Karoshi, by YoYo games, can be summed up in 3 words. Funniest Game EVER!!! that is of course dependent on your sense of humor. It takes the typical puzzle platform game and adds a slightly sadistic twist. Normally the idea is to finish a puzzle and reach the goal. Karoshi however, requires you to finish a puzzle in such an obscure manner that you die in the process.
It is a lot funnier than I’m currently making it sound. for an even more comical twist, there are even levels where you need to kill your boss or girlfriend… or both!!! So here’s the details…
Features:
- 50 level story mode
- “Survival” mode …. or more accurately “simon says” mode.
- Retro cartoon graphics
- 8 bit audio
- Unlockable achievements
- Chance to kill your boss for fun and get away with it
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Graphics and Interface: To be honest there’s not really a lot going on in terms of graphics. Its hardly up to par with the latest games out there such as dungeon defenders… but I don’t care. I find retro, low quality graphics very entertaining on puzzle games. and besides… its about having as much fun killing yourself as possible without any long term side effects such as death.
The actual game interface itself is also quite minimal. There’s nothing to get in your way and there’s a button for every possible situation. Go left, go right, jump, restart or quit… you really don’t need any more than that. The main menu is also very straight forward and needs no explanations or guess work.
Gameplay: In karoshi there are 2 main gameplay modes. Firstly there’s story mode which has you plotting your demise over 50 levels ranging in difficulty from the fairly obvious “fall onto the spikes” to the rather challenging “stand 3 pixels away from here and wait for a blob thing to push that button….”. There are various things to get in your way which are sometimes quite helpful. Firstly there’s your boss. He’s the typical average boss with obvious side effects. He makes you miserable, and when depressed you can’t jump as high as normal meaning you won’t be able to reach that set of spikes over your head. Want to know the best part? Kill your boss and you become happy but please remember killing your real boss may make you happy at first but you’ll be in real trouble later!
When in a happy mood, you jump higher, but this is a mixed blessing as spikes turn into flowers and do little more than make you sneeze. Meeting your girlfriend will also make you happy, but killing her makes you sad. Its all common sense really. Boss bad, dead boss good, girlfriend good, dead girlfriend bad… depending on your current relationship….
The other mode karoshi has is called Karoshiware. in this mode you play a game of Simon says. You have 5 seconds to complete each challenge and will have to think fast. Although these levels are small, they can be very tricky when under pressure. It is all good fun.
You can nab Karoshi off the Android Market for $1.92.
Developer/Publisher Website: YoYo Games
Rating: 4/5 (could use a few more levels in story mode)
—-COMPETITION!!!!—-
The guys and gals at YoYo Games have been awesome and provided us with some Karoshi shirts. For your chance to win, all you have to do is send us a picture of your highest score on karoshiware. pictures to be sent to droidgamerscompetition [at] gmail [dot] com. You’ll have two weeks to get those entries in starting today Feb 24th, 2011 and ending March 10th, 2011.
Only your first entry will be accepted, but if you want to send us pictures (or videos) of random deaths… we’d love to see them.
We have 3 of these shirts to give away, along with 3 YoYo’s with the shirts, and the highest scores will get them. GO ON A KILLING SPREE!!!! But please remember to keep the murder in the game and not real… unless your boss deserved it.
(no persons of superior employment or marital partners were harmed in the making of this review…. yet)
