Trash Squad

I have a soft spot for the small, slightly ridiculous indie that just gets on with it, and Trash Squad gets on with it immediately. You drop into a top-down bullet-hell roguelike where the entire enemy roster is literally alive garbage, and the game never once winks at you about that premise. It commits, and that commitment gives the whole thing a cheerful, low-key charm that bigger productions sometimes forget to pack. The loop is the classic one: pick a character, push through procedurally generated levels across six distinct scenery settings, shoot everything moving, grab loot, die, learn, repeat. What keeps it from feeling hollow is the layered character system underneath. Ten playable characters sit in the roster, most of them locked at the start and earned through progression. Each one carries unique skills, and each run lets you distribute attribute points across stats like Bullet Damage, Max HP, and Critical Chance, plus pick up passive talents that stack into something that feels genuinely personal by the time you reach mid-run. That RPG scaffolding is lightweight enough not to slow the pace, but substantial enough that two runs with the same character rarely feel identical. The weapon variety reinforces this well: rifles, shotguns, lasers, swords, rocket launchers, grenades, and more all handle differently enough to shift how you approach a room. The procedural generation earns its keep. Mini-bosses show up unexpectedly, portals to secret levels dot the maps, and the enemy mix shifts within a single biome so you rarely feel like you have a guaranteed route memorized. One Steam community member mentioned clocking 27 hours before unlocking just the second rank tier and still finding things they had not seen. That is a good sign for a game priced this low. Mercenaries and magic pets that you can recruit mid-run add a quiet warmth to the solo experience, like picking up stray cats on the way to war. On the harder difficulty modes, reflexes and positioning matter more than any build, and the game does not pretend otherwise. The honest caveats: this is a low-budget production from a small developer, and the presentation reflects that. Do not come looking for a lavish soundtrack or hand-painted artwork. The visual style is functional rather than expressive, and the atmosphere is closer to "busy" than "moody." If you need a game to be beautiful to feel invested, this one will not persuade you. The opening characters also feel weaker until you understand the talent system, which the game does not explain with much care. A little patience in the first hour pays off significantly, but impatient players may bounce before the build variety opens up. For fans of Nuclear Throne-adjacent shooters who want something unpretentious to fill half-hour windows, Trash Squad delivers more run-to-run variety than its modest footprint suggests. It knows exactly what it is, and it does not overstay its welcome. Kai, Scout Team

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