Look, up in the sky! It's a roguelike!... No, a platformer! It's Great Dungeon in the Sky! You are one of many many many many (many) adventurers to delve into a mysterious floating dungeon. But you're not working with your fellow plunderers; you're shooting, flame broiling, stomping, slashing, and otherwise ouching them to death on your way to vanquish four dragons to reach the lair of the Big Bad Boss. There's no treasure to be found, and you're probably going to wind up a smear on the floor at least once, but the good news is every enemy you stomp becomes a playable character. Rock it drow mage style, or play an underling king; if you can knock 'em down, you can suit 'em up.
All characters control with the [arrow] keys, and the [Z], [X], and [C] keys activate their respective abilities. Each ability has a cooldown period represented by the blue bar in the upper left below your health bar. Seek out the glowing green light in each level to unlock other stages to explore, but be careful; the dungeon's floors rarely stay the same, and neither do its enemies. There's no finesse involved unless you count mashing the attack keys and knowing when to run away marketable skills, but something about the simple presentation and surprising amount of replay value involved in unlocking new characters with new abilities tingles a certain part of your brain. Of course, some characters are more interesting than others, and a lot of them feel like reskins of one another, but there's still a lot of fun involved in hacking and slashing your way through the enormous roster... and maybe even unlocking a surprise or two.
Featured in a recent Link Dump Friday, the game proved to be rather remarkably popular, and we decided it deserved its own entry to bring it to those of you who are too busy on the weekends flying around in your private jets eating lobster thermidor to have seen it. (We know Counts and Countessas make up a large portion of you.) While not perhaps meaty enough a concept for some gamers, Great Dungeon in the Sky offers simple, frenetic fun with a lot of action.
I was disappointed that, despite there being so many wondrous character concepts, there were so few unique attacks.
"Oh, this attack blinds my foe"
"Oh this attack does X damage" etc
All in all I think there's les than 10 unique attack ideas, the rest are just slight variations on that.
Could've been better but still rather enjoyable.
I played this game for hours the other day and found two bugs so far:
1. Well, this one's not really a bug, but I don't like the health bar being all pixelated.
2. The Fire Drake turns into a Wind Dragon upon evolution instead of evolving into the Fire Dragon.
Personally, I enjoy this game a lot, mainly because of its replay value. It's pretty fun, but can be frustrating at times, especially when you can't find that single character you need to complete the family...
I loved this game! Thanks for giving it a full feature.
I was just disappointed that nothing happens when you unlock all the characters. I was also disappointed that bottom-rightmost character,
Cthulu, is completely unimpressive. Both because it's Cthulu and yet is unimpressive, and because its location in the character selection suggests it should be the ultimate character.
For those wondering what happens when you beat the Boss, and for anybody who keeps replaying stages but dying so that the stage can be replayed to try and find more characters,
When you beat the Boss, you restart the game with one "unlock" and all your unlocked characters. So there's no need to die and replay stages, just play the game multiple times through to get more unlocks. I think it took me five or so playthroughs to find and unlock all characters. Of course, I didn't play every stage, I just played through every third row (because beating a stage makes accessible all adjacent stages) until I found the dragons and the boss.
A major important tip: as soon as possible, use only flying characters. It's not just much easier to get around, but also, there are two stage templates that contain rare characters that are only accessible by flying. One is in a cave system, where you fly up to a small alcove, which will contain characters like
Santa, Baby Girl, Baby Boy, Dire Baby, Red/Green/Blue Knight, Link, Darwinian, Spelunker, Shy Guy, Invisible Man (note: is actually invisible! If there's no character in that alcove, it's the Invisible Man. Make sure you don't let him get away), and some others. These characters only spawn in that one alcove in that one stage type.
The other stage is a series of platforms atop columns, populated by Elf-types and High Elf-types, with a cave in the bottom right with Gnome-types. At the very top right, there's a small "arena" which is the only place in the game where what I call the "Mythic-type" characters (which are all 2x2 or 2x1 the size of normal characters) reside. Actually, I think this arena is possible to get to without flying, but it requires flawless jumping and if you mess up and fall to the floor, there's no way to get back up. As to not build up expectations, the Mythic-types look awesome, but they only draw from the same set of moves (doing the same damage) as normal characters and so don't confer much of an advantage.
My personal favorite was the Demon. Its Fire Breath, if all three projectiles connect, causes 27 damage which is an instant kill. I'd wait for Fire Breath to recharge while hovering up in the air, then drop down behind (or sometimes even in front) of an enemy, then unleash Fire Breath. The Fire Arrow also came in useful at times. While there is one flying Mythic-type with Fire Breath, it's large size means that the top two projectiles often sail over the heads of a normal-sized target.
I feel like after unlocking all characters, it would have been great to be given a customizable character. I'd really want a flying character with the most powerful move in the game, the
Three-Hand Technique. 5 hits, each doing 20 damage; that's enough even to kill even dragons and most other Mythic-types in one swoop. It clears out tight clusters with great ease as well. Even with its long recharge time, I think using just that move will get you through any stage the fastest. The Master Monk and one or two other characters have it, but none of them are flying.
Oh, you silly game. You can make me unlock all the High-Elf Priests in the world, and I will still choose my Cucko. Or Polly. Or the flying Dragon Demon Mythic thing. Basically, whatI'm saying is, I like flying types. But especially my little Cucko - he can take out nearly anything in just a few hours, doing about 5 damage (in groups of 1), then flying away to a safe(ish) distance. Happy days.
it won't load for me...
i'll be making a complete bestiary complete with attacks if anyone's interested but if you already have one made feel free to post it
Yep, this one stood out on the Link Dump list for me last week, and i'm not surprised to see it with it's own feature here.
the game itself as simple, even meager, as the review says, but there's something perfectly-platformer about it that drew me back to play it a few times after my initial visit.
i'm not the obsessive player type who was even remotely interested in collecting every last one of the legion of characters, but it was fun to mess around with new powers and strengths/weaknesses from the long list of new characters you inevitably collect.
this one gets my vote. not a game-changer, but they got a whole lot of things right.
yay!
I'm /still/ playing this after link dump friday.
I want a bestiary soooo bad D:
And more info about each skill.
Like why do the "Creatures" just stand still? I want to form an army, not just leave behind some useless guards.
I remember playing this when it first came out a few months ago. It's great, but two small points:
1) The ending is incredibly disappointing:
When you unlock everyone, you get the same ending as before. No special ending.
2) Some characters are much more powerful than others to the point of being broken. Flying characters especially. There's one birdman who has flying and a staff - incredibly easy to sail through the game with him.
I don't understand why some of the characters have the next few blocks next to them blackened, like the Kraken or Cthulhu.
Tishy, it's because those characters are bigger than the others.
The best is the triclops warrior who has the "three hands technique". It does a rapid close up hits which do 20 damage each. I took out every boss and character and multiple characters using that skill just once.
I'd like a bestiary, if anyone has one, complete with levels in which each one appears. Otherwise, I'm afraid I'll have to compulsively make one myself.
I tried finishing the game once after unlocking everything; I cleared every level, turned HD mode
Which I assume stands for Heavily Distorted.
on and finished. Nothing special beyond accumulating more useless unlocks. This saddens me, as the rest of the game was pretty fun.
Flies is the best character once all the common ones are unlocked because it gets through maps the fastest and can still kill in the increasingly improbable chance of seeing something new.
TEE HEE! ^.^
Try and use a brainsucker on "The Boss"
Its hillarious!
I don't suppose anyone has any screen shots showing the supposed "best" classes?
Somehow, the Red Drake keeps turning into a Wind Dragon?
I wanted to play through using each individual character, but I find that I can't make jumps using the 2x2 characters when there's a ceiling directly above. Anyone else have that problem?
Easily the best character in the game:
The flies. Fast for those stupid plain stages, flying for those stages with unlocks and secret characters, and it's bite attack is oddly powerful. Never thought I'd see the day I'd say that a group of flies is better than a dragon!
Why is there no character edit? that is the only flaw I can see in the game.
Also, the
Thunder Dragon
is the only useful dragon, even compared to the dragon that can only be found with an unlock, as far as I can tell.
Hmm.. it seems that there are only one or two characters that are worth using throughout the game. The rest of the other characters are just collection items, even the bosses.
@ThenAgain
what this game needs is not more unique actions but useful actions. It only feels like there's not enough attacks because there's a lack of actions we would actually use.(though I do agree that programing a breath attack for each dragon is fairly pointless unless they want to introduce elemental attacks/defense)
@m3psi about
Cthulu
I agree he needs to be remade. It's a little know fact these days that he originally had WINGS. Another flyer.
Here is a bestiary with everything but locations. They're in order.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Arjd0SAzH7IAdDhtaGZSYXFJLXNmZ3dBRi10U1V2X1E&hl=en
PS: I don't know how to link to this without including the full address. If this is inappropriate please fix. Thanks!
Something I found.
You can enter "editor mode", by pressing F9 on the character select screen.
It's...quite in-depth.
Anyway, you should try it.
darn, and i just finished
I tried the F9 thing, but nothing happened. I'm on a mac. Might that explain it?
Bug : Using the potion as
Naija
causes the game to freeze....
Unless I'm missing something? Maybe it is the "potion of game freezing". XD
hmmmm.... i don't know.... just wasn't feeling it with this one!
Is anybody else having problems loading this game? I can't even get it to start!!!!!
the F9 thing is interesting, but it really needs both instructions and mouse control. Also, you should be able to place characters either specifically or by race (drow, elf, special, boss, etc.)
The only possible excuse for not putting in a character creator part that I can think of is that people will give their characters 9999 health, and that could simply be fixed by putting in a cap
If you press ESC in the editor it gives you a list of commands/instructions.
Now I feel silly...
OK
How do you get the blue swat guy???
I like the flaming skull. It flies, has a ranged attack and a melee.
The "Cubes of ___" are annoying, but I found a white egg next to a green cube and a horde of monsters.
Does anyone understand the Control ability? I couldn't attack with any of the creatures I brain-sucked.
A bug with evolving dragons: make sure the ground you are on is solid, or that the gaps in it have exits. I had to exit levels multiple times because my dragon got buried.
link is broked
[Link fixed. Thank for the note! -Jay]
just gonna mention this, it's also available on kongregate
hmmm I have a problem getting the fully grown red dragon. it turns into the blue dragon at the last stage all the time.
This game has badges on kongregate now :)
There should be one for unlocking every character though.
@ultio if you go to tinyurl.com and copy the URL into the box it shortens it for you.
theres a small glitch i found
when you beat the fire dragon and fully grow the egg, you end up with a wind dragon. i had to unlock my fire dragon with an unlock.
great game :D
I've been using the Ice Keese for almost the whole game. I've switched around a bit, sure, but I love me my Keese.
Well. I like the nigromant. He can cure himself and never is involved in combat using summon creature.
Better would be a healer and flyer.
The best character in the entire game:
Polly or Cucco. Yes, the chicken or parrot. True, they only do 1 damage and have 1 attack, but they can get anywhere and kill anything. They have such rapid pecking rates that an enemy cannot respond to the bombardment of beaks or something. The enemy simply stands there and maybe tries to run away, all the while being slowly pecked to death. I have beaten every dragon and 5 bosses with one of them
the best multipurpose character for me were the birdmen. for the boss/dragon stages the ice demon thing(the name escapes me right now) was useful. really good game overall,though somewhat glitchy.
I liked this one a lot. The Birdmen also worked well for me, but I liked the Beholder as well. I played almost every level, and I was so excited when I found the first dragon (took me forever!).
Each attack should have had it's own recharge, instead of having to wait for one attack to recharge to use any attack. And there should have been more maps. Otherwise, great game. :D
I've been using the Angels to get everywhere. Flight + ranged attack = awesome. But they only have tow moves. magic missile and stab. They easily could have been given healing powers since that would make sense in context, right?
I really wish you could unlock a character creator after getting all the characters. I made a really cool robot version of Oryx (aka Shadow Knight in this game) in the Realm of the Mad God pixel editor, and he'd be pretty cool here.
How do you exit a level? I jokingly entered a boss level as the Purple Cube, and turned the dragon purple, and now I'm stuck.
For clarification, I'm wondering about manually exiting the level.
Never mind - the pause menu's options weren't working, but that's just a glitch. Also, when I die, it shows me the beginning of the level, but without me in it, and I have to refresh (I can't pause at all at that point).
The best character
birdman tribe leader.
It flies,has a rapid pecking rate,and has some other attacks.polly and cucco are also good, for they also have rapid pecking rates.
Um, no. The real best character
is CHICKSNAKENTIGER.
Flying, decently rapid close range bite attack that's more effective than peck (ugh mashing), ranged fireball attack. What more do you need?
Also Pegasus is not bad, if you're in a pretty mood.
i'm on a PC but i can't seem to get the F9 think to work either having looked through the list it seems to have talked about by a few different people i've already got 314 unlocked (i think thats all of them) but i can't call up this editor mode i've heard of here
The number one sign a game is badly balanced:
I was able to beat a dragon with a parrot. On my first try.>
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