Luck be A Landlord Review - "Paying rent has never been this fun!"
What if you could pay your rent and stick it to that nasty landlord of yours simply by spinning a slot machine ad nauseam? What if, while you spun that slot machine, you collected a variety of different animals, objects, and people, all of which serve your purpose of collecting enough funds to pay off that ever-increasing rent? I’m sure we’ve all thought about a simpler life where rent wasn’t such a nightmare to pay off, but Luck Be a Landlord dares to let us live out that fantasy of paying rent being fun.
Developed by indie dev TrampolineTales as a debut project, Luck Be a Landlord is an extremely unique roguelike deck builder that takes the cards out of the equation and replaces them with a collectathon dopamine simulator where your only purpose is to spin a slot machine.
Spin! That! Wheel!
I’m sure you have questions, so let’s dig into the gameplay side of things first. It’s an incredibly simple loop, but my goodness is it addicting. The entire game revolves around making two choices in between each spin on a slot machine, which will then further your available funds. And you’ll need those funds, as every cent will have to contribute to the rent payment that is placed by your landlord through an email every few rounds. 
At the start of a run, your rent starts low. You’ll be placed into the slot machine with a few different symbols, none of which have any synergy, but will give you a few coins per spin. But after each, you’ll have to decide between three symbols to add to your machine which will show up in a spot on each of the rows within the slot machine.
These symbols are where the game becomes a clear deck builder, because each has a different effect. For example, the water symbol interacts with the seedling symbol, and if the two land adjacent to each other in the machine, they’ll give a large number of coins to your bank. Most symbols focus on this sort of synergy, but some do have effects on their own, such as the anchor that will give increased coins if they land on a corner spot in the machine.
Easy to understand so far right? Well, it gets a bit more invested when items are thrown into the mix. These have various effects just like the symbols, but rather than being placed in the machine, they’re just simply passive effects. These range from things like the Red Pepper, which gives you three free coins with each spin, to others that directly affect the symbols in your machine such as making the Dog symbol turn into a Wolf, giving more gold when they show up.
On top of all of that, you also have Skips and Destroys, which are sent to you by your anti-landlord comrades at set intervals within each run. These are pretty self-explanatory; Re-Rolls allow you to get a new batch of three symbols between each spin if the original three weren’t to your liking. Destroys allow you to get rid of a symbol within your machine, allowing you to craft the perfect “deck”.
What begins as a simple few Symbols quickly spirals out of control as the run goes on and your rent increases, making the game feel quite challenging as it forces you to learn the symbols and attempt to craft the perfect machine to make as many coins as possible.
And after you finally successfully pay off that first run all the way? You’ve only just begun. There are 20 Floors to complete, and some surprises along the way that I won’t spoil but are sure to enhance your slot machine experience even further as you progress through the game.
Flashy colours and awesome music!
There’s not a whole lot to dig into on the side of the visual style of Luck Be A Landlord, as the entire game takes place within the 2D screen of the slot machine. Still, the pixelated art for all of the symbols is quite fun and gives the game a quirky, high-energy vibe which is matched by the soundtrack.
The soundtrack of Luck be A Landlord is full of pulse-pounding, awesome synth sounds that will keep you glued to your screen at all times. The song playing in the background changes depending on the floor, but each of them has a really awesome techno sound that matches the high-octane flashing colours and addiction loop of the slot machine gameplay. It all wraps up into a cohesive pile that will keep you hooked for hours on end.
Overall PackageTo sum it all up, Luck be A Landlord is a game that’s simple on the surface but full of depth and different build paths to take to best your horrid landlord. For the price of only 5 bucks, you can get a content-rich, insanely addicting roguelike deck builder that will keep your attention for upwards of 50+ hours depending on how good you are at putting a machine together.
In a world of samey mobile games that get stale after only a few hours, a low-price unique game like this is a diamond in the rough, and I personally cannot recommend it enough!
Luck be A Landlord Review - "Paying rent has never been this fun!"
A unique spin on the roguelike deckbuilding genre full of well thought out ideas and an addicting gameplay loop.
Connor Derrick
Connor is a diehard JRPG fan and an equally diehard fan of writing. When he isn’t putting 100+ hours into the latest Atlus release, he’s playing board games with his partner or blasting a mid-2000s punk record. Music, film, writing, and games are his biggest passions, and he hopes to one day unite all of those in some way or another.