It may seem like a silly thing, but I was genuinely starting to fear that we were never going to see a proper Dadish game again. Following Dadish 3D, Be Brave, Barb, and Dunkadillo, it seemed like a very real possibility that Thomas K Young was done with the traditional sprite-based platforming series. I certainly wouldn’t begrudge the man. After all, he made a 366-level Dadish game in the form of Daily Dadish pretty recently, and one really couldn’t hope for a better sendoff than that. But then, out of nowhere, a trailer dropped for Dadish 4, and I was overjoyed. Classic sprite-based visuals, returning enemies, new food-based foes, and some killer music. It looked like everything I could have wanted. And you know what? I’m happy to report that it was. 

Dadish 4 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, even if on the surface it looks a bit different. There’s a new purple protagonist in town! You play as Dadish Junior looking for his kidnapped father. Dadish himself has been kidnapped by the HOA. Yes, the Homeowners association. He had an outstanding balance of around $30, so they kidnapped him with the aim of eventually murdering him for his transgressions. But don’t worry, DJ plays identically to his father, so much so that if you find all the secret stars in the game, you can play as Dadish, complete with updated text at the end of every level to reflect the character change. 

Speaking of things that are the same, the Dadish kids are still at the end of each stage, ready with a bizarre and often hilarious dialogue exchange. There's not a whole lot of explanation as to why they’re there, but it’s played for laughs brilliantly, so I’m not complaining. 

What I will complain about is the new bosses. Not the designs. They’re brilliant. They’re all a bit easy, though. It’s not a major concern, as I’m old and hard games stress me out more now than they used to, but I could have used a touch more challenge there. 

That said, the game’s new mechanics are fantastic. There are now swinging vines you can grab onto, which aren’t all that exciting on their own, but they are the source of a recurring joke, so their inclusion is well worth it. More exciting are the exploding boxes and Burgurgular’s rocket shoes. 

The exploding boxes are a fantastic source of tension. As soon as you start pushing them, they begin a countdown to exploding. You need them to get past certain types of walls, and there are some excellent secret stars you’ll need to cleverly utilize these new tools to find. 

Now, if you’re unfamiliar, Burburgular is a hamburger who is also a burglar. DJ affectionately refers to him as Uncle Burgs, which made me far more happy than it probably should have. In the previous 2 games, he’s worked as a way of shaking up the gameplay with some auto-scrolling type stuff. That’s the same here, except the rocket shoes make him control sort of like Mario swimming. They’re really quite fun! 

In terms of different gameplay types, Momato (that’s right, the mom is a tomato) returns as well, but Double Dolph is nowhere to be found, for sad but obvious reasons to those who finished Dadish 3. 

I feel it’s also worth noting that while at first glance it may not look too much different from past entries, Dadish 4 does have some really nice visual upgrades in terms of backgrounds. There’s some really good-looking stuff here. Nothing that's going to push the hardware or anything, just really cool looking areas. 

And well, that’s Dadish 4. It’s not very long, it’s challenging but not too hard, it’s got fantastic music, great writing, goofy characters, it’s got it all. Again, I feel it’s best described with the term "video game comfort food” and I mean that in the best of all possible ways. It’s just a wonderful little game. 

What’s more, this is his third great game this year! Be Brave, Barb, Dunkadillo, and Dadisn 4 were all a genuine pleasure to play through, and a welcome break between larger projects like Hollow Knight: Silksong and Metroid Prime 4. I can’t recommend them enough. 

Dadish 4 is now available on Nintendo Switch, mobile platforms, and Steam.