Dan the Man is an mobile action platformer with beat em’ up mechanics, released in 2016 by Halfbrick Studios. From the unique retro feel of the game with unique pixel art, to the very unique story, Dan the Man is a very good platformer, in my opinion.

The mechanics are easy to learn and provide unique combos to deal with any enemy you face. With every upgrade, you gain another unique way to attack against the many fights the game gives you. There are also several weapons you can use to keep the distance between you and your enemies.

Your moveset starts off very limited, but upgrading your character puts more combos in your arsenal. Your regular combo starts off as a weak three hit combo, but maxing it out deals a considerable amount of damage and knockback. Your high kick is very useful once you unlock it, perfect for attacking enemies too high to reach. Your down kick is also useful to keep distance between you and the enemies, and upgrading it to max level allows you to down kick twice in a row. Your grab and throw is pathetic in the beginning, with it not being able to hurt other enemies, but rather stunning them very briefly. Maxing your grab and throw out deals a considerable amount of damage and knockback. Your sucker punch is very effective, however it is immediately outclassed by the basic and ultimate uppercuts. Finally, for shielded enemies, a power attack deals the most amount of damage in a single hit. Upgrading it to ultimate makes it one of the most powerful moves in the game.

You also have 4 characters to choose from. Dan, Josie, Barry, and the custom character. Of the 4 characters, the custom character is the best in the game’s story mode, thanks to the stat boosting clothes you can buy. In the game’s multiplayer mode, clothes do not matter for the custom (as of the first Golden Knight event). In multiplayer mode, the custom character is identical to Dan. Josie is slightly different from Dan, primarily due to her ultimate power attack going all around instead of one direction. Barry has a completely different move set. He deals the weakest amount of damage in a combo, his combo only goes up to three and his jetpack punch deals 50 damage, instead of 60 like the other characters. His ultimate power attack deals a maximum of 60 damage and goes all around like Josie’s, but Barry’s power attack does not move him in any direction. To balance this, Barry has a shotgun with unlimited ammo. His downkick also cannot be upgraded to hit twice, but the duration of the downkick is longer than the other characters. Due to the uniqueness of Barry’s moveset, Barry is very good in multiplayer.

The story was very unique, however the game has 8 webseries episodes you should watch after the prologue to get a better understanding of the story. If you’re like me, you probably didn’t watch the webseries or didn’t know it existed until a few years later. I highly recommend watching the webseries to understand the story better.

To be continued 🙂