Game Review: Dumb Ways to Dash! (Mobile – Free to Play)

What begun as a public service announcement campaign by Metro Trains Melbourne in Australia has morphed into a free to play franchise. First we had Dumb Ways to Die, then we had Dumb Ways to Die 2 and Dumb Ways to Die 3: World Tour. Each subsequent sequel losing sight of what the original goal was and instead turning into freemium, ad heavy games.

Now we have Dumb Ways to Dash, taking the characters of the series and putting them in races similar to the likes of Fun Race 3D and more. This review is for version 2.1.

Gameplay is super simple. You control a character or ‘bean’ as they’re known and must race against competing beans. The last one over the line is eliminated and the remaining competitors continue to face off until only one remains. Eliminate all your opponents and you’ll complete the level. Although it’s not just the beans you’ll have to watch out for as you race, as each track has hazards strewn all over the place and famously, the beans are very clumsy.

To aid progression, coins are earned in game and then spent on upgrading your bean. Increasing its speed, balance, fall recovery and more. New characters, outfits and dance moves are unlocked with progression and the game randomly gives you extra missions to unlock even more throughout. Missions like: knock over 10 beans or get 5 seconds of air time. Plenty of reasons to keep on playing, which you’re likely to do as Dumb Ways to Dash is fun and addictive.

All you have to do is press your finger on the screen and hold it down to keep your bean moving forward. It’s so easy to play even a 2-year-old could do it. Although they might struggle to get past some of the tougher levels.

Bright and colourful visuals, varied level designs and cutesy music/sound effects add to the overall quality of the game. However, it does have flaws and they come down to greed and ads. The latter is as prominent as you would expect, yet with this version (2.1) the game will lag after an ad plays and on occasion just freeze requiring a reboot. So not only is your fun interrupted almost every race but occasionally you’ll have to restart because of it. Not great but something that can be fixed in later updates.

What can’t or won’t be fixed is the in-app purchases. Something that is so unnecessary to see included here. To make matters worse, it actually does one of this the right way.

What is the standard price in most free to play games to remove ads? £1.99? £2.99? It’s often the latter and on occasion the former. Nowhere do you see 99p, certainly not these days but lo and behold, Dumb Ways to Dash asks for 99p to remove ads. It’s money well spent!

What isn’t so reasonable are the prices for piles of coins. A finite amount that will see you level up super quick but eventually reach a block when you run out. Especially as the cost of upgrading constantly increases. Starting at 99p for very few coins, it goes all the way up to £21.99. Dumb Ways to Dash is a fun game but it’s not that much fun!