Dumb Ways to Die is a video game based on the Public Service Announcement series of the same name.
These video games contain examples of:
- Ad Reward: There's an option to watch an ad to get an extra life or points.
- Aliens Steal Cattle: One of the minigames in DWTD2's "Area Fifty-Dumb" segment has the player saving cows from UFOs attempting to abduct them.
- Anti-Frustration Features: The first game's plane game requires a working microphone, as you're told to blow into your phone (though any sufficiently loud noise will do the job). Playing on a device without one or somewhere where you don't want to make noise? You can turn it off in the options menu so you won't run into it as you're playing.
- Aside Glance: At the end of the "jump the shark" level, your Fonzie-esque character does one of these as a Laugh Track and studio applause are heard.
- Call-Back: In the second game; if you beat the "swim away from piranhas" level, we see the swimmer exit the water and walk up to Dippy, the "privates as piranha bait" guy. Both of them have their lower halves stripped to bone with piranhas clinging on.
- Death by Falling Over: If you lose at the pie level, Lax will slip on his puke and die, and if you lose on the superglue level, Calamity will fall over and die.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation:
- In the song, Lax dies from food poisoning. In the game, he dies by slipping on his puke.
- In the song, Calamity dies from eating superglue, but in the game, she dies from falling over and, in newer versions, getting stuck on superglue.
- Exit, Pursued by a Bear: In the first game, one of the levels, if won, results in Doomed getting chased off the screen by a large truck.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: Many deaths in the game qualify as one. If you lose your 3 lives in the sequel, you're subjected to spin the Wheel of Misfortune. You don't actually get something by landing on a certain part of the wheel — you get a knife to the head before you can stop spinning.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: One of the first game's main mechanics was collecting a certain amount of points to unlock one of the characters in the video.
- Irony: The "drive around the boom gates at a level crossing" level has you spelling the word "PATIENCE" on a constricting time limit.
- Jumping the Shark: The Trope Namer (Happy Days) gets parodied In-Universe with a level in the second game where you play as a character dressed like Fonzie jumping over several sharks.
- Kaizo Trap: Averted in the second game. If you do not trace correctly in one scene, even under one millisecond, you die.
- One of These Doors Is Not Like the Other: In the first game, there's a level where there are three doors with one having a panda and two having killers. After they briefly appear onscreen behind the door, you must choose which one you think has the panda in it.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Most of the sequel victory screens shows this for surviving (ex. a bean avoids getting kicked in the face only to break his leg or another one jump across the river only to end in the most dangerous area)
- Recurring Element: Many levels between the two games have the same playing mechanics (tapping, tilting, rubbing, etc), and the sequel reuses mechanics from the original.
- Runs with Scissors: Numpty does this in the second game with his friends. The goal? Finish first. Fail, and Numpty falls on his scissors, destroying his eye and dying.
- Schmuck Bait:
- In the first game: the level with the Big Red Button. What do you need to do? Just don't press it.
- In the second game: there's a level that asks that you don't lick a pole.
- Sequel Escalation: Without a doubt. While the first game only had a small number of levels, second game has been reworked so that its user interface is based around a Hub World where you can go to various places that offer different levels.
- Take That, Audience!:
- The first game has quite some fun taunting you in the quick intervals between levels. Even if you complete the level, the game may still take points away from you. In some instances if you lose a level, the game will give you a measly amount of points as a consolation prize. Not to mention the captions ("watch your language", "bad luck", etc.)
- An inversion occurs in the case that the game acts in the complete opposite way, rewarding you with captions like "because you deserve it" and "nice weather today".
- Tongue on the Flagpole: A level in the second game asks you not to lick a pole.
- Triumphant Reprise: The second game's menu music consists of a rather badass orchestral rendition of the song.
- Violation of Common Sense: In the first game, you win one level by picking the door with a panda bear waiting at it instead of a serial killer. In reality, opening the door to any kind of bear is just another dumb way to die.
