Monster Train turns hell into a tower defense problem, and it works.
Shiny Shoe’s roguelike deck-builder launched May 21, 2020, for Windows, then spread to Xbox One that December, iOS in October 2022, and PlayStation 5 in July 2024. It has since landed on Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Android. The pitch is simple: hell has frozen over, heaven is coming for the last burning pyre, and you are the one standing between them.
Trailer, via Good Shepherd Entertainment.
Four Floors and One Pyre
The field is a train. Four floors, stacked vertically, with the pyre on top. Enemies climb toward it. You summon monsters and fire off effects to stop them, but your creatures can only go on the first three floors. That single rule does more work than most deck-builders manage in an entire expansion.
Every run deals a different hand, and the game says so outright: “No playthrough is ever the same, it’s a fresh challenge every time.” That is marketing copy, but it holds up. The vertical layout forces choices that a flat board never would. Where you place a unit matters as much as which unit you play.
Three vertical fields to defend, cards that summon or trigger, and a pyre you cannot lose. It is a tight loop.
Wild Mutations, Friends & Foes, and First Class
The released updates Wild Mutations and Friends & Foes are folded into the package. A Complete Edition, Monster Train First Class, hit Nintendo Switch on August 19, 2021. Then came the sequel: Monster Train 2 arrived May 21, 2025, published by Big Fan Games, the Devolver Digital label that acquired Good Shepherd Entertainment.
No playthrough is ever the same, it’s a fresh challenge every time.
The recognition followed. Monster Train was nominated for Best Strategy/Tactics Game at IGN Best of 2020 and for Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year at the 24th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. It did not win either, but the nominations put it in the right company.
What Holds Up
The roguelike deck-builder is crowded, and most entries lean on the same flat battlefield. Monster Train’s vertical train is the reason to pick this one over its neighbors. Defending three floors at once changes how you read a hand, and the pyre gives every run a clear thing to lose.
The sequel’s existence is the real verdict. A studio does not return to a frozen hell unless the first trip paid off. Monster Train earned that.
KEY FACTS
– Score: 8.5/10 (IGDB critic aggregate, 5 outlets)
– Released: May 21, 2020 (Windows)
– Later platforms: Xbox One (Dec 17, 2020), iOS (Oct 27, 2022), PlayStation 5 (July 25, 2024)
– First Class (Switch): August 19, 2021
– Sequel: Monster Train 2, May 21, 2025
– Nominations: IGN Best of 2020; 24th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards
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