Dumb Ways to Die – Review
When you examine life closely, you’ll notice that it is still a struggle for survival. Ok, we don’t have dinosaurs chasing us, or vikings at our door. But we have a new set of problems, im sure our ancestors wouldn’t know how to deal with trains, cars, or dares set by dumb friends. Dumb Ways to Die is a collection of mini-games that tries to each us one rule, don’t die.
I found out that Dumb Ways to Die was successful safety campaign run by Metro Trains in Melbourne, they then decided to release an interactive version of this campaign, and so Dumb Ways was born. The game is made up a series of smaller games/challenges, these then repeat and get faster and faster, making them harder. When you lose a game, you are greeted by a series of gory deaths, including electrocution, bitten by a snake or a bear, or being hit by a train.
The game is made up of different characters in different situations. Each character having the deal with their own dilemma. You may need to tap rapidly on your screen to help a guy run fro, fire. You need to apply mustard to a hot dog, or be bitten by a snake. You need to spell out “PATIENCE” to prevent an someone from driving around a level crossing.
Split-second thinking is the name of the game, as you don’t have a lot of time to figure out the challenge and then complete it. If you die three times, you’re done. The object of the game is to score as high as possible, which in turn unlocks goodies. These include characters pilling up on a station platform in various stages of death, you can even unlock a music video for the game.
Despite the grim subject matter, Dumb Ways to Die is really fun game to plat. There isn’t a lot of games where losing is as fun as winning, and this game achieves that balance perfectly.
