Tiny Dangerous Dungeons

Steam title card.

Tiny Dangerous Dungeons is a short platform Metroidvania developer and published by Adventure Islands for iOS on 2015-03-25, and later ported to Android, Macintosh, and Windows. The game's graphics and sound were designed to look as though the game were made on the Game Boy. In the game, you control an unnamed character who is trying to find a treasure located in the bowels of a dangerous dungeon.

Personal

I remember downloading this game onto my phone shortly after it was released for Android, but I became so frustrated with the poor on-screen controls that I gave up only a short way into the game. When I discovered the game was part of the Bundle For Racial Justice and Equality and had a Windows port, I decided to give it another try. With the addition of game pad support, I was able to make quick work of the game, beating it in about an hour on 2020-06-29. I found all the hidden heart fruits and only died twice.

Status

I own a digital copy of this game, but it is now free. I have beaten it.

Review

5	4	6	5	5

Best Version: Windows

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The game has a good nostalgia factor with graphics and sound befitting the Game Boy.
• The design of the enemies and player have a bit of charm to them.
• Although the music isn't great as a standalone, it fits the game's theme, makes good use of the artificial constraints, and has a decent number of tracks considering the size of the game.
• There are a couple puzzles in the game. Nothing head scratching, but enough to give a small bit of enjoyment upon solving them.

Bad

• When using a gamepad, the game is too easy. Most of the areas are easy to navigate and save points litter the map. The only part I had any real difficulty with was getting the Treasure Key near the very end, and that was because I wasn't being patient enough because so much of the rest of the game was so easy.
• By placing the hidden sections of the game on the map, the designers took away some of the mystique of the game. It not only reveals the general area to find the secret entrances, but also indicates there's an important item in each of them. I found one of them without the map, and I may have found two, but the others would have been a surprise to me without a map. I probably would have appreciated the game slightly more (and possibly even replayed it) if the designers merely told me there were four hidden caches to find and left it to me to discover where they were.
• The game is a bit too short. With the engine in place, the designers could have easily stretched out the game a bit further.

Ugly

• The on-screen controls on iOS and Android are awful. No doubt this led to the game being too easy when using a game pad.

Media

Images

• 

  Android icon.

• 

  Steam title card.

Maps

• 

  Medium-quality map with spoilers.

Videos

Steam trailer.

Longplay - iOS.

Links

   

• play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adventureislands.tinydd - Google Play Store.