Dangerous Dave’s Risky Rescue Review

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Dangerous Dave’s Risky Rescue is a 2D action platformer and the third game in the series. What is immediately notable about it is that this is the first entry which neither it’s creator John Romero nor ID had any hand in making. We once again play as the titular Dave and embark on a mission to save his little brother from our old pal, Dr. Nemesis. Unlike the last game, we do not start off parked right outside his mansion. Instead, we find ourselves quite the distance away and forced to travel through a variety of terrains before we can so much as catch a glimpse of it in the last few levels.

Our boy Dave is still packing his iconic shotgun. It can fire off six rounds before needing to reload and will cause your entire body to slightly nudge back when shooting, making it dangerous to fire near edges. The key difference here is that you no longer have infinite ammo. You now need to look for more shells scattered throughout the stage. It is an interesting inclusion, mainly because you will rarely be low on ammo even if you fire like a madman, making the feature a tad redundant.

You’d be surprised by the change of tone from the first couple of levels. It focuses far more on platforming and finding your way out of a level than the constant shooting you were treated to from the get-go with Dangerous Dave 2. All you have to contend with are bats and spiders. Everything will still kill you in one hit, yet the enemy placement is far less evil, and you can easily get by just fine if you pay attention. And then it kicks off the training wheels to reveal that it is, in fact, the most challenging entry in an already brutal franchise.

Memorization, skills, and patience are required to get through this journey in one piece. Taking more than a few steps at a time without knowing what’s ahead can quickly spell the end of you. Be it a dog that takes more than one hit to take down that is already within jugular chewing distance, or jumping down a ledge only to be overwhelmed, your reflexes alone are unlikely to save you. Having a shotgun with a slow rate of fire and being killed in a single hit makes every encounter a do or die situation. The few extra moments that are granted by knowing what will occur makes all the difference, as this title is not shy of being cheap.

To counteract this increased challenge, they have added a ton more extra lives and valuable items that increase your score to grant more lives as well eventually. Do not take these lives for granted, as they can quickly deplete. Once you lose all of them, it is back to the beginning of the game. Heck, even losing a single life is still a bummer as you have to start the entire level again and slowly inch your way back. A small mercy is that you retain all of your ammo, as well as the key that some stages need to exit if you collected it before death. There are eleven stages to get through, with two of those being small boss arenas.

The graphics have been improved. They are now in a higher resolution and feature a good bit more detail. It doesn’t always look better than its predecessor, however. Some areas are very muddled in color, making it hard to see what you are looking at and where you can jump. What is foreground and what is background can also be hard to judge at points. Level 9, in particular, nearly drove me mad thanks to a certain zombie’s placement, as did the caves with their combination of nearly invisible enemies and obstructive foreground dressing.

Risky Rescue retains the series cheekiness mixed with over the top gibs when you slay an enemy. It is satisfying to blow apart enemies, while on the flip side, the goofy little cut-scenes when you meet your end will make you grin. Every enemy and object has there own cutscene showcasing them ending Dave. Some are quite violent like falling into knives will see them tear you to shreds, others such as walking into a zombie are oddly adorable as he punches you right in the chompers. The items you collect to raise your score are also comical. You’ll be picking up bottles of Jack Daniels, six-packs of beer, and the good old ‘Merican flag.

Sound quality has also be improved, yet it is still entirely in PC Speaker. This released in the same year as Duke Nukem 2 and Doom as a point of reference to how dated that was even back then. It doesn’t even contain a little jingle like Dangerous Dave 2 had upon booting it up. Still, compared to DD2, the sound effects are much less intrusive when walking and jumping. That goes a long way in decreasing the stress from continually repeating a difficult level. Reloading your shotgun sounds pretty impressive, given what they were working with.

All in all, Risky Rescue was an admirable third entry from new developers. What they created is like a mix between the platforming focused original and the combat-heavy sequel. It can be a bit too chaotic at times with the abundance of enemies, obstructive graphical assets, and hazards, yet it most certainly feels like a Dangerous Dave game. They clearly had fun making this, adding stuff like the developer Carol Ludden holding the key to exit a level for no particular reason. In one stage, you even ride on a hot air balloon after retrieving it from the bottom of a canyon only to cross a small broken bridge. And then likely get chopped in half right next to the exit after a statue comes to life with the sole purpose to troll you. That playfulness is felt throughout and gives Risky Rescue charm. Just be prepared to grow several gray hairs if you intend to beat it without being a cheating oaf like yours truly.

Rating:
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