Tape to Tape is a hockey game built like Slay the Spire, and it is the reason a sports title entered the Steam 250 weekly chart at number two.

Most sports games sell you a season. Tape to Tape sells you a run. Lose, and it is over — you start again, take a different route through the map, and build a different team out of whatever the game offers you this time.

Chart credential: entered the Steam 250 weekly chart as a new entry at #2, scoring 8.62 from 3,885 reviews at 92% positive. Released 23 October 2026 by Excellent Rectangle.

Key features

The roster is the deck

You take control of Angus McShaggy and hire players as you travel. Each one carries abilities that interact with the others, so the question is never “who is the best winger” but “which three of these cheap players combine into something the next opponent cannot handle”.

This matters because it solves the problem every sports roguelite trips over: without it, a run is just a difficulty curve with a scoreboard attached. Synergy turns roster building into the actual game and the hockey into the resolution step.

Your opponents are not playing hockey

Rival teams come with their own abilities and their own readings of the rulebook — cheating referees, farting princesses, and a team of Golfers that the developers treat as the final boss of the sport.

The point is not the jokes. It is that each team forces a different counter, so the roster you built two matches ago becomes the wrong roster, and you have to adapt mid-run rather than optimise once and coast.

Spending your players as a resource

Between matches you visit the Training Center to raise attributes, the No. 1 Fan to unlock a talent, or the Infirmary — where you sacrifice a player for the good of the team.

That last option is what gives the economy teeth. A roguelite only generates real decisions when something you own can be destroyed for something you want, and Tape to Tape puts that choice in a hockey rink.

Why a sports roguelite is harder than it sounds

Sports games have tried roguelite structure before and mostly failed, because a hockey match is already a long randomised event. Stack run-based randomness on top and the player stops feeling responsible for the outcome.

Tape to Tape gets around this by making the match short and the build long. You are not asked to win sixty minutes of simulated hockey; you are asked to assemble a team whose abilities make a short match lopsided. The skill lives in the draft, not the dekes — which is also why it reads to players as a deckbuilder wearing skates.

Where to find Tape to Tape

• Buy on Steam — $17.99 (10% off at launch)
• Windows only. Full controller support, local split-screen PvP and co-op

Frequently asked questions

Is Tape to Tape a real hockey game?

Yes, but it is not a simulation. Matches play out as arcade hockey with abilities layered on top, and the strategy lives in which players you hire between games rather than in realistic tactics.

Can you play Tape to Tape with friends?

Yes. It supports shared and split-screen co-op as well as split-screen PvP, so a second player can join on the same machine.

How much does Tape to Tape cost?

$17.99 on Steam, discounted 10% from $19.99 at the time of writing.

Who made Tape to Tape?

Excellent Rectangle, who both developed and published it.

Do you lose everything when a run ends?

You lose the run, but unlocks carry over. The next attempt starts with a wider pool of players and abilities to build from.