The Scoop: Super Karoshi is the latest in Jesse Venbrux’s long-running Karoshi series, and is the second to be built with flash. We covered its predecessor earlier this year. Like all the other titles, the basic goal of each stage is to find a new and creative way to kill yourself. Usually with spikes.

Each stage is basically a puzzle. You’ll need to hit switches, solve riddles and overcome other obstacles to finally earn the right to throw your little office worker onto the bed of spikes & move on to the next stage. The big twist this time around is that in addition to finding a way to off yourself, many stages will include a handful of other office workers that also need to die in order for you to progress.

This is often accomplished through careful timing. Either hitting a switch at the proper moment to cause them to fall in the position you like, or something similar. It isn’t a radical reinvention of the Karoshi formula, but it is a solid step forward. Venbrux has created five Karoshi games now, and one senses the series might be running out of steam. Still, each of the five titles include unique twists and are absolutely worth playing through at least once.
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The Scoop:
Newgrounds Mirror
JayIsGames Review
Youtube Video Walkthrough
Kongregate Mirror

The Scoop: Karoshi: Suicide Salaryman is the first Flash version of indie developer Jesse Venbrux’s morbidly amusing puzzle series. Gamers play as as a nameless, generic office worker, and the goal of each stage is to find a way to kill yourself.

The game gets a lot of attention for it’s suicide-centric premise, but that premise is really just an excuse to create puzzles that aren’t really that different than those found in most platform puzzlers. The only difference is instead of opening a route to the exit, you’re opening a route to a pit of spikes to throw yourself in. Fun! This means you’ll be pushing and pulling blocks to activate switches, making sure you’re in the right position when activating a switch, figuring out how to reach specific levers, etc.

Across the game’s 49 stages you’ll ultimately end up killing your salaryman protagonist only a handful of ways – touch an electrified block, run into a spike wall or spike pit, get splattered by a falling safe, or get hit with a flying bullet. This simplicity works in the game’s favor. When you start a new level, how you need to kill yourself is usually immediately apparent. If you see spikes but no other dangers, that’s your answer. The trick is then working through the puzzles to get your salaryman over to them. There are a few tricky exceptions later in the game that require outside-the-box thinking, but for most stages, a little logic is all you’ll need.

The kill-yourself theme leads to some amusing moments for longtime gamers, as videogame conventions are flipped on their head. During the game’s final bossfight, hearts are thrown at the player. When collecting one, the player actually gains a life, meaning they now have to be hit by the boss one more time in order to “win.”
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Links:
Newgrounds Mirror
Kongregate Mirror
JayIsGames Review
Guide/Walkthrough
The Escapist Write-Up