Dollar Dash (XBLA) Review
:
We liked?
Not so much?
Dollar Dash is a quick to play game that offers frantic multiplayer action without a lot of frills. While it offers some fun options for customization and variety in play, it’s somewhat limited in scope and some players may find themselves bored soon enough. Still, it’s a fun option that won’t take a lot of time or cash to pick up and play – well worth a try for multiplayer junkies.
Time to give you a run for your money.
Multiplayer gaming is all the rage these days. So much have gamers become enamored with trouncing (or being trounced) by strangers on the internet, that many games have started to shrink the single player components of their games in order to give more attention to quality multi play. In Dollar Dash, Candygun Games has gone completely multiplayer, for a game that has you dashing, bashing, and cashing out. Does it have anything to offer gamers in the long term, or is it just another short term distraction?
The premise of Dollar Dash is exceedingly simple. You are a thief, and like most thieves, you want money that isn’t yours. So, you break into a bank, or museum, etc., and you try to carry all the money to your getaway van. You are limited in the capacity of your stereotypical robber bag, so you need to make multiple trips back and forth. And of course, this being a multiplayer focused game, there are other thieves with the exact same goal as you: get more money than anybody else. Whether you are playing a local multiplayer (with friends or the computer), or a frenzied online match, Dollar Dash is clearly a game meant for a crowd.
In order to help the thieves in their quest for cash, there are various weapons and power ups placed throughout whichever map you happen to be playing. These range from giant rolling boulders to snowballs to bombs to jello shields, and using them to your advantage will make or break your game. You see, when a thief gets killed, he drops all his cash conveniently around his dead body. Killing the other thieves works twofold in your favor; they won’t get their cash to the getaway car, and you can pick it up and deposit it yourself before they drop back into the action. Of course, this works both ways, so the other thieves will also be trying to kill you at every opportunity. It makes for frenzied, fast paced action that is both frantic and a little bit confusing at the same time.
For most games, there are four thieves playing at the same time. In order to keep all of that on the same screen, Dollar Dash is played mostly in a zoomed out screen and that screen is just filled with stuff to look at. There are power ups and weapons all over the place; traps and oil slicks laid by other players cover the screen; various environment objects like trains and trucks speed through – there is a lot going on. While your thief will be marked with a colored circle around him to distinguish from the others, it is quite easy to lose him on the screen.
In addition to your standard Dollar Dash cash grab, there are two other modes you can try your hand at for a little variety. One has you killing the other thieves as many times as possible to snag the top spot. Another is a sort of the capture the flag type game. You start out with a safe in the center of the map. Your goal is to hold the safe for the longest total amount of time. You drop the safe if you die (which is particularly frequent in the marina level, where you can fall in the water), and the other thieves will try to snag it from you as well. It doesn’t really matter how many times you get your hands on it, or how long each time lasts – your goal is for a combined longest time at the end.
Whichever version you choose to play, you’ll need somewhere to spend all that cash. The shop offers you some customization options for your favorite thief. There are some useful upgrades, like a larger capacity for your satchel, but the majority of them are cosmetic. You can buy a plethora of hats and glasses, even a new dance for your character, but none of that will actually help you out in the game. Still, it’s a fun little extra that will definitely appeal to some, especially younger gamers.
Dollar Dash is a quick to play game that offers frantic multiplayer action without a lot of frills. While it offers some fun options for customization and variety in play, it’s somewhat limited in scope and some players may find themselves bored soon enough. Still, it’s a fun option that won’t take a lot of time or cash to pick up and play – well worth a try for multiplayer junkies.