Stupid Never Dies Preview

2 hours ago 3

Published Mar 12, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT

Scott Baird is a contributor with over a decade's experience writing about video games, along with board games and tabletop RPGs. Scott has previously worked for Dexerto, Cracked, Dorkly, and Gamepur.

Stupid Never Dies had one of the best trailers at The Game Awards 2025, being a bizarre musical number punctuated by an undead teenager beating up monsters in a variety of cool forms.

The problem was that the Stupid Never Dies trailer was more of a teaser focused on the punk art visual style, rather than revealing any details about the world or the gameplay. Stupid Never Dies is launching in 2026, so fans are going to need more information, and pronto.

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A new trailer for Stupid Never Dies was shown at Future Game Show: Spring Showcase 2026. However, DualShockers was given an early look at the game during a special preview event, where we learned more about its strange world, and even stranger characters.

Stupid Never Dies is About a Love Story Between the Dead

Stupid Never Dies is an action RPG starring Davy, a zombie teen trapped in a world overrun by monsters, as most of humanity is gone. One day, Davy finds the frozen body of Julia, a human girl who perished years earlier. Davy is immediately smitten with Julia and seeks a way to revive her.

Davy runs into Dr. Frank, a mad scientist who seeks to restore humanity. It turns out that Davy could be mankind's salvation, as he can devour other monsters and gain their powers, known as Styles. If he can defeat the leader of the monsters, it'll be possible to bring Julia back to life.

Stupid Never Dies is an action RPG starring Davy, a zombie teen trapped in a world overrun by monsters, as most of humanity is gone.

With that framework established, Davy has to invade a dungeon filled with monsters, with the enemies growing stronger on each floor. However, there's a time limit for how long he can remain in the dungeon, so he'll have to rip and tear through monsters as quickly as possible.

The Eleven Fighting Styles in Stupid Never Dies

While Davy starts out as a zombie, he won't have to stay in that form for long. The main combat gimmick of Stupid Never Dies involves devouring Monster Cores, allowing him to transform mid-battle. The eleven Styles in Stupid Never Dies are:

Name

Effect

Zombie	The weakest Style and the one Davy starts out with.
Werewolf	The Werewolf Style is fast and aggressive, with the ability to leap to higher surfaces.
Harpy	The Harpy Style gives Davy wings, allowing him to fly above enemies and strike them afar with razor-sharp wings.
Golem	The Golem Style makes Davy more resistant to damage and also gives him the ability to punch through walls, at the cost of a slower attack and movement speed.
Vampire	The Vampire Style not only lets Davy attack enemies from a distance with swarms of mind-controlled bats, but he can heal himself by drinking enemy blood.
Will-o'-the-Wisp	The Will-o'-the-Wisp Style turns Davy into a floating ghost, meaning he avoids a lot of physical hits and can't be harmed by traps on the ground.
Cyclops	The Cyclops Style is a risky one, as it's slow, but deals a ton of damage, growing stronger with each hit it takes.
Snow Fairy	The Snow Fairy Style has control over ice magic, allowing Davy to freeze enemies in place and absorb their essence to use as a power source for a frozen magical blade.
Merfolk	The Merfolk Style controls water, using it both as a weapon and a shield. They can also swim through the ground itself, being able to teleport behind foes.
Lich	The Lich Style turns any enemy it kills into a skeleton that fights alongside Davy. It's also immune to a lot of negative status effects, owing to its even deader-than-usual nature.
Demon	The Demon Style has control over gravity, allowing it to throw enemies around with ease, and allowing Davy to reach even higher areas than normal.

In order to use these Styles (save for the Zombie), Davy needs to devour monster cores, which he does in battle. These also change his appearance, as seen in the screenshots above. The Styles aren't the same each time around, as the player is given access to different variations of the Styles, each with their own attacks and passives.

The Styles aren't the same each time around, as the player is given access to different variations of the Styles, each with their own attacks and passives.

The player can hold a few Styles at any one time, meaning that no two runs are ever the same in Stupid Never Dies. Sometimes, you have to make do with what's there, encouraging players to experiment with the options available to them.

Davy Can Whip Out Body Mods to Destroy Enemies

Players won't just be using Styles in combat, as there are also unlockable items, known as Body Hacks, for Davy to use. Only two have been revealed so far: the Massive Edge, which is a sword that carves up foes, and the Missile Pod, which fires multiple rockets at the enemy.

Players won't just be using Styles in combat, as there are also unlockable items, known as Body Hacks, for Davy to use.

There's also a super attack, called the Davy Burst, which not only annihilates foes but also changes the world around him, giving the world a graffiti/hallucination look that's meant to evoke Davy's delusions coming true.

Stupid Never Dies currently lacks a solid release date; even the latest trailer confirms a 2026 release but offers no further information. The footage we saw shows that the game is far along in development and shaping up well, so it's likely to come out this year (though maybe not in November).

The gameplay loop in Stupid Never Dies looks like it's going to be a blast, especially with so many transformations on offer. The style and soundtrack are also stellar, and I can't wait to see where the story goes. The whole experience has a No More Heroes-meets-Lollipop Chainsaw vibe, and I'm here for it.