Review: Woah Dave!

Posted by Curtis H on January 28th, 2015 | 2 Comments | Tags: Woah Dave

In Woah Dave it is your job to help Dave Lonuts survive the incoming alien invasion. You’ll do so by hurling exploding skulls at aliens, unhatched eggs, and UFOs as you attempt to collect pennies. Woah Dave! hearkens back to an era of arcade games that’ll show you everything they have to offer within the first twenty minutes with the idea being that the gameplay is good enough to make you want to keep coming back to improve your high score. Unfortunately I just don’t find Woah Dave! to be all that compelling.

The core gameplay is simple. You’re in a stage similar to that of Mario Bros. (in this game there’s a WOAH block instead of a POW block) and it’s your job to take out the aliens that spawn. To do this you can throw explosive skeleton heads or their own eggs at an alien to kill it which rewards you with a penny. Alien eggs spawn at the top, hatch, and then continue to walk around until they reach the lava at the bottom. If that happens they’ll jump back towards the top as a faster and more dangerous enemy. This cycle continues as the alien gets stronger and more lethal. Eventually you’ll find UFOs, bat-like creatures, and many more coming at you from all sides. Luckily if you do find yourself in a pinch, and there’s a WOAH block available, you can throw one to clear the entire stage.

Woah Dave! controls just fine, it’s mechanically sound, I quite like the look of the game, and there’s a pretty decent challenge here. (The unlockable “Bonkers” mode is, as the game says, “pretty tough”.) I just don’t really find the game to be all that fun. Over the past few weeks I’ve booted up the game to try and give it a shot, but it doesn’t take long for me to lose interest.

Woah Dave! is the kind of game that leaves me bummed out not because it’s bad, but because I want to like it. I see what it’s trying to do and I want to like it more than I do. I’m just not having fun playing it.

A copy of this game was downloaded through PlayStation Plus for review purposes. For more info on our review policy click here.