Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers
Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers is a 2018 action video game developed by Vanpool and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It was released in Japan in April 2018, with English releases in North America, Europe, and Australia the following month, with the North American version being limited as digital-only. A sequel to Dillon's Rolling Western, it takes place in a post-apocalyptic world and features Dillon, an anthropomorphic armadillo who must defend frontier villages from walking rock-like monsters. The player is included in the game's cast as their Mii avatar in the form of an "Amiimal" with added animal features from various species.
Also recorded as The Dead Heat Breakers
Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers
- Model
- Dillon's Rolling Western
- Date
- 2018
- Genre
- action-adventure game · action game
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
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In this article
The object
The object
It received mixed reviews from critics, who most greatly criticized its repetitiveness.
Key facts
Key facts
• Developer — Vanpool • Publisher — Nintendo • Released — April 26. 2018 • Platforms — Nintendo 3DS • Genre — Action, tower defense • Modes — Single-player • Director — Jun Tsuda • Producer — Kensuke Tanabe • Designer — Jun Taniguchi Kota Ikarashi • Artist — Shinji Usui Shingo Kabaya • Composer — Kiyoshi Hazemoto • Programmer — Yohei Fukuda • Series — Dillon
Plot
Plot
The game has a darker setting compared to its predecessors, changing its world to be post-apocalyptic. From their home base in The City, Dillon and a band of mercenaries help defend smaller towns and other locations from the Grock invasion.
Gameplay
Gameplay
The game is a combination of tower defense and action elements. The player must defend against walking rock monsters called Grocks. Mercenaries and the player's avatar use guns to fight the monsters from towers while the player controls Dillon and dashes around the map to fight the monsters one on one. The Grocks have several stages in their invasion process - once they finish attacking on land, their mothership transforms them into vehicles that race around the roadways of the map. In the third phase, the Grocks become superpowered and charge directly at the base.
Development
Development
The game's setting was changed away from Western-themed to post-apocalyptic because it was seen as more of a familiar setting to modern audiences. Its producer, Kensuke Tanabe, said it drew inspiration from Mad Max and was originally only going to be a racing game, but the old gameplay was later combined with the new.
Reception
Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers received "mixed or average" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic, with 40% of critics recommending the game according to OpenCritic. Neal Ronaghan of Nintendo World Report rated the game 8.5/10, saying that while the game was greatly improved from its predecessors, its pace was overly slow. CJ Andriessen of Destructoid rated it 75/100, calling it a "solid adventure through and through", but criticizing the existence of a game-breaking bug on release. He also stated that the process of mission preparation was "arduous" and the game's economy "baffling". Daniel Starkey of GameSpot rated the game 6/10, saying that while it was "action-packed", the controls were "perplexing" and the combat and day-night cycle were repetitive. He stated that "it's a competent and fun little outing that's almost perfectly suited for kids".
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers, revision 1367419342 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers. Metacritic.
- 2.Review: Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers. Destructoid.
- 3.Totilo, Stephen. The Makers Of Nintendo's Latest Hidden Gem Worry People Missed It. Kotaku. 18 July 2018.
- 4.Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers. OpenCritic.
- 5.Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers Review - Review. Nintendo World Report.
- 6.Starkey, Daniel. Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers Review: Running On Fumes. GameSpot. 2018-06-02.
References
Citations
References
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Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 20 August 2026.
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