Review Dash Blitz: A Colorful Arcade Platform Fighter

Blitz Dash is a colorful Arcade Platform Fighter game developed by X-Joy Games. The gameplay feels very similar, like to the old boss-fights in retro games.

Swing, Slash, Shoot, Dash Blitz

The game is what you expect it to be. You can pick between several heroes and choose between four game modes. Each character has their set of skills and moves. There are some surprisingly odd heroes you could choose, like a car called Accel and a Bulldozer called Sherpa!

Every character has a charged shot. It requires you to press and hold a button to charge up your shot. Dashing is the main ability in the game. You are expected to move fast, block with ctrl, and dash forward while shooting. However, you are not required to do that. Each character has their own attacks.

One of the weirdest characters you could play is Puffin, a snowball machine. Puffin can shoot huge snowballs that run around the map, freezing platforms and hence slowing down opponents. Meanwhile, Arrhic, a Roman soldier, has his sword swings and T-pose swings. Attacks can vary depending on your movement too. Other special abilities include a Magnetic Attract ability and Magnetic Repel ability.

Press Buttons Real Fast

Apart from the direction buttons (left, right, up, down), there are about 9 other buttons for different abilities. This might not be that overwhelming, but the button distribution seems to be a bit off. Most of the buttons are on your left half of the keyboard, but somehow, it feels awkward to use them. This was especially the case for Jump being mapped to Z.

I solved this issue to some extent by remapping controls. Somehow, I missed the “Controller Recommended” on the start screen. Using a controller gives you absolute advantage over a kb/m. Since, you are required to hit buttons and switch between buttons pretty quick, having your fingers on all the buttons is a serious advantage.

Color Overload

As you might have noticed from the screenshots, there are a lot of colors flying around in this game. This makes the game look fun and “characteristically indie”. I am somewhat conflicted on the art-style. It’s so bad that it is so good! The human character faces look like a bad attempt at drawing anime characters. The Accel (the car) and Sherpa (the Dozer) look like made out of paper. Puffin has somewhat 3D animations to it, making it look like made out of a paper ball.

What surprised me is that all these characters have individual sprites from each angle. I loved it. However, the colors were a bit too saturated for me. This could be a problem for people with issues with highly saturated flashing colors.

Actual Gameplay

There are three main game modes. Race mode was just a time-trial with some very interesting maps. However, I did have minor collision issues with some maps. However, Onslaught is the real deal. You get to fight all the characters one at a time, and proceed to the next character. You’ll be given three health potions for the entire game, and you can choose to use them after each round. Each character is fun to play with and against.

Call some friends over, the AI is boring.

The rounds become boring once you figure out the pattern. The AI is boring and repetitive. The AI is not at all trying to kill us. Instead, it moves and attacks in a set path till health drops down to a minimum threshold. The set path changes after this threshold. The rounds are way too easy since the AI doesn’t care to attack us in creative ways.

Remember when I said you are expected to dash and shoot? Well, you don’t have to. Standing still in AI’s set path and pressing the A button or Space button can do as well. If needed use R button or G button for Magnetic abilities, and follow it up with S (for hold) or A (for melee). As of right now, you need friends to play against you to make it more fun. Call some friends over to make it more interesting.

Unable to match up

As of right now, online features (dubbed Dash Blitz Netplay) are available only on beta. Unfortunately, I was not able to match up against anyone. Netplay would play a big part on Dash Blitz because it could solve most of the problems I listed above. The games will be more fun and challenging to play. The game also has features for Team-based games and Free-for-All modes. This could translate well into Netplay. And I genuinely hope I can play with others on this game.

UI is disappointing

At first glance, the UI looks pretty fun. It even features individual soundtracks for each character you choose. On the bottom left corner, you can see a small backstory description of the character that you select. All that is sweet and fun.

However, I am disappointed with the UI. It was so confusing to navigate and I couldn’t figure it out. Right after the tutorial, I was put into the hero selection mode. I tried to click on the characters in vain, just to find out pressing on the same character changes their color.

It took a good minute to realize that I had to press the right mouse button to go back into mode selection. In-game pause menu glitched out at some point showing me the default Unity buttons. A restart solved the issue.

Final Verdict

The game is pretty fun and enjoyable. There are a few mistakes but none irreparable. The UI was one of the biggest issues for me. Otherwise, the game is genuinely good and worth your time, especially with friends. The AI is not that great of a deal, but at the end of the day, it’s a party-type game. With a few other controllers, this game could be pretty fun. With NetPlay coming into the game, matches could be more fun and competitive.

Dash Blitz is a fun and colorful party game to pick up and play for less than a dollar on Steam. Give it a try, it’s good.

If you like colorful games like this, read about Bug Fables, the so-called indie Paper Mario successor.