A twisted take on an age old classic.
Professor Ernst Splatterfuder’s life long passion has been to create a recipe book titled 101 Ways To Die. I'm sure you can tell by the title that this isn't your ordinary everyday cookbook by Jamie Oliver or Delia Smith. This book is all about the creative ways you can use to despatch your enemies but after a disaster in the laboratory you have to recreate the recipes and rebuild the book. Luckily for you Professor Ernst Splatterfuder has an endless supply of minions to help you in your task called Splatt’s who will automatically spawn via a green machine and head towards the exit which is marked red.
101 Ways To Die instantly evokes Lemmings but a very, very twisted Lemmings because instead of saving lives your tasked with killing everything that moves. The other difference here is the Splatt’s do have a sense of danger and they will run for their lives if they see anything coming towards them. They will automatically jump gaps, climb up and stop to eat cake if you plant it somewhere so they will see it. There are different kinds of Splatt’s as well. Some are very fast and agile there is also a heavy type who is a glutton for punishment and just soaks up damage.
When you have completed the tutorial which you will fly through you are presented with ten maps add this is where the game really takes off. Every map has a specific number of challenges. Some challenges have to be completed and some are optional. You only need to complete the required challenge to move on but if you are a perfectionist you will definitely need to complete the optional requirements to get all three stars.
The requirements to complete a map start off fairly straightforward and can be completed with ease. But as you progress things get more and more difficult. You might start off just having to kill one Splatt then two Splatt’s and the next thing you know you're trying to work out a way of killing multiple Splatt’s. Then to mix things up even more several entry and exit points make the levels even tougher. Or how about having to bounce multiple Splatt’s across a level before they are killed. There is a good variety of objects you can use to kill them with. Boulders, spikes, pressure pads, cannot and bumpers just to name a few. 
As the difficulty ramps up you will have to obtain those elusive three stars otherwise your progress will be locked because the amount of stars you need to unlock later levels gets higher and higher and with fifty levels to complete that's a lot of stars. There is also a leaderboard for each level with a summary that shows you how well you've done. The more outrageous the kill the more points you will be rewarded to help you climb up the leaderboard. Sometimes all our hard work can be undermined by the Splatt’s own ability to just kill themselves without any help.
101 Ways To Die looks like something straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon. The blood splatters freely across the screen when you kill a Splatt and it's so over the top that it's clearly played for laughs unless you find a head rolling across the screen particularly offensive in which case you shouldn't be playing this game. You can zoom in and out in case you need that pin point accuracy. The sound effects are simple but effective. The noises made by impaling, squashing or blowing up the Splatt’s is comical and pleasing at the same time.
101 Ways To Die is a twisted take on the Lemmings series of games and succeeds in bringing back the one more go gameplay that had me hooked all those years ago. If like me your long to relive those nostalgic days of your youth you could do a lot worse than spending your hard earned cash on this.
Publisher: Vision Games Publishing Limited
Developer: Four Door Lemon / On The Metal
Modes: Single Player
101 Ways To Die is available now for £10.39
Review code supplied by premiercomms