A notable limitation is that players can only experience mini-games in complete Tours, lacking the ability to play them individually.
The Dumb Ways To Die series had a very unusual beginning compared to most gaming series, as it started as a series of Australian safety videos to promote railway safety. The videos then led to an earworm of a song you may have heard recently on TikTok. From there, a video game was released for mobile devices in 2013, focusing on a variety of different mini-games with wacky characters where you try to prevent them from dying in idiotic ways. Developer Playside Studios acquired the rights to the franchise back in 2021 and has now released a brand new party-style game for the series known as Dumb Ways: Free For All exclusively for the Meta Quest in VR.
So, how does the series fair with its all-new perspective? Well, let's just say, you'll find yourself dining in plenty of dumb ways in Dumb Wys: Free For All.
Do not take the name of the game to have you think the game is free to download, though, as the "Free For All" refers to the competition aspect of the mini-games found in the game instead. Dumb Ways: Free For All is a mini-game-focused experience where you can compete in various challenges that befit the Dumb Ways brand. These typically involve you either dying or causing the different characters involved to die in a crazy fashion.
Overall, there isn't much to look at in Dumb Ways: Free For All from the start, as you are placed inside an airport surrounded by some wacky characters. Besides a settings menu and a cosmetic stand, the only real option is to go play some mini-games. When you're ready to start playing, go up to the counter and speak to the character to pick between Solo, QuickPlay, and Friends. Solo is obviously designed for you to play by yourself, while both QuickPlay and Friends allows for anywhere from 2-6 players.
Each Solo Tour comprises a certain number of mini-games, with the amount in each growing as you advance. The first Tour has only six mini-games, but that quickly rises to seven with the second set. As you move onward, you will have eight, nine, and even 10 mini-games for the last two Tours in the base game. For those wondering how hard they have to work to unlock all of the tours, you must reach Rank 8 to unlock all 20 of the tours. The game's leveling system is based on how well you perform in each Tour by earning points and continuing to level up. This can feel like a grind, but it works pretty well here.
If you update the game and download the first DLC set, you also get an additional 10 tours and 25 overall new mini-games to try out as well. These are themed around winter with a lot of ice stages that look great in the game. Another free set is set to come in January (27th), so they are at least providing some solid free updates for players to keep them invested and coming back for more.\
The mini-games found within each of the tours are varied, but also quite similar sometimes. These usually range from either deflecting objects being thrown at you, picking up objects and tossing them, or picking up a projectile weapon and firing it for various means. For the most part, I found that these mini-games were quite fun to play around with, even though some were hit-and-miss. For instance, the physics of some, such as the incoming projectiles mini-games, was not always the greatest. This meant that you would be hit when it looked like you were blocking correctly, which got pretty frustrating.
Each Tour also leads up to an Extreme Weather Warning segment, which can bring in harsh elements such as rain or even blizzard conditions in the first free DLC that was released recently. These sometimes were almost redo's of prior mini-games with a little twist, while others were new mini-games entirely.
Thankfully, you do not have to be perfect in these mini-games to pass; instead, you just need to do decent enough. At the end of each game, you will get a score that will eventually be tallied up at the end of that specific Tour to give you an overall rating. There were definitely some mini-games that I did better out in a Tour than others, so it's all about finding the ones that you are really good at.
Dumb Ways: Free For All's biggest flaw is the fact that you cannot play single mini-games by themselves, but rather always have to play a full Tour to play through them. Playing them solo or creating your own solo playlists would be awesome, but you are restricted to that entirely here. So many of the mini-games are a blast, and going through my favorites on a whim would greatly enhance the overall experience.
After you have earned some in-game currency through the mini-game mode, you can visit the Duty Free station that sells hats for your character, and you can choose their color. While they are listed as hats, technically, there are a few special cases, like a mustache or glasses, but they can't be paired with another hat. The options here are pretty lacking, though, so don't expect anything too crazy for you to spend your money on in the game.
The usage of the Meta Quest for Dumb Ways: Free For All is very solid. They use colorful characters and environments to really pop in the pretty simple visuals. The control scheme is also very well handled, with the usage of both hands in most mini-games being very well thought out and designed. Just make sure that you have plenty of room around you, as I definitely had my fair share of experiences hitting something on my desk when I was trying to play stationary.
Dumb Ways: Free For All can be a little buggy sometimes, such as getting stuck on menus after mini-games. I had one case where it got stuck on the level-up screen after finishing a Tour, which required me to restart the game. The good thing was that it still recorded my playthrough, so I did not have to replay that specific tour again for the time being.
Finding great party games for VR can often be a difficult task, but Dumb Ways: Free For All is a solid option for you to check out. Being able to play with friends locally or online adds to the appeal here and the abundance of different mini-games helps to sell it even further. The gameplay style between the mini-games can get a bit repetitive at times, and the overall experience feels pretty bare bones outside of the mini-games themselves, so you will have to weigh whether the mini-games themselves are enough to make up for that.