Riot Games just surprise-launched a League of Legends RPG and rhythm game

Ruined King, announced in 2019 as the first game to be published under the Riot Forge label, is out today—and so is the much more recently announced rhythm runner Hextech Mayhem.

Set in two regions of Runeterra—the Shadow Isles and the port town of Bilgewater—Ruined King will team players up with a party of League of Legends characters including Miss Fortune, Illaoi, Braum, Yasuo, Ahri, and Pyke, who must work together to battle the ruination of the Ruined King. The game features an isometric overworld, while combat is a static, turn-based affair, with characters wielding powers similar to those they possess in LoL.

Take a look at some screens:

Unlike Ruined King, Hextech Mayhem was only revealed to the world last week. From the developers of the Bit.Trip Runner series, it features Ziggs, the furry trash goblin, jumping, sliding, and bombing to the beat as he auto-runs through an LoL-inspired game world. As we noted when it was announced, the concept is simple but the challenge of hitting your marks while sticking to the rhythm ramps up in a hurry.

Ruined King is available on Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store for $30 and is also coming to GOG (but isn't currently listed there) while Hextech Mayhem is on the same storefronts (Steam, GOG, and Epic)  for $10. Anyone who purchases Ruined King within the first 30 days of release will also get the Manamune Sword as an in-game weapon for Yasuo. Find out more at ruinedking.com and—you guessed it—hextechmayhem.com.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.