Dangerous Dave's Risky Rescue

Third game starring a familiar precocious kid in SoftDisk's popular Dangerous Dave series, which are games that got id Software founders Tom Hall, John Romero, and John Carmack considerable fame as the best shareware designers in the business.

Although third game overall in the series, Dave's Risky Rescue is the second side-scrolling Dangerous Dave game, and was therefore marketed as Episode 2 in the All New Misadventures of Dangerous Dave series, after Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion. This time, you will have to blast through more creepy crawlies as Dave attempts to rescue his little brother, Delbert, from the castle of evil Dr. Nemesis.

The game features the same campy humor as the first two games, 11 challenging levels that are very varied and well-designed, and more secret levels that are a lot of fun to discover. After the claustrophobic level of Dangerous Dave in The Haunted Mansion, the breezy outdoor scenes in this game is refreshing, and provide excellent backdrops for more diverse monsters and their attacks. Gigantic spiders drop down from trees, and you can jump on tree branches to explore the vertical environs.

Overall, an excellent platformer that truly deserves its cult status. Two thumbs up, way up!

Note: The download here is the original Gamer's Edge release, properly entitled Episode 2. (Gamer's Edge is the name of in-house division of SoftDisk that the three id designers worked for). There also exists a wrong version of the game, which displays Episode 1 in the title screen and SoftDisk logo instead of Gamer's Edge.

Since the next game, Dave Goes Nutz, is properly entitled Episode 3, (and is the fourth and last game in the series), this mistake caused many fans to hunt in vain for the fourth game in the series that doesn't exist. We hope that this little anecdote will help dispel a myth, and assure fans that there are indeed only FOUR Dangerous Dave games ever made, not five (although John Romero kindly reminded us that if you count all the different versions of the first Dangerous Dave, there are in fact eight games in the series as stated on his site. Thanks, John ;))

Review By HOTUD