Dash is proof that RobTop is still an amazing creator after nearly 7 years of development on Update 2.2.

Let’s get the elephant out of the room first: the unsightreadable Dash spider part that Colon turned into a meme. I honestly think this part is really funny and I’m glad it made it into the level. This is the 22nd level in the game, so most people playing it have already seen some of the crazy gameplay GD can offer and should be prepared for it. New players will find this spider bizarre and I kind of love it for that. It’s similar to the Deadlocked beginning mini wave - if it’s too scary for you, you’re not ready for the level

Aside from the spider part, the whole pre drop is pretty fun and interesting. It makes good use of all the new 2.2 effects and is arguably the coolest looking level in the game.

Then at the drop you finally get the game mode we waited 7 years for: the swing copter. Unfortunately, swing is probably the lamest gamemode yet, primarily because there are many many levels that already have ball copter gameplay parts. That being said, I like that Rob gives you enough time to react to this new game mode as the most common issue with swing is its unsightreadable and kills you instantly if you guess your gravity wrong.

After the swing you get a few parts with some wacky camera controls including the first mirror portal since Electroman Adventures.

Then after the cool spinning ball part you get the second swing section which has a pretty tight second coin that requires precise control of the swing copter - I like how RobTop updated the indication for this coin.

The spider and cube after the swing are short but sweet. Then you get one of the more annoying parts of the level where you crawl around the walls of a fixed camera room. This part prepares you for some of the 2.2 camera craziness that lots of 2.2 rated levels have.

The third coin in this level sucks - you just have to spam during a random transition. It’s indicated when you tap but there’s no indication if you choose not to tap.

After this room you have a very tight ship part that’s hard due to abnormal gravity. The robot afterwards is cool in its use of the fan effects.

The final gauntlet where you go back and forth above climbing lava is very good and really gives the level a climactic feeling. The cube jumps in these sections are always hard to read, even a year and a half of playing 2.2 rated levels, so I’m glad this part gives you an idea of what to expect.

The end of the level at the top of the tower leads well into the platformer levels in The Tower. This is also the first main level to not feature an end wall and instead feature an end trigger.

Overall, Dash is an absolute banger and a Top 5 RobTop level imo. I think the only reason people might not like it is because we waited 7 years for it - there’s no way it was going to live up to expectations. However, it’s still a great level in its own right and I’m glad it made it to the main game.

Also, shoutout to MDK for finally giving GD a theme song

Slightly better than fingerdash even though it uses the dreaded pixel blocks.

If this was an online level I might just call it an ok level, but I have different standards for the official levels, and Dash utterly fails to do what it should as the intro 2.2 level.

It doesn't dedicate enough gameplay to exploring its mechanics, they're all shoved into one level just to show them off. Really, these mechanics could have been more fleshed out over 3 levels. Swing gameplay isn't really meaningfully explored even though this level introduces the gamemode. There are just a couple basic swing sections. The spider orb is used just twice in places that do not at all really show the unique gameplay potential of that gameplay element, it could have been replaced with a blue orb easily. The arrow trigger gameplay is barebones and in one case shoved inappropriately at the start just to fit one unique arrow trigger segement in somewhere. So this level overall just doesn't have a strong mechanical identity.

The gameplay is very dull and does not capture the energy of the song, you can tell Rob really rushed to get this finished. The art is lame, just another lava dungeon which we've basically had for 2 other levels in a row now, and in Meltdown and Subzero and seemingly in the upcoming Explorers level. Dash looks just Fingerdash but messier, which is a shame cuz I think there is potential even in this style for something unique looking. Rob just couldn't put enough time into it.

Press Start from Subzero would have been by far a superior 2.2 intro level despite having less mechanics and visual effects, Press Start is fun and exciting, Dash is genuinely just boring. 3rd worst official level.