Mini-Dead

Peak design, peak gameplay, peak music.

Ever had a game just land in your lap randomly? I found out about this game because of one of its composers (mudeth), saw it was free, and figured I'd give it a try. What a lovely hidden gem! A simple concept, with well executed mechanics, and a neat spooky / fleshy aesthetic to tie it all together. It's only 4 fights, but I enjoyed each one! Reminds me of the golden age of Newgrounds / flash games, which is a huge compliment in my book. Its a bit on the difficult side, but everything feels (mostly) fair. Even better, there are a few accessibility options to tailor the experience to your liking without trivializing the experience (A slow health regen, and slowing down enemies). The DLC expansion is also great! I'll leave a review of it on its page, but in essence: 4 more fights, way harder and involved, and a bit more story / theming. A must buy if you enjoyed the base game. Bottom line: Its free, lovingly made, and not that long. You lose nothing by giving it a spin.

Base Game: Boring DLC: Makes the game very interesting, for one the OST for the tarot bosses is stellar but more importantly the movesets are amazing and it adds some very witty helpful dialogue to the game. It took me around 15 hours to get through all of the bosses. Additionally after clearing all the dlc bosses the game unlocks extra modifiers to the game to further spice up the gameplay. One Hit is the least remarkable on its own, the other modifiers add non-dlc or dlc-only boss attacks that occur every few seconds. If you enjoy this kind of boss-rush gameplay with mouse controls, then this has enough depth to keep you occupied for a bit. For me this is the first game of this genre that I played.

Mini Dead is a very small game, but I think it gets a surprising amount out of its main idea. I am thrown straight into a series of boss fights with almost nothing between me and the enemy. There is no long story to follow and no big world to explore. I just have to learn the attacks, survive the patterns and work out how to damage each boss. The really strange part is that I do almost everything with the mouse. I move it to dodge, click and drag to create a beam, then release the button to teleport to the end of that beam. It sounds awkward at first, but once I get used to it, the movement starts to feel pretty clever. The teleporting beam is easily the best thing about it. I am not simply walking around while shooting at a boss. Every attack also gives me a way to move, so I am constantly deciding whether I should use the beam to damage the enemy or use it to escape an attack. That makes the fights feel much more active than the simple controls suggest. I can draw the beam through a boss and then instantly move to the other end, which lets me attack and reposition at the same time. The whole system is built around that one idea, and I think it works really well. There are three…

I thought the concept of dodging with your mouse could NEVER work because of how fast you can snap from one end of the screen to another... but then you tie your only way of dealing damage to something that makes you stay still like a sitting duck? And yet, at the same time, make that same option be your only way of dodging some attacks? Suddenly, you need to actively look out for openings which allow you to stay still safely in order to deal damage. The secret boss especially, makes you think the same for teleporting, where you need to be aware of what bullet is gonna be where and anticipate that in order to not stand in the wrong spot while timing your teleport to avoid a wall attack. Short yet super fun! Even if I got a bit salty at times.

doing good great ok still have full health 4 hits until im dead perfect awesome ok I've been killed