Games worth discovering

Dumb Ways to Climb is the game your inner masochist has been waiting for

10K View2023-07-20

It's not uncommon to find a game so complex the instruction manual and tutorials can fill an encyclopedia, so I can always appreciate a simple game. Well, it doesn't get much simpler than Dumb Ways to Climb, a game clearly inspired by Only Up! And though I can appreciate the simplicity in Dumb Ways to Climb, I've got mixed feelings about it. This is a game that can get really old, really fast, and with no checkpoints to save how far you've climbed. Once you've fallen (and you will fall), it will be throw the phone across the room levels of frustration. Yet, maybe I'm a masochist because something keeps making me pick the game back up just to see how far I can climb.

Starting dumb ways to climb is a bit jarring. There are no title screens, no instructions, I started immediately on a city street, and the only way to go was up. Climbing across a variety of random objects that included: boxes, cars, buses, and even a pig, the higher I got, the more of the city I could see.

The surrounding environment was beautiful, but with only two controls, jump and run; it was only a matter of time until I fell off an object and had to start all the way from the beginning. This is especially true when playing on a mobile device, which sometimes felt awkward maneuvering over objects. How high can you go? I don't know. I've only managed to make it to the random car floating in the sky, and yes, I know that sounds weird, but it's this exact reason why I want to continue Dumb Ways to Climb.

There are so many random objects that are quickly thrown together I want to see what other wacky objects are waiting for me. Can I climb into space? Is there some reward for reaching the top? These are all questions I need answers to.

Dumb Ways to Climb is one of those games you'll want to experience for yourself just to say you've tried but will probably end up deleting from your library after a week or so. If you're looking for something mindless, easy to pick up (but difficult to complete), this is the game for you. Just don't expect anything more than what's advertised. It's a game where you climb up, in might I say, dumb ways. If you're cool with that, give it a try.