Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! is a 2011 auto-running game developed by Be-Rad Entertainment and published by Devolver Digital. The player controls a Headless Kamikaze that chases after Sam "Serious" Stone, attempting to defeat him. The character moves automatically and can dodge or deflect incoming hazards. Announced in March 2011 and developed over six months, Kamikaze Attack! was created as part of the Serious Sam Indie Series to promote the launch of Serious Sam 3: BFE. It debuted for Android and iOS in September 2011, followed by a release for Windows in January 2012. The game received a mixed reception, with praise for its controls, conflicting opinions about its visuals, and criticism for its repetitiveness and lack of appeal to non-fans of the Serious Sam series.
Gameplay
Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! is an auto-running game in a style similar to Canabalt and Robot Unicorn Attack. It puts the player in control of a Headless Kamikaze (or Beheaded Kamikaze), a decapitated humanoid figure wielding bombs that acts as an enemy in other Serious Sam games. There are forty levels, split between a desert and jungle environment. In each, the character traverses a two-dimensional world in continuous motion. Their speed increases progressively.
The primary goal is chasing after and defeating Sam "Serious" Stone (the protagonist of the Serious Sam series) after surmounting a pre-determined distance. In-between, the Headless Kamikaze faces several hazards, including cacti, frogs, rockets, bombs, grenades, gaps, and fences. These may be avoided by jumping over them, and some can be destroyed or deflected using the kick ability, which fills the "rage meter" that can ultimately kill the character. It automatically drains while not in use. The Headless Kamikaze has multiple (initially three) lives; depleting them causes the player to lose. Certain collectibles may add additional lives, others can instantly empty the rage meter, reset the character's speed, or add multipliers to the score. When jumping over obstacles, holding down the button prolongs the leap, and a second one can be initiated while in the air.
Every level includes an optional bonus objective consisting of kicking one type of object a certain number of times. Achieving these unlocks gameplay modifiers, including a higher frequency of collectibles and a faster drainage of the rage meter. Later stages are made more difficult by incorporating more hazards. "Endless" modes have no exit condition, with the player aiming only for the highest possible score through the bonus objective. Highscores could be shared via the OpenFeint and Game Center services.
Development and release
Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! was developed by Be-Rad Entertainment, an indie game studio founded by programmer Brad Johnson. It was Be-Rad's second, having previously released Lame Castle. After Devolver Digital, the publisher of the Serious Sam series, had come across Lame Castle, the company approached Johnson, asking him to develop a game as part of the Serious Sam Indie Series. A triplet of spin-offs to be created by small studios to promote the impending launch of Serious Sam 3: BFE, the Indie Series also encompasses Serious Sam Double D and Serious Sam: The Random Encounter. He considered this a "" and accepted the request. Be-Rad decided to create an auto-running game, given the experience they had gathered with Lame Castle and because Johnson thought that such gameplay would better suit mobile phones. He also ruled out making a first-person shooter, as this genre was already covered by the main entries in the Serious Sam series.
Kamikaze Attack! uses the Unity game engine. Johnson repurposed some code from Lame Castle, which allowed him the time to add further features and apply polish to Kamikaze Attack!. Its art assets were hand-drawn with colored pencils by Stephan Royer. Be-Rad intended to keep players engaged in their game longer than in others in the genre by putting in objectives and boss fights. They also implemented role-playing elements, such as character upgrades, but removed them after playtesting showed that they served no benefit. The studio was given substantial creative control, only receiving feedback on the visual design for Sam. Though production had been planned to last two months, it was finished in six. Kamikaze Attack! was designed to run on the Android and iOS mobile operating systems. A Windows Phone port was not considered because Unity did not support the platform.