Shatter

Transparency

This game operates on the assumption that all you need are button prompts and some basic instruction. You can hide in bushes, pick up things you need, place them where you need them, and work on extracting varium. Good on them for having a cutscene to explain some very basic lore and outline what you need to do, but that's about it. Also, where's the log of enemies? I couldn't find one in the lobby.

Mood

Adventure game x zone-based mascot survival? I'm not entirely sure. The whole "there's a great evil releasing evil minions you must avoid" along with the design of one of the starter characters reminds me of Legend of Zelda, though I've never played that (I've watched someone else play it, though, and they showed me the cutscenes). I don't really know what vibe this game is going for, but its actual vibe is messy, inconsistent, and feels out-of-place. The character designs feel too silly for the lore- seriously, one of them is a piece of bread/toast with arms, legs, and a face. This is beside more humanoid characters, with torsos and distinct heads. The enemies are apparently... something? I couldn't find a journal or record of enemies or anything, as stated above.

Lore Basics

There's a seal that was broken. Some evil character inside releases "grimmlets" to take over the world. The portals require portal blocks and varium to work, never let the grimmlets take varium. There's a "survivor skidlet" in the opening cutscene (whose model apparently didn't load) who tells you some stuff. Yes, there's a cutscene when you enter a round. Also there's bad gas, and a skidlet council (if that one poster in the lobby is to be believed), and some skidlets who entered the portal and never came back. I don't remember playing this one very well, so this is my first impression of the lore. I'm not convinced there's much more.

Tedium

I'll be honest: this game feels tedious to play at all. I could not bring myself to play for very long. There's a timer when you join, and I am not waiting in or playing this game for 12 minutes to find out what happens when the timer runs out and the gas comes.

Care

The whole thing feels like it was thrown together for profit. I guess they had fun naming the abilities, though, and one of the characters seems like a reference to Mario games, namely Toad or the mushroom powerups or both. I don't have much else to say that isn't in the "Other" section below.

Other Notes

I found something: the owner of the roblox community associated with this game has a bunch and owns all of them. It looks suspiciously like they're hopping on all the trends while they come and ghosting the results when they aren't popular. They seem to have two verified accounts, and the other one shows more of the same. The fact that they don't care shows in Crazy Skidlets, too: everything is wonky, and there's two robux-only characters in the shop (for over 399 robux each!)

Recommendation

Transparency

Dandy's World isn't shy about telling you stuff... sometimes. When I joined, there was no tutorial, and I learned by playing with more experienced players. You can learn what an item does by hovering over it with your mouse or picking it up- both will show you a description of what it does and how rare it is. The blurb fades away not long after you pick up an item, though, so read quick! Or use your mouse. Either works. Also, huge bonus: this game lets you press "T" to toggle seeing all of your mastery quests, every aspect of your stats, the chances of getting a floor event (such as a blackout), your active modifiers and what your active modifiers are from. I love this feature. I wish more games were this honest and thorough about letting you check stuff mid-round. Or in general, really.

Mood

"Cheery with a dark underside." The characters are cute and believably from a children's show, but, the deeper you go in, the more obvious it gets: there was... something that happened. Something involving the founders of Gardenview and Dandy's World, one of whom seems to have made the toons herself. Not much else is clear, but you're venturing deeper and deeper inside. Something is wrong. Very wrong. But... how much, exactly? The rooms are colorful and filled with twisted versions of all the cast, including whoever you're playing as. Dandy himself appears, in your large, dank, industrial elevator from a hatch in the floor to... sell things to you. He wants tapes. Something is wrong with him... probably? He wants tapes, but why? What's recorded on them? The suspension of disbelief is very much willing, and a little nervous. Until it gets used to it, anyway. This game is a little tense, thanks in part to the fact that, as you play, you get conditioned to not want to be seen. The lack of music makes for a quiet atmosphere easily upset by the sound effect that plays when you're spotted. Any machine you're on kicks you off. Run. Hide. Wait. You can only do so much. It's only a small jump, admittedly, but you can see why it's tense. By the way, weren't there two shopkeeps in the lobby? There were, weren't there? And one of them is here, suspiciously. The other one... the one who sold cosmetics... hey, where's Dyle?

All that aside, Dandy's World lends itself well to casual play. Screw around with your friends, maybe panic when you get a blackout or very dangerous twisted, definitely panic when you get both, and spectate when you're dead. It's a nice game to play with others, especially since it helps keep your mind off being scared and readies you for getting caught off guard & screaming like an idiot.

Lore Basics

The characters are known as "toons" for the playable ones and "twisteds" for the hostile ones. This is because they're all based on characters from a children's cartoon of the same name as the game (heh, rhymed.) Also... they are real, physical beings. Some maps have video recordings that show them interacting with humans. The location of Dandy's World (the game) is Gardenview, and the zones are floors because the thing taking you from one to the next is a giant elevator. The twisteds are corrupted apparently by a black liquid called "ichor"... which is also the lobby currency of the game. The shopkeep, Dandy, appears in the elevator in every other break between floors to sell items. There's some other stuff about interpersonal (intertoonal? Nah.) relationships you can get from gossiping with the shopkeeps, but I'm mostly leaving that out in favor of the bigger picture.

Tedium

Every twisted spawns two ichor capsules per floor they're on. Each capsule nets you one percent research for that twisted and a little ichor. The first time you're seen by a given twisted on a given floor, you get five percent research for that twisted. One percent research un-silhouettes their render and tells you their rarity. 50 percent research gives you a description of their behavior and some insight into them, such as why they act hostile. Max research (100%) means you get a trinket. Pretty straightforward, and fairly well paced. Once you get the hang of what you're doing, you can advance at a decent pace. Overall, not too bad. Also, completing mastery for a toon awards their "vintage" skin, which is black-and-white with the eyes styled to more closely resemble old rubberhose animation. Every toon has one, so even new players get a reward once they've played enough and done enough.

Care

This game is loved. You can tell a lot of effort has been put in, and the fact that so many updates have focused on new content (events, characters, etc.) instead of prepping for a full release really does show that this is coming from somebody's desire to make it. Additionally, Dandy's World kickstarted the genre of zone-based mascot survival, so it can't be the result of jumping on the trend. On the other hand... the game is monetized. Between the official merchandise and two Care Bears collaborations (yes, I'm serious), I'm a little worried finances could interfere with the game's quality. I do hope this doesn't happen, though.

Other Notes

When the Roblox age-based chat restrictions rolled out, BlushCrunch expanded the sticker function in the game. They're not part of the chat and have to be added to the game by a dev before they can be used, so they're a good way of communicating with others, age restrictions or not.

When all the machines on a floor are done, "panic mode" begins. All the twisteds get faster and if you aren't in the elevator when the timer ends, you die, no matter what.

The "distractor" is the person who keeps twisteds busy so everyone else can do machines. Don't rely on them too much- this is a stealth game- but they're helpful for learning just extraction when you're new, if you need to take it one thing at a time.

The leader of BlushCrunch, Qwelver (Qwel for short), takes player input into consideration. This has led to an... incident. Ginger, a Chrismas event character who's the cousin of Cosmo, a healer in the year-round cast, was given the same ability as her cousin: give one of her own hearts to another player. What separated her from Cosmo was a longer range and cooldown. Players weren't happy, and Qwel listened. So, when the Christmas event came back the next year, Ginger got a shiny new ability rework: use 100 tapes to heal another player to full at close range, click/press and hold. It was wonderful! She's the third healer who uses tapes to heal, and she's the only one who heals to full. Great synergy with Cosmo, great new ability, great rework. The "meta" players were SO PISSED, because they had gotten used to using a toon whose ability was going to be reworked and were pissing and shitting themselves with eyes full of tears and rage because THE META!!!!!!!! It was so intense, Qwel held a poll to see if the rework would stay. Mind you, they still had a long-range healer: Cosmo, who inherited his cousin's old range when the rework was rolled out. But they whined and argued and voted and lost. I don't get why they didn't just wait for the rework like I did. I liked (and still like) Ginger because she's well designed and has some decent characterization. (That and she's a healer. I like playing healers.) They only liked her for her ability. When it changed, they threw a collective fit. It was pretty hilarious, watching them all turn to "the meta" when asked about why they were upset. Apparently, the people who are trying to get as far as they can as efficiently as possible matter more than the overall diversity of the game. Hah! As if. I wonder how many are still seething about it.

Recommendation

Dandy's World won Best Party & Casual Experience in the 2025 Roblox Innovation Awards (voted on by players), so anyone looking for something to play with friends is good to go. Similarly, if you want something to play alone with music in the background, go right ahead, but remember to turn it down sometimes because certain twisteds play audio when they're on a floor, both telling you they're present and offering a warning when they're near. If you're like me and don't typically do well with super tense horror games, then this is a good pick. If you enjoy collecting things, object heads, and/or changing gameplay without changing it completely, then this is a great pick. Anyone who likes large casts with lots of designs and personalities should like the characters, as should anyone who's into cartoony body horror. You might like this if you enjoy things related to old children's shows with dark stuff behind the scenes, but the "tv show" part isn't real, so I'm not entirely sure. There's no "blood," just ichor, which is a different color and is everywhere anyway. If you want to play with strangers, you can! Use stickers if you can't chat with them. If you like doing something absentmindedly while listening to music with an occasional challenge, then you might enjoy distracting. Remember: "GTE" stands for "Get To Elevator," which means panic mode is about to start and everyone who isn't doing the last machine needs to get ready for the floor to end. "EAE" stands for "Everyone At Elevator," which means it is time for the distractor specifically to go to the elevator because everyone else is already there. (I sometimes see people using "everyone at elevator" to mean "everyone needs to be at the elevator" instead of "everyone is at the elevator," so I'm clearing it up here for future reference.)

Transparency means how much the game tells you. Not about the lore- that goes in tedium. I mean what the game tells you about itself- how to play, what things mean in its context, what it's referring to when it says something. In other words, how easy is it to know what the game needs/expects you to know, and how much else does it tell you?

Mood is the vibe of the game. The aesthetic. The atmosphere. How does it want you to feel? How does it make you feel? Do those things line up? How willing is the suspension of disbelief?

Lore basics are the basics of the lore. Not all of it- remember, all of these games are in alpha, I'm pretty sure none of them have all their lore done. Is there a message amidst the bits and pieces new players are told? What is it? What of the story is known, and what does it say?

Tedium is how easy or difficult it is to advance. How much grinding is needed to advance at a reasonable pace, if any? Is it tedious?

Originality is how much of the game differs from other zone-based mascot survival games. This includes breaking away from the gameplay formula, although how much it makes sense in-universe falls under "Mood."

Care is how much the creator seems to care about the game. Whether the game comes off as a cash grab or labor of love, trend-hopping or inspiration from a trend, the result of a desire to get something or the result of a desire to make something.

I won't judge by appearance or polish. This isn't about how far along an unfinished project is, so there's no good reason to judge by this. Thoughts on appearance fall under "Mood."

The reviews themselves will be ordered by the order* in which I first played them, but released in a slightly different order for a reason. This reason will be revealed in the final (in order of posting) review.

Set number of goals in a given zone which must be done in order to advance to the next

Goals have small minigames/tests while being done

Items scattered around in zones

Items can be picked up by players, at which point they enter that player's inventory and can be used

Lobby area for obtaining characters, trinkets, and entering rounds

Different items (I'll call them "trinkets" for convenience) which apply gameplay changes and cannot be equipped mid-round

Rounds are where the actual gameplay is, can be multiplayer or solo, must be started from the lobby

One character (usually a shopkeep) gets the more dangerous enemy counterpart

There is some kind of logbook/menu/etc. with information about the enemies in it, divided into entries

The logbook begins mostly empty/inaccessible, but can be filled/unlocked by gathering something ("research," "records," the like)

A given piece of research corresponds to one enemy and entry at a time (ex. "Enemy Example research" will only unlock the entry for Enemy Example, not the entry for Enemy Character, and vice versa)

Getting enough research on a given enemy gives some kind of prize (often a trinket)

Doing certain things while playing as a character contributes to that character's "mastery" (prizes for completing)

Abilities are divided into "active" (press a button to activate) and "passive" (activates on its own when certain conditions are met or activates when a round starts and stays active the whole time)

Okay, that's that! Now that we've got those established, let's look at the ones that define the genre, also called (by me)

Cornerstones:

Cast of playable characters with different stats, abilities, and personalities

Cast of "enemy" characters which correspond to/are variants of the playable characters

Trinkets which apply gameplay changes and cannot be equipped mid-round

Line-of-sight used for losing chasers

Gameplay separated into/based on zones

Set number of goals in a given zone which must be done in order to advance to the next

Goals have small minigames/tests while being done

Two types of in-game currency: one type used in the lobby and remains on an account until spent, second type used exclusively in rounds and cannot carry over between rounds

There is some kind of logbook/menu/etc. with information about the enemies in it, divided into entries

Abilities are divided into "active" (press a button to activate) and "passive" (activates on its own when certain conditions are met or activates when a round starts and stays active the whole time)

A given piece of research corresponds to one enemy and entry at a time

Getting enough research on a given enemy gives some kind of prize

Note that not all of these are constants. Some only have one currency, some have enemies that don't correspond to playable characters, some don't have any goal-completing gameplay that isn't a minigame, and I haven't played all of them, so there's probably (definitely) more. However, these are the ones that are the most common among the genre but are not common enough to be expected ("common enough to be expected" means stuff that's often present and is consistent enough to not warrant explaining, such as "a given player controls their own character" or "sprinting makes your character move faster, but depletes a meter which refills while not running and prevents sprinting while empty," both of which are also commonly found in the genre. In retrospect, I don't get why I explained items up there.)

Also, these are just the gameplay ones. Stuff relating to lore has been intentionally left out.

Anyway! What are the most important ones? The ones a game must have in order to be the genre? And, importantly, how do those fit into a name? Well, most of those could be- or have been- removed without changing the genre. However, two significant ones remain: Gameplay separated into/based on zones, and Set number of goals in a given zone which must be done in order to advance to the next.

One other thing. These are horror games. They're listed on Roblox as Subgenre: Survival, and the first of these games, which inspired all of the rest, is mascot horror (stated clearly in the description).

Therefore, my name for this genre is- drumroll please:

Zone-based mascot survival