Sometimes, game developers don’t feel the need to come up with lofty storylines or deep characterization or memorable moments to make a game. Sometimes, developers take a bunch of mini-games and throw them into a larger game and call it a day. Enter Die in 100 Ways. It’s a game in the most narrowly literal, straight-forward way possible. There are no game mechanics, there is no dialogue, and there is no real goal outside of “get the most amount of points for the sake of getting the most amount of points.”
When I first heard the title Die in a 100 Ways, I was expecting a gimmicky gore-fest that relied on ridiculously violent imagery to carry an otherwise underwhelming game. Imagine my surprise when I didn’t even get that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a blood-thirsty guy, (at least…no real blood) but without the novelty of violence, this game is just bland. The mini-games don’t make that much sense. One has your character beating a fish to death by tapping your screen like a mad man before the time runs out and the fish…somehow kills you by flopping about. Another has your character picking picking one out of three glasses, two of which are poisoned. This is kind of like a shell game where you have to keep track of the untainted wine while the glasses are moved quickly around. Of course if you pick the wrong glass of wine, you die, but no worries, it will be as cartoonish and uninteresting as possible.
Perhaps my disappointment in the game’s tameness is kind of weird. All I’m saying is, if you’re going to name a game Die in 100 Ways, you might as well go the limits of your promise. Certainly, parents will not be purchasing a game with such a title for their children to play while they are on a plane or a train, so why keep the whole thing so PG? Outside of the screen tapping mini-games, there are mini-games where you finger-trace along the screen – moving a man so he doesn’t fall down a sewer, connecting two cables so someone doesn’t get electrocuted, so on and so forth – but they aren’t any more compelling. Honestly, I found myself failing on purpose so I could see the resulting death of the character in the scenario.
Okay, so maybe I am just a little bit blood-thirsty.
All humor aside, the whole “mash-up of mini-games in order to make up a bigger game”-thing never worked for me, even when it’s done well. Not only does Die in 100 Ways follow that formula, it isn’t even done well. It’s uninteresting and it never holds your attention for longer than a couple of minutes. The problem is that it basically has two modes; either you are tapping the screen as fast as you can, or you’re dragging your finger across the screen like a fool. Other than that, there isn’t much to explore here, and it certainly isn’t among the best android games. That’s all you get.
Is it Hardcore?
No.
Another boring mini-game marathon that isn’t compelling or even all that fun.