Do you remember watching these stick fight animations like 10 years ago? You ever thought "Man, I wish there was a game that would let me do this". Well, here it is.
Stick fight does not only look crazy like these animations we look back so fondly on, it plays like a dream too. "Fighting games are turn based" has long been said in the community, "you just need to know when to take your turn". The developer Ivy Sly took this literally and created one of the most innovative fighting games we've seen in a long time.
Both players doing their turn at the same time, having to guess what the opponent is going to do, confuse them with movement, react to the moves they throw out... it's all so familiar. It really plays just like a fighting game, but your reaction time is instant because of the turn based nature of the game.
If you're a greedy player, you'll throw up stupid moves and get punished, if you're scared, you'll get backed into the corner, and if you're too defensive, you will get grabbed. It's all here, just in a turn based coating.
What really takes this game to the next lvl are the mechanics it borrows from other fighting games. Being able to influence the direction you fly when you get hit, guessing when the opponent is going to push you away with their burst, how different characters have different friction on the ground allowing for sliding moves and creative ways of hitting the opponent, fighting game fans will recognize all of this and be able to pinpoint what games they're being "borrowed" from, but ti just makes so much more sense in this game.
The level of control you have over your character in this game, even when you're being comboed by your opponent is astonishing.
This game manages to skip a lot of the issues traditional fighting games face. Telling your friend that they have to stick with a game for a while before they know if it's for them or not, it's not really a good selling point. "The game is fun, but you have to put in the work". This game skips all of that. Anyone can play this, and they don't have to spend hours in training mode to do awesome combos. Every time you press a button, you can see a preview of what is going to happen, before it happens. This means that you'll be able to see what moves will and will not work, and you can compare your moves to your opponent's, letting you know how big of a risk you're taking.
The main issue with this game is that some of the downsides of fighting games are even worse in this one. Fighting game players will complain having to "watch a cutscene" if your opponent combos you for more than five seconds. This game is even worse. While it is cool that you are also playing while you're being combod, by influencing the direction you get hit, your options are still extremely limited, and you're not exactly doing anything "cool".
Having to wait for your opponent to plan their incredibly cool 10+ hit combos can leave you waiting for upwards of five minutes before you're able to play again. But then again, when you actually get a hit, you'll be the one doing the most awesome sequence of moves you'll ever see for five minutes, so maybe it's worth it ;)
Overall, this game is incredible. It's a fighting game with all the depth and fun characters you'd expect, while also being incredibly accessible to the point where anyone that understands the basic principle of "You want to hit the opponent without getting hit yourself" to play and do awesome moves.
Regardless of if you win or lose, you'll be able to watch the whole match play at lightning speed once the round is over, and it looks just as cool every single time. I'll continue to play this a lot more for sure.
Highly recommend.
Stick fight does not only look crazy like these animations we look back so fondly on, it plays like a dream too. "Fighting games are turn based" has long been said in the community, "you just need to know when to take your turn". The developer Ivy Sly took this literally and created one of the most innovative fighting games we've seen in a long time.
Both players doing their turn at the same time, having to guess what the opponent is going to do, confuse them with movement, react to the moves they throw out... it's all so familiar. It really plays just like a fighting game, but your reaction time is instant because of the turn based nature of the game.
If you're a greedy player, you'll throw up stupid moves and get punished, if you're scared, you'll get backed into the corner, and if you're too defensive, you will get grabbed. It's all here, just in a turn based coating.
What really takes this game to the next lvl are the mechanics it borrows from other fighting games. Being able to influence the direction you fly when you get hit, guessing when the opponent is going to push you away with their burst, how different characters have different friction on the ground allowing for sliding moves and creative ways of hitting the opponent, fighting game fans will recognize all of this and be able to pinpoint what games they're being "borrowed" from, but ti just makes so much more sense in this game.
The level of control you have over your character in this game, even when you're being comboed by your opponent is astonishing.
This game manages to skip a lot of the issues traditional fighting games face. Telling your friend that they have to stick with a game for a while before they know if it's for them or not, it's not really a good selling point. "The game is fun, but you have to put in the work". This game skips all of that. Anyone can play this, and they don't have to spend hours in training mode to do awesome combos. Every time you press a button, you can see a preview of what is going to happen, before it happens. This means that you'll be able to see what moves will and will not work, and you can compare your moves to your opponent's, letting you know how big of a risk you're taking.
The main issue with this game is that some of the downsides of fighting games are even worse in this one. Fighting game players will complain having to "watch a cutscene" if your opponent combos you for more than five seconds. This game is even worse. While it is cool that you are also playing while you're being combod, by influencing the direction you get hit, your options are still extremely limited, and you're not exactly doing anything "cool".
Having to wait for your opponent to plan their incredibly cool 10+ hit combos can leave you waiting for upwards of five minutes before you're able to play again. But then again, when you actually get a hit, you'll be the one doing the most awesome sequence of moves you'll ever see for five minutes, so maybe it's worth it ;)
Overall, this game is incredible. It's a fighting game with all the depth and fun characters you'd expect, while also being incredibly accessible to the point where anyone that understands the basic principle of "You want to hit the opponent without getting hit yourself" to play and do awesome moves.
Regardless of if you win or lose, you'll be able to watch the whole match play at lightning speed once the round is over, and it looks just as cool every single time. I'll continue to play this a lot more for sure.
Highly recommend.