Rock, Paper, Shotgun

There really isn’t enough passive aggression in game titles. Come on, developers – dare us. Mock us. Lure us into sampling your fine wares by snootily claiming we won’t be able to handle them. I want to see “That End Boss Is Totally Going To Smoke You”, “Bet You Can’t Beat My Mum’s Lap Time” and “If You Don’t Play This You’re Like All Dumb And Stuff.”

So this oh-so-simple platformer’s smug/pessimistic title was an expertly effective gauntlet thrown down before me. “You Probably Won’t Make It?” Graaah! Kill you!
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Death in games is meaningless. Unless it also corrupts all your savegames and then sets fire to your PC. Then it’s pretty bloody meaningful. Usually it’s just an obstacle, not an impasse – and like any obstacle, it’s something you want to overcome. What if death was, for once, an aid rather than an impediment?

In puzzle-platformer Deaths, other players’ misfortune becomes your fortune. Every time you load a level, it grabs the data for the exact location of the last 50 deaths from any and everyone who’s played it lately, and duly deposits their dismembered corpses in your iteration of the game. Their lifeless flesh is your handy navigational aid.
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