Karoshi was previously only available as a Flash game for PCs, and as such, it has received quite a lot of praise. One of my favorite magazines, Wired, had Karoshi Suicide Salaryman on its list of the top 5 PC games in 2008. Since yesterday, we can now enjoy this beautifully offbeat platform puzzle title on our Android devices.
This is how the developer YoYo Games presents Karoshi:
We’ve been taught we need to survive. We need to reach the end, save the princess and be the hero. That’s all well and good, but it’s getting boring. Who says it has to be this way?
In Karoshi, the goal isn’t to survive – instead, you need to solve puzzles in order to die. You get to play a disgruntled and disillusioned Japanese office worker that has lost his will to live, and you need to help this poor fellow commit suicide.
It may sound like a dark premise, but there is a lot of humor in the game and it has made me laugh out loud several times. I love the retro graphics, reminiscent of Super Mario and similar 8-bit platform titles (with a bit of gore thrown in). The music and sound effects are good, too. Karoshi may not be a game that everyone will enjoy, but I’m definitely a fan and it has brightened my day. An example of Karoshi’s odd humor is the startup screen that just says “Loading…” and shows the Suicide Salaryman endlessly spinning around, and this will go on forever until you tap the screen.
I have some objections, though. On my HTC Desire, there’s a glitch when tapping the Next button after finishing a level: it’s unresponsive and it sometimes takes a while for the next level to appear. However, that will likely be fixed in a future update. There are 50 levels in the game and they get increasingly difficult to solve, so it should keep you entertained for a while. Karoshi is available in the Android Market for UK£1.19.
Features
- 50 levels
- Dark Humor
- Collect all the coins
- Karoshi Ware mini game
- Soundtrack by Jake Almond
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