Saturday Casual Gaming 229: Miner Dash

It's so freaking hot it feels like the Earth's core is squeezing up into my soul...

I know, I know, it's way warmer and muggier than 88℉ (~31℃) with 51% humidity elsewhere in the world on a more consistent basis, but...

I'm a fall person. I prefer the cool, crisp weather of a proper New England autumn, and this gross oilslick weather just will not stand!

I will confess that I was originally going to do something like a "Christmas in July" schtick where I would list a bunch of Kongregate titles that feature snow and ice, but then I found a totally unrelated game and fell down the rabbithole of playing it. Before I knew it, it was lunch time and I hadn't written anything in this blog!!! Oops.

The game, as you may have guessed from the title, is Miner Dash, and it's an offering from Kongregate user "dabontv", who has made 26 games on Kongregate alone, all of which are absolutely bonkers. They have what appears to be an Angry Birds-style slingshot game about mummies, an idle clicker starring poop (with a sequel!) and a game where you set people on fire.

Miner Dash is a relatively simple and straighforward game by comparison, but even here we find some small hint of crazy.

When you click on the Guide, it helpfully informs you of the goal of this game.

Your goal, as this tiny red-bearded miner, is to dig to the center of the Earth. No, seriously, that's the goal. You want to dig down to the Earth's core (and they're very specific that it's Earth, and not some random fantasy world) within 30 in-game days, which are measured in mining time.

See the thermometer at the top of the screen? That's your time.
You have until the whole thing fills up with red to get to the core or as close as possible.

You can use the left and right arrows to move either direction while digging,
but you have to hold and not just tap, because he needs some nudging.

Once you fill your gauge all the way red, your pick explodes, which means you have to go to the crafting screen and make a new one or multiple replacements.

That's why you want to get a bunch of the ore and even trees!

Whenever you breach a new layer of soil, you find a "recipe", though perhaps "blueprints" are a better term. This "recipe" will allow you to make something new. You start out only being able to make wooden pickaxes and cheapo bombs, but so far, after a few hours of fiddling around, I've gotten special items, golden pickaxes, and red bombs that explode way bigger.

And while some experimentation is possible, it's just easier to just wait for the recipe
to show up, and then just click on what you want to craft from your Recipe bar.

Provided you have the materials, crafting is as simple as "click item, click CRAFT"

I love the red bombs, since they can really take you deeper when you're running out of pickaxe power or when you're trying to get large swaths of materials but you don't want to change direction!

Overall, this is a fun, silly little game with great graphics. I think I'll probably be sinking more time into this mining simulator (especially since it's so hot out and I kinda want to stay near fans and AC).

Go Enjoy Something!
FC