Finding the Best ARPG Ever Made: Dink Smallwood

In the long list of ARPG's most people don't think twice about a little game called Dink Smallwood. They might say it's more of a Zelda clone, it has poor gameplay, the story is irrelevant, and it hasn't stood the test of time in a variety of other ways. And you know, I agree, but since I'm contractually obligated to play, review and find the Best ARPG Ever Made, we can't ignore Dink. Unfortunately.

Thanks for watching! Dink is now behind us, but there will be MANY more games to follow! If you enjoyed my ramblings, I'd greatly appreciate it if you Liked, Shared, Commented, or Subscribed! And pretend the bell is Dink and give it a good whack for me, thank you.

[ClausRow]

I remember playing this then forgetting what it was called and asking on 4chan with a vague description and someone replied with the wrong game and then another person replied to them: "It's Dink Smallwood you Fuck!" And now whenever my brother and I can't remember something we say, "It's Dink Smallwood you Fuck!"

[henkdevries]

Dink Smallwood is such a gem, and so are you, Seer.

[AllTradesJackReviews]

Dude your script writing skills are insane. Much praise.

[thePyiott]

Playing dink as a kid was amazing. Punching the head off ducks, finding a secret island with potions, puncing old people. It had everything.

[Skarwind]

Dink Smallwood. A game that I found out as a small child while touring demo discs given to me by my grandfather in the 90s. Good times.

[lemonke]

Dude I love this game. I actually found a pretty insane glitch that's fun to mess around with. I played the app, so I'm not sure if it works on the computer version, but anyway: i found a spot on the coast that looks like regular water, but it's solid, letting you get out of bounds. I think it was on the duck island. Once you're out of bounds, you can walk on everything you normally couldn't: houses, cliff faces, trees, water... basically a walk-through-walls glitch. You soon realize that all the tiles are connected - for example all the caves are actually adjacent to one another, letting you essentially teleport around the map. It's really cool to see how the game was laid out like that. And if you look around enough you'll find some easter eggs & unused content that isn't accessible via normal gameplay. That blew my mind as a kid!

[Calcint]

I beat this game as a child and loved it. I had little access to PC games, so finding a game that's free, and this good, was magical at the time. I had been trying to remember the name of this game for years, and then I saw the thumbnail. Maybe it didn't age well, but now I can play to see for myself. THANK YOU

[linuxgameplayxp]

You've just found the best ARPG ever made. Your quest is over.

[purplepudding]

Your content is fantastic and underrated. Thanks for your Dinky video.

[steveleadbeater]

IF you're of a certain age you played this as it was free. In 97 it was on cover discs and cover discs were the only place to get this stuff unless you had an uber expensive Modem.

[mortvia]

This is the type of game I fully expected to hear was the first game made by some legend of the gaming industry. Somehow, the fact that it wasn't just makes it all the more frightning.

[LizzieBeezie]

Ah my sweet childhood days. So many hours on this game lol.

[Mooo]

Until today I just assumed this game was a fever dream I had as a kid

[yukmoutb]

i remember playing this game as a kid. wow! Attack, magic and defense... its more complicated than D4!!!

[TheCecchino]

I like that you mentioned newgrounds because these game is exactly what i would expect from an early flash game in terms of edginess and writing

[stuartmayberry]

I've never played (or until this video, heard of) Dink Smallwood but I am very familiar with Legend of the Red Dragon, which was also produced by Seth Robinson. It was a text based game that I played a lot of in 4th grade because it was available via the local internet in my tiny town. It was pretty fun at the time and I have fond memories of fighting the other kids in the neighborhood virtually. 1994 was a weird time.

[MoonrayMurray]

This game was fire yo, I can't believe it was available for free when it was a thing.

[Lexyvil]

I randomly found Dink Smallwood on some random site, and played it, and absolutely loved it more than I thought I would. I'm glad there's a huge modding community behind it, and I'm surprised it's still as good as I remember.

[shaggyzor]

Ah my nostalgia as a kid in the late 90's, finding this game and just ... was a fever dream I never truly escaped as it occasionally haunts my dreams. xD

[mykal]

The hands down best ARPG of all time is Xenimus, running strong for over a decade with an active playerbase in the double digits.