Dub Dash

Dub Dash is a fast-paced rhythm runner that involves avoiding obstacles at high speeds. It's similar to a number of other titles, as there was an influx in recent years of simple one button runners with features built around music. 2009's The Impossible Game is an early example of this style in use, and lots of games have been made that expand on this style of play, customising it to make unique.

Geometry Dash saw the player able to double jump and fly, and it features much more creative music. Dub Dash takes the rhythm platform sub-genre and thrusts it into the 3D realm, giving it a more complex style of play, once more building upon the formula created by The Impossible Game. A more complex style doesn't always result in a better game, however, and this appears to be the case with the PC version of Dub Dash, which was originally a mobile game.

At its core, Dub Dash is a rhythm platformer where the player has to jump either left or right to avoid obstacles. There are nine levels to complete, and the game also features challenge and split-screen multiplayer modes. It takes some getting used to, and the first few levels are thankfully quite simple, allowing you to get used to the style of play.

At multiple points throughout a level, the player goes through a doorway and the style of the game changes. There are modes where you hold down a button to fly higher, where you must turn left and right sharply to avoid obstacles instead of jumping. These modes are fun to switch between, but it does suffer from some poor design. There are quite a few moments when switching between modes that the game doesn't give you enough time to adapt to the play-style or find out where to go, causing you to crash straight into an obstacle the moment it switches. Losing like this is really frustrating, as you must either use a life to respawn at the checkpoint or you must begin at the start of the level once again. There are a lot of moments where you can crash into an obstacle and it will be justified, but this way of losing makes you feel conned out of a life or restart.

The system of lives in the game is unique in that they must be earned through challenge modes. You are given an initial five lives which allow you to respawn at the previously mentioned doorways (checkpoints), but after those first lives are gone, you must either try and complete whole levels in one try or complete what's called a challenge mode to earn more. Challenge mode appears to be a randomly generated level that begins quite easy but gets harder and harder as you progress. The problem with this is that you're doing it to gain more lives, so you need to complete the level in one try to be able to continue. With enough practice it can be done, but it can get quite frustrating losing a level knowing that it's just to get 5 lives; it tends to be a more worthwhile tactic to practice at the main levels.

The best part of this game is easily the soundtrack, and visually it's no slouch. The music, which is the core the gameplay is built around, is good to listen to and goes extremely well with how it plays. The artists who created some of the music for this game also created the music for the aforementioned Geometry Dash, a game well known for its amazing music. The way the wheel the player controls moves with the music when you control it is very satisfying: you get a real sense of achievement when finishing a level or getting past a certain point, and the music does a great deal to create this feeling. Visually, the game is a vibrant, flashy game, and while sometimes that could be a negative quality, it compliments the way the game plays nicely, doing a good job of immersing the player.

Dub Dash can at times be fun, but it can also be extremely irritating. It's a decent rhythm-style game that has great music and decent visuals, and for the most part satisfying level design. It's also very challenging during the later levels, and it requires a good deal of practice and play to be able to complete them. The main issue with the game, and what spoiled it for us and held it back from a better grade, is the occasionally troublesome level design, it's not always great, leading to some incredibly frustrating moments that add an unfair element to an already unforgiving difficulty curve. Still, it's solid pick-up-and-play stuff and justifies its £3.99 price point on Steam.