Access on March 9 and just received "overwhelmingly positive" reviews on Steam. I appreciated this horde-like roguelike even when it was still in development, but since my last check-in, creator caiys has only further enhanced the experience.

Boneraiser leans into the passive nature of Vampire Survivor fantasy: instead of empowering the dwarves with spells and weapons, the emphasis is on strengthening the skeletal minions and making them talk. Like the most passive and unpredictable vampire survivor weapons, you have to be willing to pass up the opportunities presented by your skeletal companions. Instead of making your way through the slowly thickening soup of enemies, you have to go with the flow, hiding behind them like an older brother taking care of a schoolyard bully while his henchmen, the skeletons, chop up the peasants.

This is a great take on a kind of "summoner" fantasy, most reminiscent of playing necromancer in "Diablo" or "Baldur's Gate" and cooking up a doom stack of undead horrors and pointing them in the general direction of your enemies. It also shows how this new "Bullet Heaven" subgenre can surprise, honing in on the individual elements of the big-name "Vampire Survivors" and bringing them into greater focus.

Boneraiser is also very nice in its presentation, with bright neon colors on a dark background like the rave's glow-in-the-dark paint and "as I recall" 8-bit graphics reminiscent of Shovel Knight. In addition, Boneraiser does a good job of incorporating all the extras and accessories one would expect from a roguelike, with 15 unlockable classes, as well as persistent upgrades and secret discoveries. Developer caiys has also introduced new modes, including a card battle mini-game and a trap-focused survival mode variant.

Like the original $5 champion "Vampire Survivors," "Bonerizer" offers an attractive value proposition of an addictive roguelike game at a reasonable price. Any unpleasant suspicions I had about emerging games like "Vampire Survivors" have been pretty much roundly dismissed.