Stupid Never Dies
Developer: GPTRACK50
Publisher: GPTRACK50
Platform: PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: October 21, 2026
Price: $49.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
Of all the reasons to put your life in danger, risking it for your true love is perhaps the most pure take on romance around. But what if that life just so happened to already be over and that romance was with a girl who was also already dead? That is the type of bizarre question that Stupid Never Dies likes to pose as GPTRACK50 has crafted a unique new action game focused entirely around dying as many times as possible, growing stronger with every run as the lowest rank tries to overcome the strongest there is, all in the sake of love. Featuring a unique transformation system, limited dive time, but plenty of customization and even more randomized runs the further players advance, is Stupid Never Dies a successfully fresh new action game featuring a rotten lead character?
Story
One day, monsters rose up from the Earth and tried to join humanity only to be treated as side-shows or hunted down and killed. This pushed monsters to the point that a mysterious and powerful monster known as KOM triggered the Great War and annihilated nearly all of humanity, pushing it to the brink of extinction. Since then the monsters have returned to the lower layers of the Earth leaving only the lowly zombies left to roam the land. One such zombie happened to be Davy, who is already treated like trash among the other undead for fleeing the frontlines during the war. Making due in a deserted shopping mall Davy stumbles upon the frozen body of a human girl locked away in a store freezer, keeping her perfectly preserved even in death.
While spending his undead days talking to this mystery girl one day Davy stumbles upon a strange new set-up within the mall as well as a strange “egg” and eats it only to find himself imbued with a strange new power. He’s soon confronted by the human Dr. Frank who tells him that what he ate was a vital component in reviving humanity and now that Davy has eaten it, it lies on his shoulders to dive into the dungeon layers and seek out KOM to try and restore humanity’s lost intelligence. Alongside a fellow zombie cook that drives around on a motorcycle to retrieve him from the dungeon, a were-chihuahua skilled in managing Over-Technology utilized by the monster forces, and even a Gargoyle that is all-knowing and incredibly forgetful at the same time, Davy must dive as far into the dungeon as he can, defeating anything and eating his way to victory by stealing the powers of other foes and taking the fight to KOM’s underlings, generals, and other soldiers in an effort to revive the girl of his dreams.
Stupid Never Dies lives up to its name in many ways, since while Davy is stupid and never does die, the absurdity of the story is also borderline stupid if it wasn’t also hilarious at the same exact time. Literally everything that the players will encounter as they talk to the various allies in the mall, including the fact that Davy rides around on a modified Roomba since shuffling around is too slow, is ridiculous. These allies will have new things to talk about the further players progress into the dungeon and even make various comments about Davy’s progress on their own, often giving him various rewards at the same time, ranging from purely cosmetic to intriguing peaks behind the world’s lore.
This is especially true for the Doc who will keep notes on literally every enemy that the player defeats and “Style Eat” forms that Davy can eventually transform into. These notes are in-depth and also completely off the wall for some of the enemies. This could easily have been throwaway text that few people would read, but there is a lot of humor to be found in this extra bit of info and considering the amount of time players will be spending diving into a dungeon, it’s always good to get a bit of extra info about the enemies, even if it is just some odd habit a boss might have that has nothing to do with their fighting style.
Similarly, as the player continues to make dives into the dungeon, through a toilet of all things, Goyle the Gargoyle will slowly make progress at decoding and recovering information from the frozen girl’s cell phone. This includes everything from photos of the girl’s life before everything went to hell and the war began, info about her classes and family, including how much she misses her beloved dog, to video messages including heartbreaking ones where she knew she was going to die. This eventually results in revealing her name, though we won’t spoil this here. This recovered info provides a bit of extra context to the world and the frozen beauty that has stolen Davy’s non-beating heart in a way that is shockingly, and ironically, heartwarming, especially set against the absurd backdrop of the player’s allies, Davy himself, and the various bosses that he faces off against and the ridiculous humor that pops up at the most random of times. If there is one thing to take away from Stupid Never Dies’ narrative, players will almost always have no idea what will happen next, which is an absolute delight.
Gameplay
The gameplay loop for Stupid Never Dies is a rather interesting one as this action game is specifically designed to basically dive as far as possible within a time limit and then retreat, or defeat the current targeted boss and be forced back out of the dungeon anyways for story purposes. The biggest point of this is that Davy cannot die permanently and even if he does die inside of the dungeon, one of his allies will drive down and chuck his corpse into a garbage bag and drive him back to the surface with most of his goodies still intact, at least from what the player had obtained by the last “landing platform.”
The biggest drive into diving, or flushing, into the dungeons since Davy literally enters it through a toilet, is that the more enemies that he kills or eats, the higher his percentage of XP gain will be every single time. This means that while the first dive may see Davy leveling up incredibly slowly, players will eventually see themselves gaining 2,000x XP and leveling up multiple times simply from defeating an elite level foe on the first floor, setting themselves up for a number of bonuses for that run right out of the gate. Similarly, other various benefits continue to unlock the further Davy makes his way into the dungeon and through the story.
This includes Over Technology equipment from enemies that a certain were-chihuahua can transform into OT Gear that Davy can have slotted onto his Left Arm initially, gaining an extra secondary attack on a cooldown that varies depending on the type of gear that is installed, and eventually being able to wear OT Gear on his Head, Legs, and Right Arm, each of these providing various buffs depending on the rarity and gear such as increased defense, health, faster bite gauge build-up, passive skills being triggered, and more. These elements allow players to take equipment that fits their playstyle the best and immediately take it into the dungeon the next time around, aiming to get as far as they can as fast as they can.
The reason for this is that every dive is also placed on a time limit due to miasma that permeates the dungeons. While Davy is a zombie, he still is the weakest monster around meaning he can only stay in a dungeon for ten minutes to start with and if that timer runs out not only does his attack strength drop significantly, so does his movement speed and his health meter will continue to deplete, forcing players to either retreat, rush to finish their current stage, or die. Players can extend their time by performing special versions of “style eat” that we will go over momentarily, defeating boss enemies even if they’ve defeated them before, reaching certain floors, and even applying certain boss drops to permanently expand their total time after unlocking a specific shop in the mall.
Now, while Davy’s base form as a zombie can dish out some punishment and has its own unique acid-puke skill, as well as other skills that can be unlocked, the biggest way combat is handled is through the aforementioned “Style Eat.” While fighting against elite enemies such as Werewolves, Harpies, Cyclops, Liches, Snow Fairies, etc. Davy can attack and perform his own “Stupid Parry” by literally dodging into yellow-glowing attacks to trigger a special version of Style Eat that not only boosts the player’s total time in the dungeon but also rewards them with the ability to transform into that foe for three floors. It is worth noting that simply killing the foe and then eating their floating “core” will also reward players with their form.
Biting at enemies to steal their forms isn’t only for combat adaptability but also a way to heal as Davy will accumulate healable damage when parrying incoming blows or simply taking attacks head-on and this can be recovered by biting and eating enemies. Eating a smaller weaker enemy will grant the player an “instant skill” related to that enemy which is basically a one-use attack. On the other hand, being transformed into a Werewolf or Harpy means that Davy will be able to make use of their unique skills whenever they want to reach certain treasures such as the werewolf’s wall jump, harpy’s ability to fly, or even the cyclops’ ability to smash certain walls. Each elite enemy form has a unique skill of their own that also works on a cooldown similar to the OT gear but it will vary from form to form, as two different werewolves might have different attack skills.
As players fight their way through the dungeon and level up, they will also obtain “zombie receipts” which are immediate buffs that last throughout the current dungeon dive. These include things such as increased defense against all attacks, increased critical damage or chance, faster bite gauge recharge, boosting jumping attack damage, and much more. Players will eventually gain the ability to reroll these receipts once or twice per dive and these receipts can be a real dealbreaker on how lucky the player might be depending on how their run is going, especially if they choose to take down a boss they’ve previously defeated in order to acquire their unique Boss receipt and the power it provides to their fighting style.
Another element of combat that players will eventually get is something called a “super mode” called Davy Burst that boosts all of his stats and, if upgraded by giving presents to the frozen girl, can even regenerate health. While in this mode Davy is able to dish out more damage, endure more damage, recharge his attack skills faster, and even shrug off flinching attacks sometimes, making him a force to be reckoned with but it is worth noting that filling the Davy Burst gauge does take quite a while, meaning players may not be able to trigger it when needed or will sit on it, waiting for a boss that they may not reach within the time limit, even when players do unlock the ability to start skipping various floors, sometimes as many as five or six at a time as long as they feel like they can stand up to the foes at that level.
Now it must be said that the combat in Stupid Never Dies is as chaotic as can be and while that does feel great most of the time, it also tends to be a bit frustrating. The lack of a proper lock-on mechanic is tedious when dealing with fast moving enemies or crowds of foes, especially when facing off against bosses. It is also worth noting that while there are a number of Style Eat forms that have ranged attacks, the range is incredibly short or terrible at targeting foes in the air, often ignoring them entirely unless the player is jumping to attack at the same time. This isn’t a major negative as the frantic pace of combat does make tearing through foes with your favorite transformation feel incredibly satisfying, but there are some frustrations to be had, especially with the camera.
It also feels like the game is rather poorly balanced at times with some of the Style Eat forms being clearly superior to others. While some players may be able to enjoy them, forms such as the lich and cyclops feel far too slow and weak, even with their unique skills, compared to faster moving forms like the werewolf and the harpy. This also means that if players should happen to get unlucky and find their first few style eat targets being one of the lackluster elite forms, then it may ruin a run right from the start or at least slow the player’s pace down incredibly. Along these same lines it must be noted that while dying is obviously part of the game, some of the game’s juggle mechanics when it comes to bosses, especially involving elemental damage, feels a bit cheap at times, at one point seeing my character at full health absolutely wrecked through a chained combo from a boss opponent only to die while trying to recover on the ground and go for a bite since Davy was on fire.
That being said, for those who are having a tough time or simply want to see the story, or are tired of a specific boss fight, the game does surprisingly feature an “easy mode” of sorts. In the game’s options there is an option that can be turned on and off at any time that will make Davy incredibly strong and durable to the point that he will be practically unkillable while trouncing most elite enemies and downing previous bosses without an issue. Players can turn this option off at any time and there is no apparent punishment for utilizing it, so it is nice to see that there is at least a “screw it” option available for those who want to cut down on the grind a bit or are tired of a certain boss and just want a nudge past it and that’s it.
Audio & Visuals
Stupid Never Dies features a unique looking art style with thick almost comic-like lines and an aesthetic that is absolutely gorgeous in motion. While traveling around the mall is fairly simple, with some great character designs for Davy’s allies and even Davy himself, the real shining example of the art comes from the dungeon dives. Diving into a dungeon, or flushing into a dungeon, features a large variety of different looking stages depending on how deep the player is into the dungeon, though it is worth noting that the various enemies players face off against will vary wildly depending on how far players have gotten and unlocked. This means while an enemy deep at a layer can still show up on a near surface level only at level 1 or 2 instead. The designs of these enemies are wide-ranging and not only do small enemies have a good amount of variety, the larger foes that Davy can “style eat” and transform into have their own design as well as Davy’s unique transformed version.
The voice work throughout the game is also handled exceptionally well as it is very obvious that the English actors are just having a blast with how ridiculous some of the dialogue can be. The swap between Davy and other zombies’ slow speech outside the dungeon and normal speech inside it is not only fitting but also gives the character a chance to really shine with his comebacks to how ridiculous things end up being, especially in regards to a certain egg and other later enemies he encounters. The soundtrack also features a wonderful collection of background music that players can unlock and even create their own playlist that will play as they fight through the dungeon. Unfortunately not all of the songs can be added into the playlist but they can be listened to at any time within the mall.
Overall
Just like the various monsters that Davy chows down on, Stupid Never Dies has a rather unique taste thanks to its wonderful presentation and comedic storytelling that is so off-the-wall that players never will know what to expect next. But alongside that the game’s roguelite systems and floaty feeling combat can feel hit and miss more often than not, even if it is designed to ensure that Davy is slowly but surely growing stronger every dungeon dive. Thankfully even with these issues with combat and the occasional issue with lackluster roguelite runs, Stupid Never Dies is the type of experimental action game developers should try to embrace more, rot and all.
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