Sky Dash is a simultaneous platform race for 2–16 runners, held on a chain of floating stone islands strung out under a monsoon sky. Everybody starts at the same horn and runs the same course, so you are never waiting for a turn — you are watching the rail across the top of the screen to see who is pulling away from you.
The course is a long one: four zones from the Launch Terrace out through the Cascades, The Mill and the Storm Gate, with three checkpoints along the way. There are mill-wheels that carry you round as they turn, columns of rising air you ride like a lift, launch pads, sliding stones, swinging pendulums and orbiting debris.
What makes it a race rather than three time trials is the things you share. Skyshards go to whoever touches them first, so a shard you can see is a shard someone else is also running at. And cracked stone gives way after a few crossings — whoever leads breaks the road for everyone behind them, though it reforms a few seconds later, so a hole is a delay rather than a dead end.
Falling costs you seconds at your last checkpoint, never a life. Nobody is eliminated; you just lose ground, and the gap line tells you exactly how much.
How to play Sky Dash
GOAL — First to the gate at the end of the course. When someone gets there, everyone else has a short window to come home; your finish order is your placing.
RUN — WASD or the arrow keys. On a phone, the stick on the left.
JUMP — SPACE, or the JUMP button. HOLD IT for height: a tap is a short hop and a hold clears the long gaps. Most jumps are one or the other, and the course is built so you can tell which by looking.
AIR-DASH — SHIFT, or the DASH button. One per jump, recharged the moment you touch anything. It is the only way over the widest gaps, and it is worth saving for them.
THE SHADOW — your runner casts a pool on whatever is under them. It tightens and darkens as you fall, so a small sharp shadow means you are about to land. Use it to judge distance; from behind, your eyes cannot.
SKYSHARDS — first touch takes them. There are thirteen on the course.
CRACKED STONE — the brown, fractured islands give way after a few crossings and fall. A ghost outline shows where one is coming back, pulsing faster as it returns.
HAZARDS — the spiked rocks do not kill you, but a hit costs you control for a moment, burns your air-dash and throws you back down the course. Dodge them.
FALLING — back to your last checkpoint, minus a second and a half. No lives, no game over.
