How to play
BEAT DASH is a one-button rhythm runner. A glowing neon cube runs to the right on its own, across a course built on the beat of a synth track, and all you do is jump. Click, tap, or press Space, Up, W or Enter. A jump lifts the cube about two blocks high. If you hold the button, the cube jumps again every time it lands, which is handy for runs of spikes.
Touch anything dangerous and the cube shatters, the music cuts out, and a new attempt starts from the beginning in under a second. The bar at the top shows how far through the level you are, and a white marker shows your best. When you die, the percentage you reached pops up in the middle of the screen.
Blocks are safe to land on, but running into the side of one is a crash. Yellow jump pads launch you high on their own. Yellow orbs give you a jump in mid-air if you press while touching them, and blue flip orbs flip gravity the same way. A yellow gravity portal sends you up to run on the ceiling, and a blue one brings you back down. The first time a level shows you something new, a sign floats above it, such as TAP TO JUMP or TAP ON THE ORB.
Esc or P pauses, R restarts and M mutes. On a phone, tap or hold anywhere to jump; the pause and mute buttons are in the top corner.
Tips and strategy
- Listen to the music. The cube's speed is locked to the tempo and every part of the course starts on a beat, so the jumps land on the rhythm. Once you feel the beat, the timing gets much easier.
- Press a little early rather than late. Every jump in the game has some leeway, and the safe side is almost always the early side.
- Hold for spike rows. Holding down keeps the cube hopping on every landing, so you do not have to time each little jump by hand.
- Press into orbs. A press made just before you reach an orb still counts as long as you are still holding it when you touch the orb.
- Spikes are smaller than they look. Only the middle of each triangle can hit you, so a close shave is usually fine.
- Use practice mode for the hard bits. It drops a checkpoint about every 1.6 seconds on safe ground, and you can place your own with Z and remove the last one with X (or the two round buttons on a touch screen). The music restarts from the checkpoint, so you learn the section in time with the song.
What's in it
Six hand-built levels, each around 40 to 45 seconds long, getting faster and harder as you go: First Light (Chill, 128 BPM), Pulse Runner (Steady), Flipside (Spicy), Overdrive (Wild), Hyperlight (Ferocious) and Event Horizon (Brutal, 170 BPM). First Light teaches spikes, blocks and pads; Pulse Runner adds orbs; Flipside brings in gravity portals and ceiling runs with hanging spikes; Overdrive adds flip orbs, and the last two mix everything together, denser and faster.
All six levels are open from the start. Every level has its own synth track, made in your browser as you play. Beating a level shows a results card with your attempts, jumps and time, with quick buttons to retry or go to the next level.
There are six cube colours. Volt is yours from the start, and beating levels one to five unlocks Ember, Ice, Rose, Void and Solar in turn. Pick your colour on the level select screen.
Questions
Do I have to beat the levels in order?
No. Every level is unlocked. PLAY starts the level you last chose (at first, the first level you have not beaten yet), and LEVELS lets you choose any of them.
Does practice mode count?
Practice keeps its own best percentage, but only a normal run from the start counts as beating the level and unlocks the next cube colour.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes. Tap or hold anywhere to jump. Turn your phone sideways to see further ahead.
Does it save?
Yes, in your own browser: your best and practice best on every level, your attempts, which levels you have beaten, your cube colour and whether the sound is muted. Clearing your browser's site data clears the save.