Mike Dies

Mike Dies
N/A
Metacritic
100
Steam
68.25
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$9.99
Release date
23 February 2018
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
100 (42 votes)

After flying his spaceship into an asteroid field, Spaceman Mike finds himself fighting for survival against hostile aliens, a ruthless kingpin and his own personal demons. Haunted by his past and hunted by his enemies, can Mike escape in one piece?

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Mike Dies system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows 7 or better
  • Processor: AMD Phenom II or equivalent
  • Graphics: Tested with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M - 2GB GDDR5 memory
  • Storage: 2 GB available space

Recommended:

Recommended requirements are not yet specified.
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Define Brackish Water
Define Brackis…

This is a good short game. It’s well-polished, has good voice acting, uses its unique features well, and respects the players time. It's evident that the developers put a lot of thought into making the game play smoothly.

The few problems I encountered were inconsequential. I played through the game fine with keyboard controls. The game supports analogue movement with a controller but I had to disable the Steam Input middleman software in the properties section to make it work. I played on 1080p 60 fps and experienced very rare and brief stutters. The game also supports an unlocked framerate and a 30 fps lock as well as 1440p and 2160p resolutions. You can independently control the volume of the SFX, music, and dialogue too though I never touched these.

Juno
Juno

Simple platforming with tight controls, tricky mechanics and a few fun surprises. Voice work is great and the level design stayed clever 200 levels in.

terminatus
terminatus

ANOTHER PLATFORMER?! Yes, yet another platformer, but don't click away just yet -- this one is a gem.

Pros:
+ Simple and smooth platforming mechanics
+ Incredible level design with new twists gradually introduced
+ Tons of secrets that reward your exploration with MORE LEVELS. These secret levels are among the best and most unique in the game. You WILL want to seek these out. (allegedly multiple endings as well, but I haven't earned them yet)
+ "Boss" battles are very well designed
+ Hilarious level names, A+ puns
+ Story moments are intriguing
+ Accurate title

Cons:
- Lackluster but serviceable UI

Hundreds of platformers out there, but with Mike Dies, Psydra offers a refreshing new experience with its polished game mechanics and wonderful level design.

SpookyHoosky
SpookyHoosky

A fun, tight platforming game that really shows how a small handful of mechanics can be pushed extremely far.
Absolutely loving it so far! The visuals are clear, the sounds are awesome, and the gameplay just...feels right.

Also it's oddly amusing watching Mike die, so the trickier segments become a lot more fun, rather than frustrating.

I imagine this game might be fun for speed runners too, given the tightness of the game play. It even has a built in timer!

Definitely reccomending this one! :D

facto
facto

I have enjoyed this game a lot so far. I sat down to give it a 10-minute try and ended up playing for over an hour without realizing it.

I agree with the creators-- it's definitely a better experience when played with a controller vs. a keyboard. The controls are tight and polished. Mmm mm good.

I enjoy the level design. It's a bit different from some games in that it's a roller coaster of difficulty, but I like that because it keeps the gameplay interesting.

The story is intriguing as well. I'm eager to finish this one.

Dynameter
Dynameter

A super fun platform with lots of clever levels! I found the world and characters to be incredibly polished! Just finished my first run through and going through to collect all of the items I have left!

TrashyTwoFox
TrashyTwoFox

Mike Dies is a great platforming game that should get more attention! Even though there are some bugs here and there, it has good voice acting, a great story, great level design, good art design and had challenging level design. I really hopes it comes to more platforms in the future because there is some good potential there.

Corniflex / Urist
Corniflex / Urist

Very good game ! The mechanics are interesting and keeps being renewed so it doesn't become boring !
The music is really great and the neat voice acting is a nice addition that complement well the plot, plot which is simple and deep at the same time (with some nicely placed meaphors and personifications) !

Riki-Tiki-Blak-J♠k
Riki-Tiki-Blak-J♠k

Any game that, by design, can find a way to reward you for losing is good in my books.
A++++

The Darksyde
The Darksyde

Mike Dies is a game I heavily enjoyed. Many of the puzzles are fun, and the sense of accomplishment with completing each one makes it truly satisfying. If you like trial-and-error puzzle-solving, games that sprinkle bits of story throughout your gameplay/exploration, and failure in the bloodiest fashion, Mike Dies is probably the game for you.

My only problem was the ending. I wish there was a little more time spent seeing what happened at the end - it passes by so quickly that the satisfaction of beating the game was cut a little short. Other than that, the game was a fun experience and I'm probably going to play it again sometime after I post this.

Overall: Mike Dies is a lovely game with a lot of love put into it.

Graff
Graff

In short: Incredibly clever, expertly designed, fun (and funny) and stuffed full of so much heart it confuses medical science to this day

Mike Dies is a tricky platformer that really shows how simple mechanics can have plenty of depth. The game is mainly divided into a large number of challenge rooms/platforming puzzles, and every handful plays with a certain mechanic. Each mechanic is introduced and then iterated on in subsequent rooms, cleverly advancing in difficulty and evolving into challenges with different skill demands. Every room is given a name (usually jokes or subtle references) , and many of the challenge rooms evolve in surprising and humorous ways.

No two rooms feel the same. Every single one uses their mechanical theme in a different or more advanced way. I seriously can't gush enough about how amazing it feels to play!

There's a good number of secrets hidden throughout the various rooms, and it seriously blew my mind when I figured out how to access some of them. That "A-ha!" feeling is very much in there, and I don't come by that too often these days.

Mike Dies just feels right. The only real hit against it to me are the visuals don't have much diversity (though this doesn't detract from the experience much). The bosses are on the easier side, but I think they provide a challenging evolution of their individual mechanics without devolving into frustrating repitition (dying is easy, but checkpoints are generous). The secret rooms of the game provide a handy amount of challenge anyhow.

Bottom line: Under a modest exterior Mike Dies will show you a rarely-seen level of design and a good time as well! Get out there and die some Mikes!

(Oh, and my steam time isn't accurate, my ending time is about 4:30? None of it's wasted or filler; solid, sharp stuff all the way through. This bat ain't corked, yo.)

Rine
Rine

I disagree with the "Metroidvania" moniker, but it's still a really fun game.

KenBiau
KenBiau

A really interesting game with nice level design. There are so many suprises and dromatic dialogs in the game. When you go deeper and deeper again, you see more amazing elements which you won't expect to see.

Alt-F7
Alt-F7

Mike dies is a very solid platformer, with interesting mechanics and enough challenging content to keep you trying until you beat it all.

The story is engaging, but not the strongest.

Though a little on the short side, this game definately scratched my platforming itch.

an owl's casket
an owl's casket

I've had my eye on Mike Dies ever since I recently finished playing Psydra's first game, Dark Scavenger. Dark Scavenger is a really weird but well-designed and well-written RPG, so I was a little surprised to see that their next game was what appeared to be a standard playformer. Don't let the images fool you-- this is an equally weirdly-written and cleverly designed puzzle platformer. There's not as much of a narrative as there was in Dark Scavenger, but that's to be expected, and what narrative there is there kept me pushing through, trying to collect all of the orbs and messages. I generally don't go nuts trying to get all of the collectables in most games, but the design of the puzzles here had me seeking them out just so I could see what sort of hellish trial the game was going to put me through to try to collect them.

As the name implies, you are going to die playing this game, and you're probably going to die a *lot*. It's to Psydra's credit that deaths never feel cheap or unearned. The controls are responsive and tight, guaranteeing that nearly every death can be attributed to user error. I don't know that it fits the description of a Metroidvania, necessarily-- you won't find yourself earning upgrades as you progress through the game, but that doesn't matter. This is a great puzzle-platformer that is well worth your attention and money.

Ultra Skeleton
Ultra Skeleton

This is kicking off a series I'm planning to do on games with few/no reviews, or that have long been on my backlog, or both. If you just want pros/cons and recommendations that might help you figure if you enjoy it, skip to the section denoted with ~tildes.~

A long time ago, I played this amazing little gem called Dark Scavenger. It was perfect for where I was in life, and although there are certainly bits and pieces of dialogue I would've edited now, the game itself? It's one of those rare few that get better after seeing it again, like revisting a distant friend.

But, it mattered most because it meant a lot to me for where I was in life. Flash forward to now, and though I loved Psydra's first offering, I've been putting off Mike Dies because I've got the arthritic reflexes of your most-uncool relative, and to be blunt, outside of a few of the most obvious games - your Marios, your Cave Stories, your Metroids, your Castlevanias - I'm not really a platforming kinda guy.

And once again, Psydra knocked it out of the ballpark, and Mike Dies is once again the perfect game for where I am in life.
Maybe it's just one of the constant presences, an unavoidably large orange presence that constantly uses childish nicknames to berate our fair hero; maybe it's the fact that this is a game that plays wonderfully, that feels like the sort of game you'd use to demonstrate the concept of games and why they're fun to a complete newbie cavedweller.

Maybe it's the fact that somehow Psydra managed to cram a compelling, interesting narrative in a relatively short and sweet platformer, or maybe it's the fact that - despite starting and being largely grim, that wonderful Psydra humour is still there and - the best. Absolutely the best.

Hell, there are lots of little touches that just - way back when I fancied myself a Games Writesman, I hoped that I might include little narrative touches like some of the things in Mike Dies. The aesthetic and sound design the statues of Mike's god make is, pardon the pun (and there are lots of them!) - divine.

But even for a guy who's only other fond experience with 'indie' platformers was, well, I Wanna Be the Guy, a guy who sticks to wasd and proudly, this game was amazing and tightly designed. The only time the controls were floaty or irresponsive were in two puzzles, and in both cases, I had a sneaking suspicion it was my potato computer; switching to a small-resolution window, and I got them on one and three tries, respectively.

There's so much I want to praise. The music is great; absolutely immersive, at times haunting, always fun. I'll be getting the soundtrack later.

The voicework is fantastic, not just for an indie but in general. Outside of Dark Souls and a few weird games like Drakengard, I generally loathe voicework; here it's just - wow. Every single VA did a fantastic job... And now I know what a Space Demon sounds like. Heh.

Despite the relative simplicity of the backgrounds, everything is visually striking, distinct, and beautiful. The latticework on the ship windows, the projectile designs, the visual 'snap' of the portals, everything just feels right.

I'd hazzard a gissa that you're wondering whether or not I'd recommend this game, and why. While you shouldn't trust weirdoes on the internet who may or may not be cartoon skeletons, unless their names are Kamaho, let me see what I can do.

~Pros~

* Incredibly intuitive. Level design is always fun, whether harder or easier, shorter or longer.
* Amazing puns. May be a con for some (they're wrong.)
* Tight controls, even when using WASD(!).
* Design, aesthetic, writing, music, and voicework are all superb, and all work well together. That's exceedingly rare.
* Sense of humour that comes at you like a right hook; I spent the entire last half or so of the game in a rictus of laughter.
* Very, very satisfying final boss, maybe moreso if you're a space scavenger, or whatever that's called.

~Cons~

* If you're old as dirt, layout can get confusing, and there's no real room map. There might be multiple endings based on collectible percentages, uh, but I can't verify yet because I got distracted by the location of the BEST CHARACTER** skittering away from me and unintentionally 100%'d the game while looking for it.
* It's still a platformer; if you're not at all interested in the genre, I'd say you might still want to try this one, for serious. But for some, that's a no-sell.
* Eh, I guess it can be a bit short, though that's increasingly a plus for fogeys like me.
* Look, for real, I usually put cons first because I'm cautious. This is a great game.***

** All the characters are the best.
*** And Mike is clearly confirmed for Touhou th20, Idyll of Summer Melancholy, or something.

~In conclusion~

I was blown away by how much I liked this game. It's become a bit trite to be all 'haha, game helped me with issue x' but... Yeah, Mike Dies made me feel a bit better about some of my mistakes and where I am in life. A lot. Dunno if it'll last; but ultimately, that doesn't matter. This is a fantastic game, and I'm hoping I can tag Psydra or something on Steam so that when future stuff releases from them, I just instabuy it, funds considering.

That's how much I liked Mike Dies.

So if you enjoy strange eclectic science fiction, straddling the line between comedy and the deep dark recesses of space, a fine mist of atoms and chunky Mike hollandaise sauce, and incredibly satisfying platforming, I'd wholeheartedly recommend Mike Dies. So much so that I'll probably try to speedrun it and see what happens elsewise; and I'll be looking forward to whatever Psydra does next, whether it be a Dark Scavenger Pinball/foosball crossover table, Mike Dies: the Party Card game, or, perhaps as to be expected, something entirely new and original.

In closing, I'd kill to play pen and paper with you fine folks, and that's maybe the highest praise I can give. Kudos.

d@rizzl@1$25OC
d@rizzl@1$25OC

I played Dark Scavenger and had alot of fun with that game so was curious about this platform game from the same developer. As someone who grew up with old school platformers I gotta say this is one of the best platformer games I've ever played. The levels are always interesting with new mechanics thrown in as you progress. The checkpoints are frequent and deaths always feel like your own fault. I'm also really digging the story that is well integrated into the gameplay and never slows things down. I totally recommend this game and advise anyone that's into fast challenging platformers to try this game out. Within the first 15 minutes you'll know if this game is right for you and I'm glad I picked it up.

KnightCthulhu
KnightCthulhu

This is not the type of game that I normally play but I can already tell that game controls work very well and the game explains their own game mechanics in a good and simple way.

Tanaki
Tanaki

A definite recommendation. The game starts off feeling like a simple puzzle platformer or metroidvania but evolves into an exciting test of skill with a story tying the different mechanics together. The only hinder to your progress is your mastery of the controls, and as you progress there are a variety of new obstacles to master. The pacing is great and the only rooms I found frustrating were optional side tracks. The devs managed to pack a lot of content into a game that only takes a few hours to complete (plus a few more if you're going for 100% completion).

Pros:
* Interesting but non-intrusive storyline
* Solid mechanics and pacing
* A variety of obstacles

Cons:
* The player interaction with platforms can get a bit wonky
* The story feels a bit weak at the start particularly with the angel and demon whose purpose to the story wasn't clear

Overall, this is a should play for anyone who wants to spend a day or two with a great game!

archcorenth
archcorenth

I bought this because I got a kick out of the humor and weird characters in Psydra's other game, Dark Scavenger. This is nothing at all like Dark Scavenger, not in terms of game play (obviously) nor in terms of humor or setting. It is, however, a fun platformer with smooth controls and an interesting level layout.

It is most similar to something like Super Meat Boy, but not as hard, and it doesn't feel as repetitive. I never finished Super Meat Boy, however, I've managed to 100% this in 5 hours. It has a story to carry you though, mostly this shows up in what I assume are intended to be dream sequences or hallucinations, which fiddle with the rules of the game, also with boss fights and collectibles. The first two add some nice texture to the game. However, the story itself I'm not so sold on. I get the client and the rat like thing, but I don't have a clue what the angel, demon, or floating eye thing are doing in the game. Also, just over all I'm not sure how this enormous labyrinth is supposed to be space station. I'm reminded of the scene in Galaxy Quest where Sigourney Weaver's character complains that some writer put a series of crushers in a hallway, and it's bad writing and she refuses to do it. But I still do give the game props for having the main character be LGBT without feeling like it has to make much of a big deal about it.

But overall I recommend this for the gameplay. It's really fun exploring the maze-like layout, looking for secrets and new exits, always feeling like you have no clue where you are and yet never feeling like you don't know the way forward. It's a really nice balance.

Spader
Spader

I got this when this was on a big sale. it's tough but responds well. story is something.

Alephwyr
Alephwyr

It's pretty good. First saw it in Seattle at Indie Game Expo in 2017. Finally got around to playing it. I love the sort of themes it's playing with and will probably steal some of them.

Fizzboks
Fizzboks

THIS WAS AMAZING
The groovy jams, the loveable dialogue, the guy's character model. I just-I just- I really love this game, way more than I thought I would. I haven't finished it yet but I just HAD to leave a review. Then there is also the actual gameplay, basically consisting of dodging stuff and platforming, the controls are very easy to play with and all the gameplay elements are used very creatively and always have a good variety. I know this review may be a bit all over the place, but this game really won me over. Even the way characters say their lines is so endearing to me and I might just use a quote or two from this game in the real world. The game has a decent challenge, but the frequent checkpoints keep it always enjoyable.

If you a fan of games with a neat vibe and are pretty good at platforming then please play this game, I think it's quite short but worth it.

P.S. I just remembered even more great things about the game like the excellent comedy, but I'd be talking for a long time, so all I'll say is that everything in the game is wonderfully crafted. Everything.

*ok I've finished it now

Don Slipo
Don Slipo

Died 1288 times. Would die again.

dripkidd
dripkidd

great game, sad to see the lack of players. good pacing, clever collectibles, 100% in 1 sitting. there's a bit of jank with snapping to platform edges, could use a fast fall, and there's one too many autoscroller, but the rest was fun!