This roguelike deckbuilder may look like edutainment, but its maths-based battles are surprisingly tense and strategic

The thrill of every great roguelike deckbuilder is, at its core, a simple one: make the numbers as big as they can go.

It's surprisingly bold, then, that upcoming game Talystro turns that entirely on its head. On this little mouse's quest, the goal is instead to make specific numbers.

Enemies don't have health, they simply are a number—as low as one or, in my experience so far, as high as 55 (terrifying!). To kill them, you need to generate an attack that meets that number exactly—only an 11 will beat an 11, or a 23 for a 23.