Glitch Dash wants you to suffer. That’s something you need to understand before loading up the game. It’s just how it’s going to be.
At the very beginning, you’ll get a simple, easy to follow tutorial. “Great,” you’ll think, “this seems like a simple game, I’ll just go left and right, up or down as needed! No big deal.”
What a fool you’ll think yourself.
After the tutorial, your never-ending nightmare truly begins. As you spiral through the limitless galaxy, filled with obstacle blocks and distressingly sudden drops, you’ll need to move that immediately obvious left, right, up or down. A pretty simple game it first shows itself to be, but then, quite suddenly, everything gets turned upside down.
Literally, that is. You literally get turned upside down. Throughout the ever-puzzling levels, you’ll be finding yourself very abruptly shifting 90 degrees to the left or right. That’s right, your entire perspective will shift left or right, forcing you to consider you encroaching challenges in an entirely different light.[sc name=”quote” text=”That’s right, your entire perspective will shift left or right, forcing you to consider you encroaching challenges in an entirely different light.”]
These perspective shifts make the game infinitely harder. You are constantly not able to actually predict what you need to do; what direction you need to swipe on the screen, where you’re even going. It’s almost literally impossible.
Glitch Dash’s checkpoint system somewhat helps this. In the tutorial, you get unlimited numbers of the ability to restart from one of the frequent checkpoints. During the actual game though, you only get the one. You can get more by buying the complete, or just buying additional ones for a far lower price. This option does provide some help for the player willing to spend a small amount, but most players are going to have to restart the level.
The majority of the frustration in Glitch Dash comes from the repeated deaths you’re going to suffer. Every single level is going to require multiple, multiple repetitions. You will die, die and die again until you learn the pattern necessary to survive the level.
One might think that this makes the game unplayable, or inherently bad. However, this oddly provides an immense level of satisfaction for the player. Yes, you’ll have to suffer through continuous workings through the same levels, again and again. However, you get to enjoy the immense satisfaction behind finally mastering a level.
You actually get to appreciate the level of detail and integral genius behind the level design. The developer understands how annoying it can be to have to fight the game for any shred of enjoyment, so the game makes sure you get just a touch of frustration enough to appreciate the game and get that lovely feeling of bliss when, at last, you’ve bested the level.[sc name=”quote” text=”The developer understands how annoying it can be to have to fight the game for any shred of enjoyment, so the game makes sure you get just a touch of frustration enough to appreciate the game and get that lovely feeling of bliss when, at last, you’ve bested the level.”]
Glitch Dash does a fantastic job at keeping the player enthralled, despite the game’s earnest desire to see you dead. Considering most games only manage to irritate you when this is the case, Glitch Dash deserves applauding for its keen level design and fantastic playability.
[review pros=”Insane mechanics to throw you all over the place. The gameplay feels intensely satisfying and irritating all at the same time. cons=”Understandably, you will get an upset stomach from the twisting and turning.” score=7.5]
[appbox appstore id1255213438]
[appbox googleplay com.davidmarquardt.glitchdash]
