Stupid Never Dies Preview - A Promising and Unabashedly Quirky ARPG

Preview

Written by Austin Suther

Published: September 3, 2026 11:00 AM

Zombie games are a dime a dozen, but I guarantee you've never seen one like Stupid Never Dies. See, in most games featuring the living dead, they're the enemy. In Stupid Never Dies, zombies are the star of the show; in particular, a shambling corpse named Davy, who might be a slow-moving and puny individual on the surface, but actually packs a mean punch when push comes to shove.

After several looks at Stupid Never Dies throughout the year -- including interviews and a brief hands-on session -- I was still left with plenty of questions regarding both the game's story and gameplay structure. Now, "Funky Zombie Action," the game's signature tagline, is starting to make sense. After an extensive hands-on session with Stupid Never Dies, I have my answers.

Monsters, Malls, and a Frozen Girl

Let's start with narrative, as that will frame the rest of Davy's actions and general gameplay loop. This preview starts at the very beginning of Stupid Never Dies' story. Conveyed through endearing images composed of crayon and paper cutouts, we learn that the human world as we know it is all but destroyed, having been infested with monsters of all sorts. 

The King of Monsters (KOM) dominated the world and wiped out 98 percent of the population. Monsters returned to their own world, with the exception of the pitiful zombies, one of the few remnants left from said invasion. So Davy, looking for food, finds himself in an abandoned shopping mall, only to stumble upon several things that will change his fate forever.

One is a phoenix's egg, which gives him powers beyond the imagination of a zombie. He happily chomps that down, much to the chagrin of an eccentric professor named Dr. Frank. The main motivation behind his quest, however, is a frozen girl named Julia. Found in the freezer of an ice cream shop at the mall, he's smitten immediately and wants to rescue her from an icy fate. Dr. Frank, along with his crew, can bring Julia back, but only if Davy defeats the KOM.

It's a pretty simple premise on the surface, but the excellent voice acting and vibrant, incredibly animated mannerisms of its characters help bring everything to life. Everyone's a little crazy, from Dr. Frank to his were-chihuahua assistant, which all add to the air of levity permeating throughout Stupid Never Dies.

While the amount of dialogue and exposition might be off-putting for some, I'd definitely recommend giving it some leeway. I wanted to jump into the action, but grew to enjoy the interactions between Davy and the other denizens of the mall. I believe Stupid Never Dies is only front-loaded with more story to establish its basic premise, but I can see the structure of its gameplay being the main focus for the rest of the game. 

Meaningful Progression, With or Without Failure

Said structure has been a tricky thing for me to nail down. Unlike your traditional action games a la Devil May Cryor Bayonetta, which focus on jumping from one level or scenario to the next, Stupid Never Dies is run-based. To progress, Davy must dive into randomly generated dungeons in the world of monsters (entered by being flushed down a toilet, as it so happens), and grow more and more powerful after each run.

In the world of monsters, zombies are much stronger than in the human world. Davy's speech changes from slurred and slow to quick and jubilant. Everything barring appearance is different with Davy, now more lithe and agile in the world of monsters. Still, being a zombie, he's weak, so you'll have to gain power by getting further and further into these dungeons. 

Each new run starts you at level 1 at your weakest, but here's where meta-progression plays a huge part in Stupid Never Dies: dives contribute to your strength, even if it ends in failure. Very similar to a roguelite, you'll amass resources and items that can be taken back to the Mall and used as upgrades for future runs. Besides that, though, the most important aspect in increasing your power is the EXP boost.

Getting kills contributes to an ever-increasing, permanent EXP boost for Davy. So, even though you start at the lowest level you possibly can each run, EXP is granted at an increasingly higher rate. With each run having a timer, this is very important. This method of growth is a great mechanic. It keeps Davi's power from being stagnant and, even if you fail, you're still getting stronger.

Among Davy's powers is the ability to bite the core of monsters and gain their powers. Not all powers are equal, as some are a one-time use ability while others will transform Davy into the monster themselves. To drive home the point of constant progression and improvement, it's very cool to see that using these abilities will permanently increase Davy's proficiency in these powers. This incentivizes using different powers to gain a diverse skillset; conversely, focusing on your favorite builds is also just as beneficial. 

Because of this, I cannot emphasize enough that saying that a failed run is a "waste of time" is a misnomer, since the proficiency will make you more powerful the next time you dive back into the dungeon. In certain games, it can be demoralizing to spend a certain amount of time in a run and gain nothing from it, but that does not appear to be the case in Stupid Never Dies.

Get Styled On

Ultimately, while these aspects definitely invoke feelings of being a roguelite, it should be emphasized that this is more like an action game with roguelite elements. The combat is the real highlight here, and there is much more to talk about in that regard. 

Much of Stupid Never Dies revolves around the aforementioned "bite" mechanic, which is fitting for a zombie. Davy's ability to munch on the cores of enemies to gain their powers is just one aspect; bite also heals Davy and keeps him in the fight. You're not able to spam it constantly. It recharges, so it's encouraged to use it as often as you have it, but in strategic ways.

Biting and regaining your health is especially useful since there are no real defensive abilities beyond a parry. In my past talks with Stupid Never Dies developer GPTRACK50, it's been emphasized that zombies are, by their very nature, aggressive. The parry deflects attacks and Davy still takes some damage, but this damage is recoverable with bites, and it's absolutely essential when surrounded by a group of monsters. It also allows you to perform a counter, which is itself a useful tool in your arsenal.

Then there are the different styles from the larger enemies, like werewolves and harpies. Defeating a werewolf and munching on his core grants Davy the werewolf style. This completely transforms both his appearance and light and heavy attacks, though he can still bite and parry as well. Let's say you come across a harpy, too. In my demo, you can have two styles at once (excluding zombie), meaning I could switch between zombie, werewolf, and harpy on the fly, expanding the skillset exponentially.

I can see plenty of potential with this system, especially as more styles are encountered later on. Styles themselves can use a single strong ability on cooldown, incentivizing players to swap between them in the midst of battle. These cooldown abilities actually vary, too, with each core having one of a possible five, which is a welcome amount of variety.

Styles only last a certain number of rooms, so you're encouraged to constantly swap them out. They even vary in rarity, so the depth in Stupid Never Dies seems to be quite, well, deep. Leveling up also has its rewards, granting an increase in basic stats, but also the ability to pick one choice of three "level-up receipts" at certain levels to fine-tune and focus on certain stats during runs.

Stupid Never Dies Preview | Final Thoughts

There's so much more I could say about Stupid Never Dies, but the main thing I wanted to convey was its structure. In short, it's run-based, requiring players dive into a dungeon and win (or fail), get more powerful using experience and resources from these runs, and then dive back in. It's simple, but there are a number of mechanics that I feel haven't shown their full hand yet, including the ability to graft mechanical parts onto Davy's body. Yes, you can attach a ridiculously big sword to Davy's hand, and it's pretty darn cool. 

I haven't even touched on the polish of Stupid Never Dies. It's still got some time before its October release date, but this demo is an exceptionally well-made look into the overall game. It's no wonder, given that the minds behind Stupid Never Dies have quite the pedigree. Will it stick the landing, though? We'll find out pretty soon, and I have a lot of confidence in the final result.

Stupid Never Dies was previewed on PC with a code provided by the publisher over roughly 3 hours of gameplay. All screenshots in this review were taken by the reviewer during gameplay.

Austin Suther | Staff Writer

Austin cut his teeth writing various fan-fiction stories on the RuneScape forums when he was in elementary school. Later on, he developed a deep love… More about Austin

Additional topics:
• PC
• SEGA
• Action RPG