Super Dangerous Dungeons is a 2D platformer from Adventure Islands that has roots in the 2011 Dangerous Dungeons web game. In Super Dangerous Dungeons, players control a little adventurer named Timmy while attempting to get through dungeons filled with deadly traps. …
Super Dangerous Dungeons is a 2D platformer from Adventure Islands that has roots in the 2011 Dangerous Dungeons web game. In Super Dangerous Dungeons, players control a little adventurer named Timmy while attempting to get through dungeons filled with deadly traps.
The major draw of Super Dangerous Dungeons is that it’s a super straightforward gameplay experience that has a particular appeal to players who grew up playing Game Boy games (like me!), while still being accessible to newcomers to the platforming genre. It’s a very basic platformer with only 3 buttons (left, right, and jump) that tasks players with utilizing those buttons to move throughout the trap-filled dungeons.
With 48 levels in total, players will have to really strain their abilities with those three buttons to successfully make their way through the challenges that each of those levels introduces.
Super Dangerous Dungeons may seem like a short game at first, but that’s only because the first handful of levels are deceptively simple for anyone who grew up bouncing Mario off of Koopas or stomping on Kremlings with Donkey Kong. As the game progresses, the challenges become more intense, demanding near-perfection in your execution. For example, while the first batch of levels had slowly moving spears and blades, the second batch of levels kicks it up a notch with faster-moving obstacles like giant spikey flails and rapidly rising waters.
Water which, apparently, you’re absolutely allergic to. You can’t touch the water. Not even a little. Fall into knee-deep water? Dead. Land and splash some water with the bottom of your shoes? Dead. For whatever reason, water is like lava in Super Dangerous Dungeons. Which is kind of annoying, and weird …but that’s just how the game works.
Apart from adjusting to the deadly water, I had some difficulty adjusting to how the game handles the momentum of jumping, but I learned that the developer is gearing up to patch that mechanic to make it a little less floaty. So as it stands now, the movement is a little off, but hopefully that is fixed with the impending update.
Another thing I feel that is worth pointing out is that people who enjoy speedrunning games are really going to dig Super Dangerous Dungeons. There is a Time Trial mode that players can get into that allows them to endlessly attempt levels (the entire game in one sitting if they can make it) while recording their time the entire way through. Because the levels are so short, speedrunning the game in one sitting is entirely possible. In my first encounter with the Time Trial mode, it took me just over five-and-a-half minutes to complete the first quarter of the game, and that’s with dying four or five times because of poorly executed jumps.
However, players who don’t really get a kick out of chasing their best times may not find that much to do with Super Dangerous Dungeons after their first playthrough, as the game gives very little reason to replay it beyond trying to top your best time. But that’s alright in my book, since Super Dangerous Dungeons is entirely free, with the option to pay for the game which removes advertisements in the process.
All in all, Super Dangerous Dungeons is the second platformer that I’ve reviewed this week that is worth trying out. It’s a little game that has some real value in it’s replay potential for speedrunners, and for everyone else it’s a nice reminder of the games we used to play as kids/teens, back in the age of game cartridges and AA batteries.
