Like Fraud Detection, the game will announce 'Choke Detected' if he loses and avert it if he does win the round, and thus the match. Double KO, an act where both players manage to kick each other at both players hitboxes.

What you’ll likeRandomly funnyDivekick might not always make sense, but that’s its charm. I found a partner for local multiplayer, and while we rolled our eyes a lot in the beginning, we were laughing and enjoying the antics soon after.The humor is good if mildly offensive.

N, the overweight nerd character who wears footie pajamas and a neck pillow, is one of my favorites. He’s whiny and has a high voice, so nearly everything he says, from “Where did the chair gooooo?” to “The throeeees!” is entertaining, but it’ll make you feel bad when he sits down and cries over plates of food or when the tournament babe refuses to let him hug her. Another character, Kung Pao, is Chinese, as you can probably tell from the name. All she does is yell like she’s in a bad kung-fu movie, and it’s a bit insulting even if she is awesome. Image Credit: Iron Galaxy StudiosLose four out of the five rounds, and a goofy fraud detection warning flashes on the screen.

Another loss will brand you a fraud; a victory will avert it. This puts pressure on the player who already can’t catch a break, but it’s all in good fun. Sort of.Simple but nuancedFor only using two button inputs, Divekick has more depth than you might initially recognize. Players dive and kick using L1 and R1 (on the PS3 version) or any other buttons, depending on how you set the controls. Kicking propels you forward, and diving as soon as you hit the ground will cause you to bounce back (or “kickback”) as, unlike in other games, players can’t use the D-pad or analog sticks to move normally.Every kick contributes to a Kick meter, which fills and activates a ground and air special. You might need to dig into the Options and then the How to Play menu to learn how to pull these off (basically L1 and R1 simultaneously while on the ground or in the air), but these add a little more variety to gameplay.

Image Credit: Iron Galaxy StudiosSince the goal is to kick the opponent, diving (more like jumping) matters in terms of height and timing. The room old sins walkthrough japanese. Judge carefully, and you’ll win.

Though skill is important, all the diving and kicking can get ridiculous. Rounds are set at 20 seconds by default, which can make for some silly and intense fights.Characters feel very different from one another, too, which makes memorizing their style all the more important to either player.The bread-and-butterDivekick features a story mode, where players can enjoy two brief comic book-esque cutscenes (one at the beginning and one at the end) that reveal a character’s background and motivations. The game also includes both local and online multiplayer, with ranked and unranked matches and lobby search and creation.

I didn’t get much use out of online play as the lobby was rather empty during my time with it. What you won’t likeTwo-button frustrationYou use two buttons for everything — even menu navigation and selection — and I hated it. L1 scrolls left, R1 scrolls right, and both together choose a mode/menu, characters, gems (boosts to meter, dive, kick, and so on), and “duds” (a character’s colors). It might sound easy to grasp and remember, but it’s unnatural and annoying as you’ll always want to use directional buttons instead.I didn’t get to play with the fancy two-button game stick that Divekick was designed for, but for serious players.

Iron Galaxy Studios could have done a better job making the controls more intuitive for a regular console controller. Image Credit: Iron Galaxy StudiosBland designsNot every one of the 13 characters looks as cool as Uncle Sensei, the former 10-year divekicking champion who wears boots on his feet and fights upsidedown while smoking. While you’re always going to encounter some boring or lame character designs in a fighting game, the variety of stages is less forgivable.Some are cool, but others are plain, like the basketball court.

But nearly all of them lack the kind of depth and detail that typically make stages interesting and unique, like moving characters or action in the background. Divekick’s levels are lifeless and practically static.Cheesy storyFor as much as Divekick challenges the rules of fighting games by limiting the controls to two buttons and exploiting self-referential humor, it fails to break free of some of genre conventions that it could easily innovate on, like story. The illustrated cutscenes are nice, but they only tell a little about each character, and many of the endings don’t even make sense or are pointlessly inconclusive.

Divekick is a Fighting game for PC, PS3 and Vita. The game is developed by Iron Galaxy Studios who previously developed Wreckateer and ported some well-known titles such as Street Fighter III 3rd Strike Online Edition.

Divekick has 13 characters, each with their own unique stories. I really don’t want to spoil too much because some of these are hilarious. The overarching story is that S-Kill wants to rebalance the world and each character’s story will lead to fighting him in a traditional over-powered final boss style. Each character’s story – and Divekick in general – is deeply set in parody. The original idea for the game was intended as a joke. This joke saw a lot of attention and eventually a kickstarter was made, fuelling the game we see here today.

While a two-button fighting game may sound incredibly simple, it actually retains one of the hardest parts of fighting games. The mindgames. You can’t sit back and safely throw out fireballs here. You can’t even block. The only way to win is to psyche out your opponent and take advantage of their mistake. Divekick’s game-play is a fighting game in its most basic form. Utilising only two buttons, two modes and a one-hit KO system, there’s no combos to remember, no high-level executions. Divekick is pure mind games.

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Each player has two buttons; Dive and Kick. There are also two modes; Ground and Air. Pressing Dive on the ground causes the player to jump into the air. Pressing Kick on the Ground causes the player to perform a back-step and in the Air will cause the player to kick. Each character’s kick has different angles and styles. For example, my main – Kung Pao – kicks at an acute, almost straight forward angle and Redacted is the opposite, kicking at a very obtuse, almost straight down angle. These are just the two extremes of the spectrum. Speaking of extremes, some characters, such as The Baz, have unique kick styles. The Baz’s kicks don’t hit you. His kicks leave a lightning trail which will hit you if you enter it.

Beyond the basics, each character has two specials; Ground and Air. Specials are performed by pressing Dive and Kick at the same time. Specials can be performed when you build enough meter. This is displayed in the bottom corner of the screen. If your meter reaches the top, you will enter Kick Factor Mode which will improve both your jumps and kicks. If you are defeated with a headshot, your meter will empty, turn yellow and you will be dazed. While dazed your character moves slowly until the yellow drains from the meter.

If nobody has won and time is almost up, a red line will appear. Whoever is closest to the red line when time runs out wins. Much like this, there are other things that happen in very specific cases. If you beat your opponent four times without losing, you’ll initiate a Fraud Detection Warning. Winning the final round over them will label them a fraud. Conversely, if they come back from their Fraud Detection Warning, they will initiate a Choke Detection Warning on you. These aren’t the only ones, but the humour in these references is best when experienced first-hand.

I find some interest in Divekick as a learning tool. Whether or not it actually helps may depend on the person, but it’s fun to spend multiple rounds using the same pattern, forcing your opponent to expect it, then changing things up and watching them panic.

The voice acting in Divekick is hilarious – especially Mr N. They really nailed the voices for each character. The music is also somewhat funny. While waiting in a lobby, you will be greeted with calming elevator music.

I was a little disappointed when I went online and found no Endless Lobby. I think Divekick would be great to play with a group of friends, but the only real way to do this is locally. As an EU player, it also would’ve been nice to have been able to provide the game some parameters for who I connect to, such as maximum ping (since the connection is all done automatically). Some characters in Divekick – such as The Baz – can exploit their kick angles and the gem system to quickly build meter.

Divekick is a testament to how simple games can also be great. As a party game, a competitive game or a learning tool, Divekick is well worth the money. You would never expect a joke to turn into such a quality title, but this just proves that if you love the idea behind your game enough, anything can become a hit. So what are you waiting for? Get out there, buy Divekick and get practicing for EVO 2014!

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