Headless is an Endless Runner where we play as a chicken with its head cut off as he desperately runs around the place searching for blood packs to keep him alive. You can move either back and forth either by selecting the tilt or onscreen button prompt options at the main menu. Jumping is done by simply tapping on the screen, and there is no limit to the amount of times you can jump after leaving the ground, giving it a near Flappy Bird vibe. Your obstacles to avoid range from fences, hooks, campfires, saw blades and someone that clearly wants you dead and on his plate throwing cleavers at you.
It all sounds rather morbid, but it is a tongue in cheek title that does not take itself seriously in the slightest. The single music track in Headless is a silly and upbeat tune that will play for the entirety of the game. While fun to listen to at first, it is simply too short before it loops and will likely haunt your dreams if you leave it on indefinitely. As you jump and avoid obstacles, it gets progressively faster and more difficult the further you get until you eventually succumb from the minor injury of having been decapitated. You get extra points for narrowly missing dangerous objects as well as being close to the right side of the screen which gives you less time to react to oncoming threats but doubles the points you get.
To give you something to accomplish you are given three tasks that will unlock an item that will further help your travels such as a bucket to stop the bleeding, a red cross to save you from death and a force field. Each time you complete all three tasks that item will show up randomly in game and you will receive three more tasks to unlock another item. The tasks are usually to gather a certain amount of blood packs or to narrowly miss hazards for a preset amount of times which do carry over if you die. Some tasks are a bit more odd and counterproductive like running directly into a bear trap ten times because reasons.
Everything is in black and white minus the blood spurting out of your neck. The background will never change from the farm setting, so it does get a bit repetitive. Aside from the visuals and theme of the game, there is nothing unique about it gameplay wise. If you have ever played a Runner, you will find no surprises here. Well other than the fact that it does not have any ads or micro-transactions which is what attracted me to it in the first place. It unfortunately, hitches quite a lot on my Samsung S7 Edge and does not support screen rotation meaning that you are stuck playing it on the direction it chooses.
From the start of the game, you will have seen all it has to offer minus the unlockable items. It is certainly not a game you will likely be playing for more than a couple of minutes at a time though it is a fun title to pick up while waiting for a bus or something along those lines. On the flip side, it is an inexpensive title going for two bucks and one that doesn’t try to get more cash out of you with micro-transactions like most other Runners nor badger you with ads. It is short and offers nothing unique outside of its theme but is serviceable, simple fun that will certainly confuse anyone that asks what it is about.
Link to Android version of: Headless
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