Lightning Dodge: Zeus Wrath – a sad tale of cosmic deities, child abuse and a crappy game

Say what you will about Flappy Bird but that game has made some waves! Typing the word “flappy” into Google Play or iOS reveals more clones than a Star Wars prequel, and the frenzy for tougher mobile games is just beginning. Jakarta-based Sinergi Studio is one developer trying to bring toughness to the next level with their game Lightning Dodge: Zeus Wrath (Lightning Dodge).

See: Flappy Bird review: it’s frustrating, dumb, and ridiculously addictive

Lightning Dodge is a free-to-play game for Android (downloadable here), with the most classic of heroes: Hercules himself. Unfortunately Hercules will not be performing any herculean tasks today; no hydras, cyclops or trips to the underworld. Hell, you don’t even get to clean the damn stables! In Lightning Dodge Hercules must…dodge lightning. Why? Well, the “Zeus Wrath” part of the name should give you some clues about that. That’s the game in a nutshell; help Hercules avoid celestial child abuse.

He is kind of cute.

There’s only one game mechanic, tap screen when screen flashes. When you tap, Hercules jumps, and if you time it just right then he will avoid the fury of his father’s lightning bolt. If not, then Zeus incinerates Hercules. Lightning Dodge is unforgiving, and after an a lot of playing, my highscore is stuck at an embarrassing seven. That’s even lower than my Flappy Bird score!

Anyone who has played Flappy Bird should have deja vu!

Lightning Dodge feels a lot like Flappy Bird. Sure the game mechanics aren’t similar but the frustration factor is there, as is the focus on the high score and the quick restart. It’s a copy of the model, if not a clone of Flappy Bird. Unfortunately Lightning Dodge is much worse than Flappy Bird.

For all it’s faults, Flappy Bird had style. It had its gormless, dead-eyed protagonists whose wide-eyed stares were destined for stardom. More importantly, it had a world around it, albeit a limited world. The randomly generated pipes made Flappy Bird unique every time you played it, making it possible to play repeatedly without getting bored.

Lightning Dodge has none of that. It’s a quicktime event that got its own game. Hercules is supposed to be cute, but lets face it, he isn’t going to replace this guy anytime soon:

But the big thing is just that the game isn’t fun. There’s no reason to keep playing. There’s no forward motion, no plot, and no reason behind it. In short Lightning Dodge is all the frustration of Flappy Bird with none of the fun. I recommend avoiding this, unless you have masochistic tendencies and a fetish for boredom.