Dash Maximus

Platformers wouldn’t be the same without the jump function, since that’s what defines the genre after all. The more difficult the jumps between platforms, the more challenging the game. In fact, players need to display pretty fast reflexes in order to survive some levels, which is why they are the perfect tool to improve your reaction times and get better at anticipating things.

Dash Maximus is not your typical platformer, on the other hand, because it lacks the jump function. Granted, you can still “jump”, but the method you’ll be using is a tad more demanding and imprecise. Hence, you’ll have to dash instead, and keep doing so when you hit a wall in order to climb it. While this may sound similar to the wall-jump mechanics, it’s actually a lot more stressful.

The story is not very exciting, but at least it explains what the main character is doing on a desolate planet. As it happens, he was investigating a distress signal when his ship crashed into a cavernous rift. Although you are equipped with a jetpack that would technically allow you to fly over short distances, it is damaged in the crash, which means that it can only be used as a speed burst.

There are traps you have to either disable or avoid along the way, which yet again require great precision and fast reflexes. As an example, you’ll have to disable lasers by dashing through a couple of buttons. However, you have to do so pretty quickly, otherwise the buttons reset and you have to take it from the top. Hence, it’s always a race against time, even if there’s no actual timer to speak of.

The controls are accurate and responsive, which is exactly what you want when every key press must be picked up by the game as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, there are other inconveniences to watch out for, such as the fact that the difficulty level is pretty chaotic. While the first few levels are more or less simple, the next few become extremely demanding all of a sudden. This might encourage players to quit early on, so a smoother learning curve might have been better.

Dash Maximus is certainly worth a try from every platformer fan, especially if you are up for a challenge. However, it could do with a smoother difficulty curve, because it jumps from easy to frustrating way too quickly.