Time to run as Death by Scrolling from Ron Gilbert / Terrible Toybox is out now

Death by Scrolling is a rather unique twist on some of the ideas from survivor-like bullet hells, from Ron Gilbert / Terrible Toybox and MicroProse Software.

MicroProse didn't reply to our key request, so I had to pick up a personal copy for this one. Glad I did, as I've been having a lot of fun dying repeatedly as death eventually catches up to us all. This game gives us a whole new meaning to doom scrolling. Instead of endlessly swiping on social media or the news, you can doom scroll a little pixel character up the screen away from the grim reaper and all sorts of critters out to get you.

The idea here is that you're in purgatory. And of course, capitalism cannot be escaped even in death. You have to run to earn your afterlife, to gather enough gold to be allowed to pay the ferryman to cross over the river. They sure do want a lot of gold though, and gathering that gold has you running through a gauntlet of increasingly difficult biomes filled with all sorts of traps and creatures in your way.

The setup is simple, you just keep on running and have an additional button so you can briefly sprint. While you run you grab gold to build up towards crossing the river and gems to buy some meta-upgrades like additional health, faster projectiles, damage reduction and more. There's various weapon cards to pick up which auto-fire when you're near enemies, and various character buffs but you can only have a few cards in total.

It's all the limits that make this one a bit challenging. Your cards can only be used a certain amount of times or steps until you need to run across the screen to grab another card. Starting off really easy, the later levels pack in some pretty brutal enemy types along with more cramped lanes to run through that really keep you on your toes. Not just that, but the impending doom of the fire at the bottom of the screen while it scrolls, and then the grim reaper starts chasing you too. And of course, the reaper cannot be killed unlike the other creatures in your way, only temporarily stopped.

After you manage to reach the end of each level, you also get to pick a random bonus out of three choices that will stick through this one single run too. Like better odds of gems appearing, more gold, better critical hit chance and so on.

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Highlights:

• Varied Cast of Characters: Select from multiple playable characters, each offering distinct abilities and perks to suit your playstyle.
• Vertically Scrolling Mayhem: Constant upward movement means no time to rest—let the fiery bottom of the screen catch you, and it’s game over.
• Relentless Pursuit: The Reaper is always close by—stun, dodge, and outmaneuver, but never kill him!
• Loot & Progression: Collect gold and precious gems to unlock upgrades, power-ups, and abilities from quirky vendors.
• Bonus Runs & Side Quests: Discover extra challenges and side quests at the top of each level for extra rewards.
• Monster Mash: Battle quirky underworld creatures, from hellish pests to demonic bosses, all in a wild vertical sprint.
• Quirky Lore & Humor: A tongue-in-cheek take on afterlife bureaucracy, with cheeky dialogues and playful narration.
• Leaderboards: See how your purgatorial performance stacks up against other trapped souls.

In my time spent running I've been blown apart by bombs, sliced in half by the reaper, shot at by cowboys, feet that went through spikes and numerous other dumb ways to die. The Native Linux version has been working perfectly on Desktop Linux (Kubuntu 25.10) too so that's great.

Overall, it's properly unique endless-scroller style rogue-like that's worth grabbing.