I don’t know if you were like me when you were at school but I used to spend HOURS watching flash stick figure videos and playing various stick flash games. Now we may have thought these games were left in the early 2000s, forgotten by time, but I’m here to tell you they have a place in the modern world with the possibility of becoming your favourite Indie game!
1FDP 2 is a flash stick game on steroids, and even then I feel that’s an unfair comparison because this is an extremely fun game. You may only want to play it in 10 minute bursts but in some ways it makes this game the ultimate time killer (or toilet time game), and there’s a definite degree of skill that makes it sit above many other short-burst indie games. That’s not to say you will only want to play it in brief moments, I’ve sat there for a good couple of hours getting through levels and achieving skill points. So you get the idea, I like the game, but what do you actually have to do?! Without playing it can be hard to explain but I’ll do my best (or you can watch the video above).
The whole game is kind of about rhythm and timing, despite not being a music game it really reminded me of Beat Sabre in the way it plays. As you’ll see above a red or blue bar appears when there’s an enemy or weapon in that direction, quite simply all you have to do is press Y for blue or A for red when they’re within your grasp. As you combo hits and deflect bullets your reach will extend and you’ll unlock powers, your little stick man (who’s some sort of Neo-like martial arts wizard) will also pull off crazy ass combos and powers such as non stop capoeira, laser beam eyes, fire breath and much, much more – giving me major Mortal Kombat fatality vibes. The visuals are simple but effective and the main reason I’d miss a hit is because I was watching the awesome combat!
It starts relatively simply but gets genuinely tough as you progress further in the game, especially the bonus levels that reward you with skill points (quite simply these unlock your special powers). Each level gives 5-10 hits or ‘lives’ and you’ll find that it’s very easy to get knocked down to a couple of health bars as you approach the end of the level, clinging on to defeat the last 10 enemies. I became pretty obsessed with trying to complete levels without taking any hits at all and thoroughly enjoyed the visuals when pulling off multi hit combos. There is plenty to keep you going with a huge array of weapons (swords, guns, brooms, crates etc.) and a variety of levels such as mob levels and boss fights, and even a survival mode which is insanely fun – survival mode is the one that’s really got me hooked, I wanted to just keep going and beating my own high score, really reminding me of old school arcade games. Not only does it play and look awesome but it has a really good range of sound effects and backing track, which intensifies the further you get in survival mode.
Although it’s a pretty simple concept, and has no driven narrative, this game really hits the sweet spot of a Switch game that is easy to put on but offers enough of a challenge to hook you in, easily played for 10 minutes or 2 hours. It makes you feel like a badass when you play it right and it’s the perfect handheld game and is hugely worth it’s low price tag (around £7), you won’t regret buying it. I highly reccomend this game on Switch and give it a: