I was lucky enough to get my hands on Dere Evil Exe (Free) by AppSir Games a couple of weeks before it launched in the App Store, and it has been my go-to ever since. I truly suck at the game however (or maybe I don’t have enough free time to sit down non stop and play) and still haven’t made it all the way through to the end.

I am stuck at the same place as many players, in chapter three where the platforms have disappeared and I need to make it across a wide chasm. I have no doubt I will eventually find my way across and continue on with the game. I will finish it eventually, I have meanwhile given up on the dream of finishing it before writing my review, I have a feeling the game may be way too old to review if I wait that long.

So what can you expect from Dere Evil Exe?

Well at its core the game is an excellent and challenging 2D platformer, with all the features and elements you have come to expect from the platform genre, you run, you jump, you find your way through obstacles, just like any other game of this kind. You are quickly pulled away from familiar comforts of your average platformer by changing the rules we all take for granted in this kind of game.

It isn’t however, a game for the faint of heart or those who are easily frustrated, you are going to die a lot. No seriously, I mean it…a lot. You will die in the same place hundreds of times and just when you finally make it past and you think YES YES YES, you are going to die before the next checkpoint and go back to that troublesome point you though you were done with. Good luck with that, I don′t know how you deal with the frustration of constant death, I make pretty pathetic sounds apparently, the puppy keeps trying to comfort me when I play.

The controls are easy to understand, just like any other platform game, your left thumb moves you in either direction while you tap with your right thumb to jump. The expected double jump is there to to help get past those extra long obstacles. The difficulty levels go up with each chapter and before long you will wincing in frustration and thinking its just not possible to get through the current obstruction.

You have a trusty guide called A.I.D.E. (Artificial Intelligence for Dere Exe) who offers great meta-humor with her helpful hints such as “avoid falling in the gaps. You will die". A.I.D.E also tells you “Don’t collect the coins", which of course you are going to ignore which gives the developer the opportunity to break the fourth wall for the first time with an I told you so.

From here the fourth wall really ceases to exist at all, with both the dev and a seemingly malevolent presence called Yanna both wanting to control your actions. The dev wants you to ignore Yanna and finish the game, while Yanna wants you to stop playing, she worries you are playing right into the developers hands. Who is the real bad guy here? I guess we won’t really know until we finish the game.

Dere Evile Exe brings a creepypasta feel to the world of video gaming. Odd glitches, jumpscares, and Yanna herself hacking into the game to change the way the world around you works, all lend themselves to the kind of horror people pass on. It’s the kind of story gamers will tell each other while camping late at night while waiting for the monsters to spawn.

The horror aspect of the game really does make it something special, and when blended with the retro styling of 16-bit classic platformers, ambient music and non-existent fourth wall, it becomes a truly unique game which draws you in and keeps you playing. In all honesty, this is not the first game of this type, or even in this world, and while you can play Dere Evile Exe as a stand alone it does in fact have a prequel, Dere .Exe (not available on iOS).

Dere .Exe is itself the third in a line of games set in the same world with Sorority Rites (not available on iOS) and The Last Yandere(Free) being the first two. AppSir games have really built a world made for horror, and it seems know exactly how to use this world to its best advantage. Unfortunately, only two of the games set in this world are available on iOS, I’d like to be able to add ′for now′ to that, but I have no idea if AppSir Games would ever consider developing iOS versions of the other two games.

I myself have not played the first three games, I do not own any Google Play devices (It′s not that I am fanatical about Apple, I just don’t like Android), and I have not opened The Last Yandere yet, though I intend to play it soon. It has not impacted my enjoyment of Dere Evil Exe in even the slightest of ways. Players on our forums are enjoying it as well, and the developer is happy to listen to feedback and hear what you think of the game.

If you like meta-humor, meta-horror, meta-anything, this is a game to check out, from the basic and unhelpful AI, to the maleficent Yanna and frustrated Dev it′s all in good fun. Demoralizing, hair pulling, no not again fun. Take the challenge, and wade in, Dere Evil Exe is unquestionably worth your time.