If you like obscure adult TV series like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Smiling Friends or another from Adult Swim, 1000 Deaths may have been a game on your radar. With bizarre looking characters, interesting short stories and a dose of ‘A few moments later’ type snippets straight out of SpongeBob SquarePants, the developers have taken a lot of inspiration from kooky television shows.

1000 Deaths is American / Indian indie developer, Pariah Interactive’s debut game on Steam. The game takes its name from the games try-and-die platforming sections, a 3D Super Meat Boy or Celeste if you will. 1000 Deaths short platforming levels require precision timing to navigate to the finish, collecting optional collectibles on the way.

With plenty more narrative than you’d expect from a platforming game, this is a spoiler free review of 1000 Deaths.

Gameplay _ Quirky with a chance of death

The gameplay in 1000 Deaths is split in two even halves. First, the story-based sections that take place in a hub worlds, Nowherestown and Jollywood, alongside the many Headspaces. And secondly, the more exciting short and relatively sweet gravity-bending platforming zones.

In Nowherestown and Jollywood our protagonists will be walking around and chatting to one another and the townsfolk to progress the branching paths the story offers us. Unfortunately, there’s little to do in the hub worlds and whilst they look rather cool, there’s little substance aside from a handful of collectibles. In a game that focuses on narrative more than you’d likely expect, some of the story could have been fleshed out with more integration with the world of 1000 Deaths.

1000 Deaths more exciting gameplay is its challenge levels within a character’s ‘Headspace’. Headspaces are mini-hub areas where we enter the platforming stages and make choices on our characters story. There are 47 platforming zones in the game, they’re all unique and mostly fun to play. The gravity-bending mechanic means that you must navigate around winding stairwells, bridges and more to alter the levels gravitational pull. If you jump without gravity aligning to where you need to land, you’ll quickly be adding to your death tally.

The game handles well and makes use of a small number of inputs that will be exploited by speedrunners including dashing, gliding and ground pounding. This review was played on a Steam Deck and like many platformers, the controls of the handheld are suited perfectly. Though during my playthrough there were some sligjtly buggy levels which had me fall inside the map or other objects, though we have been assured by the developer these issues are being worked on for launch.

Although the platforming levels are genuinely well made, given the game’s title I expected a bit more challenge to the levels. I’m absolutely no platforming professional but found many of the levels easy to complete with a number of deaths countable on one hand – with a few exceptions. For a bit more gameplay, there are some collectibles you can grab during your attempts but there felt like little incentive to.

Whilst the average player won’t die anywhere near 1,000 times playing through the game casually, by undertaking speedruns which the game encourages, they certainly will. Going for the platinum completion times is no joke and I was only able to get one during my time playing, perfecting optimal routes using the gravity-bending mechanics will leave you dying on repeat.

I hope the developers can generate some interest from the speedrunning community as 1000 Deaths’ platinum to bronze trophies offer plenty of replayability. I watched a developer live stream after completing my playthrough and watching their speedruns did make me boot up the game again to have a go.

Story _ Simple choices but complex narratives

Across its three episodes 1000 Deaths has a deep branching story that we’re in control of. The game allows us to make choices on the outcomes for our playable characters _ Vayu, Terry, Boga and Maxie – whose stories intertwine and we’re in control of their relationships with one another. There’s romance, deception and even running for mayor that our four oddball characters can encounter as we follow their journey from childhood in episode 1, to adulthood in episode 3.

To progress the story, we need to enter the mind of our heroes and complete a number of short gravity turning stages to unlock a narrative choice. By completing an average of 4 rather fun platforming zones, we can make a decision that shapes the next chapter in our story. The choices do add real impact and feel well thought out. Although the choices mattered, on a few occasions the story felt a little tricky to follow.

Like all narrative branching games, players will want to see what happened if you selected another option. Thankfully, Pariah have made it easy to navigate to the places where you made previous choices and select the second option, opening up new paths of the story and extra platforming stages. To play through all of the story options and complete all Headspaces, the game took 4-5 hours.

Visuals _ a colourful death

1000 Deaths is an attractive game that oozes as much colour as you would see in a kids cartoon, or at a quick glance this could appear to be a new Psychonauts. Each of the hub worlds and gravity-bending zones are visually striking with delightful colours that are attractive to look at and offer a fresh, vibrant palette each time.

Additionally, the general presentation including menus contributes to the feel and tone of 1000 Deaths. Graphics, text and other overlays match the wacky tone of the game really well.

1000 Deaths character models are also creative and attractive to look at with a wide-range of variety. They’re incredibly obscure, particularly our four playable protagonists which will appeal to players of Adult Swim and similar television / comics of that ilk. As we progress through the game’s three episodes, we see the four of them change as they age.

Audio _ an off the wall soundtrack with tense speedrunning beats

It’d be hard to fault 1000 Deaths soundtrack as it’s tonally suited to the oddness of the game’s world and characters. Music in the hub world areas wouldn’t feel out of place in the background of a Saturday morning cartoon. Whilst the music we’re treated to in the platforming challenge zones increases the tempo and helps create that sense of speed and tension for attempting your speedruns.

Though, the game has issues with sound effects. It seems like there are few actual sound effects in the game, with those that are there are often too quiet to hear over the music. 1000 Deaths is non-vocal and all speech is text only which wasn’t an issue given this is a smaller indie title.

In summary _ to die for?

1000 Deaths is enjoyable indie that takes a lot of inspiration from TV pop-culture and infuses it with classic platforming gameplay, then garnishes with its creative gravity-bending mechanic. The story and all the paths we can take are interesting, even if a little confusing at times.

The platforming is fun if perhaps a little too easy, but if you want to go for speedrun times then there’s plenty of replayability in the Arcade mode. Getting platinum times on all levels will be a very rare Steam achievement.

I can recommend 1000 Deaths to fans of try-and-die platforming games looking for something a little different. The story adds to the package but on its own isn’t enough to warrant a purchase.

1000 Deaths releases on Steam on 7 August 2025. There’s a demo available on Steam if you’re still on the fence after reading the review.

Gamer Social Club would like to thank the developer / publisher for a code. The game was played on Steam Deck for review.