Dan the Man

Dan the Man is a beat'em up and platform game developed by Studio Joho and published by Halfbrick (from Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride). It was released in October 6th, 2016 for both Android and iOS.

It is a game about "a hero" that wants to end a war in a village.

NOTE: This article is based on the Android version. Some of the WIR and BQ may be different for iOS users.

Stage 1 to 7 (Web Series)
As seen on all the 7 "stages" (episodes) of the web-series uploaded to YouTube by Studio Joho themselves.

Dan is somewhat a "hero" that really loves fighting and any kind of meddling in conflicts, but everything he has done never had any good results.

Stage 8 (Game)
A long-lived peace in a village came to an abrupt end, after the uncaging of a war between two sides: the Lawful and the Chaotic. The "lawful" side consists of tyrant-minded soldiers that captures the villagers and forces them to work non-stop in order to maintain the city working. The "chaotic" side basically consists of terrorists that simply wants to destroy the whole kingdom and kill any kind of praise and "national hero". Meanwhile, Dan wants to save Josie.

And so, Dan's objective here is to end this war at once, with his fighting hobby and hate anger. But... is this a good idea? Because of everything he has done in the past? Let's see if it will work...

Why It's The Man

 * 1) A free-to-play mobile game that is single-player offline (some resources requires internet connection) and with a full plot and characters with actual personalities! That's pretty rare, since the vast majority of the mobile games are either "hyper casual" or social media-like with P2W mechanics.
 * 2) Dan the Man is a hybrid of the platformer and beat'em up genres. That's a pretty clever idea, since it makes the game more challenging than already is.
 * 3) High-Kicks. While not the strongest move of the game, it's pretty signature. To get it, you need to buy with in-game currency "as a level-up" for one of the characters. And to perform it, you just need to tap the on-screen's (↑) button in mid-air.
 * 4) *Compared to Double Jumping, the High-Kick offers some advantages like hit-box covering, speed-running usefulness and is also more respectful to physics laws.
 * 5) Ressurrection Potion! The game's answer to the cliché/trope of 3 lives.
 * 6) *The player has a health bar, and it obviously will die if damage is taken until it goes down to zero. However, if you got a Resurrection Potion (by seeing it's icon below and to the left), the character's health bar will be refilled.
 * 7) *However, after an update, something was changed (F2P only).
 * 8) The story is good for a mobile game that originated from a series.
 * 9) The Skip button hidden in the cutscenes, instead of literally skipping, it will fast-forward them. So, technically, you won't be confused about the plot or lose the "best moments".
 * 10) The platforming sections are well done. There are many sections to jump like crazy, objects to break, abysses to skip and obstacles to avoid.
 * 11) The button layout is great. You can also customize your button layout as well.
 * 12) Tons of great characters in the series, and the game.
 * 13) The character designs are very well made and interesting.
 * 14) The sprites for the environment and menu are also well done.
 * 15) Many hidden items and hidden areas to find through the stages! These "hidden areas" contains some treasures like gems (lots of gold, in-game currency), free weapons and full healers.
 * 16) The enemies have cool and cute little idle animations. They will do this if they do not see you in their area.
 * 17) The game is optimized to handle with most of the content on a single screen, such as the enemies and collectibles. The collectibles dropped will never disappear, unless in water, which is a very good thing.
 * 18) The game over screen that requires coins to continue is gone, which means if you die in a stage after reaching a checkpoint, you can continue the stage with no consequences.
 * 19) Once you get the coins, you will already have it to waste (you can simply get a coin and quit the stage, and you won't lose it). That's another signal of good gameplay, because many games does not allow you to earn the collectibles until you complete the stage.
 * 20) Although there are only 5 stages (including the prologue/tutorial one), they aren't totally random. They are interconnected according to the plot's progress. The way of going to the next stage ("how did he get there?") is simple, not totally complex and absurd (eg.: going from USA to Japan, Australia to Brazil, etc.)
 * 21) Both Survival and Adventure mode warrants a good amount of replay value, and are perfect places to train your skills and to collect some gold and loot coins.
 * 22) *The Survival mode offers you an endless amount of stages with lots of enemies to defeat. Depending on how good you'll perform, there is a score number, which can be used for worldwide rankings!
 * 23) Not getting all stars in all stages does not affect the gameplay. Except when getting all stars in the bonus DLC stories.
 * 24) Shops appear a few times before the level and before the boss, so you can restock items anytime for two times per shop.
 * 25) *The Adventure Mode offers you weekly themes of daily challenges (varying by running against time, obstacles avoiding, enemies defeating or boss battles). The rewards for completing varies by new costumes, loot coins, free reinforcement stocks, etc.
 * 26) The enemies have tons of variety to them, and their own designs.
 * 27) The tokens are blue coins for the game's mh:crappygames:Loot Boxes, with prizes being: more coins, free reinforcement stocks, a ticket for costumes and (rare) extra loot coins. The mechanic isn't as bad as we know.
 * 28) The soundtrack is great and memorable for a mobile game, composed by Dan Brumm and Joe Brumm. Songs like "System of a Dan", "Kick Kick Punch" and "Hey Hey It's an AK" in particular.
 * 29) Using the moves in the game can be a satisfactory sometimes.
 * 30) There are two paid-DLC side stories called Frosty Plains and Fright Zone. Despite having nothing to do with the game's main plot, these modes still increases the gameplay experience and challenge, including replay value.
 * 31) *The Frosty Plains episode can be unlocked for free by collecting all the trophies in Adventure Mode by playing Easy, Normal, and Hard on all levels.
 * 32) Play with a custom character that can wear lots of costumes and independent pieces of clothes! Can be either male or female.
 * 33) *Those clothes not only make your character have a differentiated look, but can be used as "equipment" for powering up (more HP, more DEF, more ATK, more resistance for certain obstacles' damage, etc.), which make your character stronger in the game (except for Multiplayer Mode only).
 * 34) *The costumes can be unlocked by progressing in the Adventure Mode and varies by a Dragon, a Shark, a Dinosaur, a Bee, a Zombie, a Pirate, a Skeleton, a Villager in the game, Christmas-themed ones, Valentine's-themed ones, Halloween-themed ones and many others.
 * 35) *There is even a Terry Bogard and a Bruce Lee reference in some of the costumes. (not directly shown)
 * 36) There are cool Easter Eggs to unlock in the game. For example, tapping the logo a few times will enable a cool retro TV screen filter, and selecting characters in a certain order will give Custom Character a rainbow trail.
 * 37) Despite locked behind DLC, you can play as Barry Steakfries! The same guy from Age of Zombies, Monster Dash, and Jetpack Joyride also joins in. He wields a shotgun with infinite ammo, allowing faraway-throwing shots (his unique move that other characters don't have).
 * 38) *Although he is a paid-DLC character, you can play with him for free in Adventure Mode, but only in Level 1 (no upgrades).
 * 39) *He can also be unlocked for free! You can get him by inviting five friends who have NEVER played Dan The Man before.
 * 40) *He also makes a canonical appearance in the Fright Zone story, teaming up with Dan.
 * 41) If you complete the main story, a Hard Mode will be unlocked. This mode doesn't have a Resurrection Potion (at first glance by default) and has "different color palette" enemies, so get ready for more challenges.
 * 42) There is a Multiplayer Mode, which released in October 2020, where you can battle players, or battle your friends. There are also events held in Multiplayer Mode!
 * 43) When connecting in Multiplayer, you are sent quickly in a match, so you don't have to wait for a long time.
 * 44) *There are tons of prizes to unlock in these events, such as coins, tokens, icons, emotes, and a Costume at the end.
 * 45) When in Multiplayer Events, you can do quests in levels to get more stars to grind in Multiplayer Events, which makes getting stars way easier.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Having ads in the game when getting to checkpoints, or finishing a round in Survival can get tiring.
 * 2) If you play on Hard-difficulty in any mode, despite the good rewards for completing (only once), get ready for frustration...
 * 3) *Get ready for annoying "new" (different color palette) enemies. They not only have improved moves (faster and more-damaging), but they'll simultaneously give to you a knockback damage.
 * 4) *There are more damage-dealing obstacles (fire, water, oil/acid, electricity, spikes, mines) than the normal. That gets even more problematic with the "knockback damage" hit said before, because you already take damage from the attack and you take another damage from the obstacle you're going to fall. Which can end up being annoying
 * 5) *Lots of bullets and projectiles. They only work on you and never on the enemies.
 * 6) **The enemies, however, are vulnerable to the damage-dealing obstacles and will die instantly if touched.
 * 7) *Using one of the reinforcements in the beginning of the stage can be doubtful, because you'll already die a lot (unless you're very skilled or very lucky to win) and could be an unnecessary waste. Getting one of those for free can be hard.
 * 8) Barry Steakfries, despite being playable, is the weakest out of all the playable characters.
 * 9) The "simlish speak" of the characters can somewhat get annoying. The worst offender is Josie.
 * 10) Sometimes, the music can stop playing, making you have to restart the game.
 * 11) The man with glasses, the Advisor, who is the antagonist, does not play much of a role in the game like he did in the series.
 * 12) *Most of the characters from the web series like Light Master or the King don't play much of a role.
 * 13) Even though the story is good, the story will not make sense to new players, considering MOST newer players haven't watched the web series.
 * 14) *There was originally a recap video at the beginning of the game in earlier versions, however, it was removed.
 * 15) The story mode has cutscenes, but sometimes they don't make sense unless you play as Dan. The pre-boss cutscene in the Stage 8-3-3, for example, does not make sense if you play with Josie, Barry Steakfries, or the Custom Character. The story makes more sense if you play as Dan.
 * 16) Playing as Barry in Adventure Mode if you didn't buy him can be frustrating sometimes, due to the fact that Barry doesn't meet the level requirements.
 * 17) Some clothes requires a massive ton of grinding to unlock, such as the Ninja Rebel outfit.
 * 18) The premium version ONLY removes the ads in all modes except for Multiplayer, as you must still watch them to for example, during an event, watch an ad to get more points.
 * 19) Some sprites can look a bit odd sometimes. Sometimes their color palette doesn't match, or they can have extra pixels.
 * 20) *When playing, sometimes the tileset sprites specifically will appear squished or stretched out, this is because they are made at a larger size then shrunk to lower the games size. Most of them can be 2x 3x 4x times the ones in the actual game.
 * 21) The game can be horribly unoptimized when playing Multiplayer, sometimes the game lags and disconnects you from the match.
 * 22) You must wait up to 24 hours to a stage be unlocked and progress through either the story mode or the adventure mode.
 * 23) Pop-up Advertisements: they will appear every time if you break a statue with a TV, hit a checkpoint, finish a stage, somehow quit, use a resurrection potion, etc.
 * 24) Now you must watch an unskippable ad to use Resurrection Potion. However, if you ignore it and directly die in a story mode's stage, you will automatically return to the last checkpoint.
 * 25) *Before this update, the Resurrection Potion was automatic (free) and dying directly redirects you to a continue screen. You had to watch an unskippable ad in order to continue.
 * 26) Sometimes the stage will freeze when an ad is closed, forcing you to go back to the title screen.
 * 27) Even worse, depending on the device you're using (like the 2014 Motorola Moto E, for example), sometimes the game will reboot itself when entering in idle/inactive state and going back to active. That's problematic because some ads does some tricks/exploiting to open their own Play Store page accidentally, making the application going idle automatically.
 * 28) With the removal of achievements, some Easter Eggs don't work anymore.
 * 29) The achievement of playing the whole game with Barry Steakfries, despite him being a purchasable character, is dumb.

Tips

 * 1) You don't need to complete the main stages "perfectly" (quick, all enemies defeated, all objects broken and all hidden areas found at the same time) at the first attempt to get the stars. You can just do a simple objective to get a star by each attempt, as your previous ones will not be lost.
 * 2) The "Extra Time" reinforcement allows you to perfectly (3 stars) complete bonus stages easier. As you collect "clocks" after an enemy is defeated, an extra second will be added. The highest the timer number is, the higher will be your acquired score if you finish the stage (along with no damage suffered and uninterrupted combos performed).
 * 3) If there is a huge amount of enemies and bullets at the same time, and you're unarmed, try to keep performing the High Kicks and the Dropping Kicks like crazy. This gives you a certain "protection", but not much for flying enemies.
 * 4) Play this game with sound. Especially because there is a big guy with a spiked bludgeon (enemy) that, following it's grunting, makes a hard stomp that shakes the screen and makes you fall. Staying in mid-air will avoid this.
 * 5) Making an enemy fall into a damage-dealing obstacle would instantly kill him, but you will (or not, depending on the situation) lose the opportunity of getting the collectibles it leaked, as the some may fall into void.
 * 6) If you don't want to deal with annoying ads you can simply disconnect from the internet and play without interruption. Please keep in mind that internet is needed to validate the stages availability's timer for both story and adventure mode and get prizes by breaking statues holding TVs.
 * 7) If you don't want to pay for some modes, then you'll have to both grind a lot and have a big wait time. One example is for the Frosty Plains episode said above.
 * 8) Always watch ads to skip the timer.
 * 9) Use the reinforcements if a character level don´t match with the required level, especially if you don´t want to spend cash on Barry.
 * 10) Use your attacks, like the Power Attack, Grab n Throw, and Uppercut. The High Kick can also be used for getting extra boosts.

Reception
Reception for Dan the Man has been mostly positive, with over 10M downloads on both Google Play Store and App Store, and with many videos on mh:rottenwebsites:YouTube (mainly by the developers themselves and ANDROLIKOS) with millions of views. Dan the Man eventually became a new IP for Halfbrick for in their crossover games (alongside Barry Steakfries, the Fruit Ninja characters, and the Raskulls).

Although not very trustworthy (due to manipulation), the scores are 4.6 (out of 5) and 4.8 (out of 5) on both respective websites said above.

Download
This game is free-to-play, but has some limits to compared to the "premium" paid version. Here are links to download and play:
 * ANDROID
 * iOS

Trivia

 * Custom Character and the Custom Enemies, unlike the other characters, are rigged with Spine according to a developer in a forum.
 * In other media, Dan and Barry seem to show a bit of rivalry, specifically in Battle Racing Stars and Barry Steakfries' Vlogs.
 * The creator of the series, Joe Brumm, is also the creator of the cartoon Bluey.
 * There are a lot of references from the series, the best example is a painting that appears the same dragon from Episode 5.
 * There is a theory that, based on the series, maybe the Custom can be the Dan and Josie son(s), unfortunally Halfbrick had not afirmed this theory.
 * The speedrun record is 1 hour & 4 minutes, principally because the adds.

Videos
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