Dumb Ways to Die is, to me, that song that went viral years ago. I know there is some sort of mobile game, extra songs, etc, but I really just remember the catchy jingle that resulted in saying that you need to be careful around trains. When I heard that Dumb Ways Free For All took the idea of Dumb Ways to Die and brought it to VR, I was interested.
Dumb Ways Free For All has the bean-like characters doing wacky and silly things that could result in death, but you are primarily playing mini-games. There are various mini-game packs, shown on an airplane that takes you to your destination. You can play solo or with friends online, if you want more of a challenge. Robin has been playing with friends, but I tend to take the more solo route!
The levels themselves are sort of split into a bunch of themed mini-games, around the destination that you are going. If this is in the jungle, a lot of the mini-games have monkeys, for example. One pack is all about food-themed mini-games, bringing you to some beach areas and some jungle areas. You can see the list of mini-games in each location before entering the game. You’ll then be playing them all one after another.
The individual games in each of the levels feel like the perfect length. Even ones that take a lot of movement in Dumb Ways Free For All seem to be perfectly timed so that you are not out of energy or feeling like it’s dragging on. There are about seven levels in the location, with the final level being a “boss-fight” like ending. Often your view is a bit obstructed due to weather warnings for these specific last levels. Some of my personal favorite mini-games were shooting fries at seagulls, bowling crabs out of the way with coconuts, and fishing gold. There were more challenging levels that I didn’t enjoy so much; anything with a basketball seemed impossible and spearing fish had me hitting bombs more often than not.
At the end of each mini-game, there is a score given to you, then you move to the next. At the start, there is a very quick and simple explanation of what you are doing, but most of the time this makes sense when you start playing. It’s fun, engaging, and even though some of the same mini-games are reskinned, they feel unique enough to provide a lot of variety.
When you finish an entire location, you earn XP that increases your level. This will unlock more locations full of new mini-games and cosmetic items. You will also gain tickets that can be sent at the airport. These are spent on new colors for your bean and new items that they can wear. Though you cannot see your avatar in the level, it’s still fun to customize them!
Dumb Ways Free For All is a fantastic party game, with a good amount of variety in games. Everything feels straight forward, the movement within the game is good, and it’s very colorful. If you are worried about your children playing shooters, all of the “gun” levels are blasters, and often shoot food items that are then feeding who you are shooting or are shooting corks that don’t kill anything, making this quite family friendly.
You can get Dumb Ways Free For All on Meta.
