Dreadhead Parkour — Play Free Online

About the game

Dreadhead Parkour is a side-on obstacle runner from GameTornado, the studio that also has the Short Life series on Poki. It appeared on Poki in March 2023. You guide the dreadlocked runner of the title, and each stage is a hand-built course of rooftops, scaffolding, crates, cranes and water to get across in one piece.

Touching a hazard ends the run with a ragdoll tumble, so a level is really a sequence of small timing tests. Checkpoint markers are placed inside the courses, so progress within a stage can be kept after a fall.

Controls

• D runs right and A runs left.
• W jumps over gaps, saws and spikes.
• S drops into a slide so you can duck through low openings.
• The arrow keys work too; the first level shows them on screen as the run controls.
• After a fall, the game prompts you to press Space to restart.

The game also has touch support with swipe input, so it can be played on a phone or tablet.

What is in a level

Stages are picked from a level menu and unlock as you go. Along each course you will meet spikes, saw traps, bombs, fireballs, pools of water and teleporters. Coins are scattered across the route, and every level also hides a gold star worth looking for. Each stage keeps a score, and the aim is to max it out.

Coins are not just for points. They are the currency for the skins menu, where you can swap the runner's look for a different character. If you try to buy one without enough coins, the game tells you so.

Tips

• Treat jump and slide as a pair: W for anything you can hop, S for the small holes you have to fit through.
• Grab coins along the way, since the skins menu is the only thing they buy and you need enough before a purchase goes through.
• Look out for the gold star on each run as well as the exit.
• A crash costs little, as Space puts you straight back into the run.