For too long have you remembered Ron Gilbert as the peddler of point-and-click adventure game comedies like The Secret of Monkey Island, despite his long history of forays into other genres. From now on, you are only allowed to remember him as the purveyor of Dragon Quest-flavoured perpetual motion machines that satirise bureaucracy and precarity. I’m referring to Death By Scrolling, Gilbert’s latest project with Terrible Toybox NZ and publishers MicroProse. MicroProse? This seems awfully intuitive for that brand. Barely a dial or a light-up acronym to be seen.
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Out now on Steam, the game casts you as a lost soul fighting your way ever upward through a vertically scrolling, top-down pixelart world. You’ve got to keep moving to avoid the flames of purgatory at the bottom, but you’ve also got to bop moblins and snaffle enough gold enroute to pay the Ferryman at the top of this roguelite world. It’s sort of like you’re a spider trying to escape a paper shredder, while striving to murder a bunch of other insects and trade their corpses for a trip to the office window. Less torturous comparisons include Super Dungeon Muncher and a mobile game I can’t remember about launching yourself up a chute, while feeding fruit to a pursuing beast (any ideas?).
There are several playable characters, with different abilities and perks. Further power-ups may be acqquired from vendors, and there are sidequests to try out at the top of each level for bonuses. Aside from evading the screenwide blaze and battling lesser critters, you’ll have to worry about the Grim Reaper – a pervasive nuisance who can be stunned but never slain, zipping around after you like one of those wasps that has inexplicably decided it wants to give a small child a lifelong fear of wasps. Shoo! Shoo! Argh, where’s a spider when you need one.
If you’re intrigued to discover how a bloke best known for insult swordfighting found his way to roguelite RPGs, Gilbert has blogged at length about Death By Scrolling’s creation. The concept dates back to approximately 2018, shortly after Gilbert polished off Thimbleweed Park; it was subsequently shelved while he worked on 2022’s Return to Monkey Island. “It’s a game about greed and the never ending grind in life and death for more and more,” he writes. “The absurdity of social media even make an appearance when you die.” Thanks Ron. Hope the release of your latest game offers at least some reprieve from the grind.
