Mike Dies makes no attempt to hide what is about to happen…it’s right there in the title. You’re going to die and die a LOT. You have to respect a game that tells you that right up front, but you also have to respect a game that turns the platforming genre upside down with some of the most diabolical game, level, and visual design of recent memory.
The game opens shortly after Mike flies his spaceship into an asteroid belt and becomes the human Guinea pig of some alien mastermind who has him running, jumping, floating, and dying in more than 300 levels that were custom made for the ultimate platforming experience. Along the way you’ll face numerous and fiendishly clever puzzles that pretty much center on getting from point A to B without dying, just to reach the next screen and do it all over again. Oh yeah…there may be a few boss battles along the way, but keep in mind that Mike doesn’t fight, so flex those fingers and test those reflexes with this non-combative game design.
Throughout the entire game you’ll be taunted by your alien overlord with chilling and witty dialogue, all the while searching for lots of secrets…so many secrets, many of which lead to new secret levels, which turn out to be some of the best locations in the game. Mike Dies is loaded with humor, not only in the dialogue but even in the naming of the levels, and despite its irreverent style there is a really good sci-fi story lurking behind this visionary retro-style platformer. I was entertained and amused from start to finish.
I really enjoyed how the game just dumps you right into it all with no real backstory or even rules on how to play. As you advance from screen to screen new gameplay concepts and level design twists are layered on, making much of the first 15-20 minutes an ongoing tutorial, as you figure out the controls and the physics of the game. Controls are super-responsive, which means that nearly every time Mike dies it’s your fault, but none of the deaths feel cheap, and you almost always learn something when you die. Thankfully the game seems to checkpoint itself every 20 seconds, so you never have to replay much of any segment, which greatly reduces stress and frustration. Boss fights are lots of fun, even if Mike doesn’t actually fight. You end up memorizing a lot of patterns (by dying) until you can survive long enough that the boss defeats themselves.
For most of the game, Mike gets teleported from screen to screen where he must traverse various platforming staples including ledges, traps, pits, etc. and make his way to an exit teleporter. The cool concept here is that Mike’s body must be entirely in the teleportation field when it reaches full charge. If not, only part of Mike teleports and he explodes, which means that smaller teleportation fields that could never contain his entire body are going to be scattered about and expertly used as traps and puzzles. Some of these even get a bit rhythmic as you learn just how long you can stay in a teleportation field by the whining sound of it charging up, as you fall down deep pits with alternating fields.
Many screens have multiple exits leading to multiple paths; some leading to a dead end and others leading down multiple paths to multiple endings. While it can be somewhat easy to finish this game in a couple of hours, to experience the entirety of Mike Dies would require lots of note taking and maybe some mapping. By design, there is a lot of backtracking, which often means doing previously solved puzzles in reverse, but the deeper you get into Mike Dies the better it gets. There are some incredibly innovative level and puzzles designs, but the game always eases you into these new concepts as you play the game. I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of any awkward difficulty spikes; even in the boss fights.
As much as I hate dying in video games I really enjoyed Mike Dies a lot thanks to its clever design, witty humor, and charming retro visuals that were surprisingly detailed and wonderfully animated. The sound, music, and especially the voice work really completed the entire package and for only $15 I can’t recommend Mike Dies highly enough. If you love platformers, sci-fi, clever puzzles, or just want to die a thousand deaths, this is the game for you.
