Divekick has recently appeared on Xbox One for download with the name Divekick Addition Edition+, developed by the guys at Iron Galaxy Studios. When someone mentions fighting games to me, I generally shudder at the thought of having to bash my controller to within and inch of it’s life, trying to pull off the ultimate move. We all know the feeling of watching our character being used as a dummy for the other player, to hit us with combos that just go on for an age. No matter how hard I have tried to pull off some of these spectacular life ending, 100 hit combos, I fail and not only do I fail but the controller usually ends up protruding from the wall, or in several bits on the floor with me scrambling around on my hands and knees, to locate the batteries. So whether or not you choose to admit it, we have all been there!
Divekick puts all this in it’s pocket, jumps up and down and produces a system of fighting that only requires two buttons. Yes, you read that correctly, two buttons. Gone are the thumb sticks and pressing all the buttons on the controller twice, before hitting Y, then X, then RT while holding down B. Gone are the days of frustration as you constantly try and achieve each characters special move, and gone are the days of mutant online players that seem to have more arms than an octopus, with the speed of a bullet. Divekick introduces a fighting system that may be simplistic in it’s execution, but has great depth under the hood. Most of Divekick is based on not taking itself seriously, with some parody and references to other titles of the same genre thrown in for good measure. Playing a fighting game with only two buttons may seem strange at first, but soon becomes a match of strategy and tactics, rather than how many buttons you can press at once. You can assign any two buttons you are comfortable with, one for dive/jump and the other is kick, simples, hence the name!
You can choose from a roster of players that includes Johnny Gat from Saints Row and Stream who always wears a straight jacket, but then again he only needs his legs to Divekick. Going into a match in Divekick is like nothing you are used to in games of this genre, each player has a health bar, but once you are hit, it depletes all the way to your death. So ever match is a one hit wonder, where hitting the other players in certain areas will effect them in the next round, for instance scoring a headshot will have the other player seeing stars, that gives you a slight advantage in the next round. Each of the character also have a special attack which is activated by pressing both buttons at the same time, now I can definitely manage to do that in my old age, two buttons at once, easy! These moves range from teleports, projectiles and leaping attacks, all of which will drain you ability bar represented in the bottom corner by, whatever footwear your selected character happens to be wearing at the time. Don’t be fooled by these special moves and be sitting there waiting for your bar to fill up, baying to unleash some kind of screen shattering, world ending combo that will send your opponent into a fit of rage. No, forget that, the only way to fill that bar is to Divekick, and that really is the only way to win a match. Learning when to launch yourself into the air and propel forward feet first, is what this game is all about. Before each match you can choose your characters outfit, as they all come with a wardrobe of simple attire, that suits every occasion they might encounter, and you can also choose from a range of “gems”. These gems will add attributes to your characters such as a small boost in jump height or movement, these can make all the difference in a game like this. Being able to jump that little bit higher than your opponent can turn the tables during a match.
Some characters can however change these mid match, countering your selected gem and balancing out the scales again. Graphically Divekick is exactly how you would imagine it, minimalistic, but effective in both characters and environments that reminds me in a way of, the old arcade games I cued up to play after school. For such a simplistic and cut down version of a genre, that has become far to complicated for old farts like me, Divekick was right up my street. It allowed me to enjoy a genre that I had become distant from, and I didn’t lose one battery doing so. The game delivers a surprisingly complex set of rules, wrapped up in a very uncomplicated way, I have enjoyed every match, both local and online, which by the way was lag free. Divekick also has a story mode, but let’s face it, story modes in these types of games just tend to be more fighting, with a little blurb thrown in for good measure. What it comes down to is this, Divekick, kicks ass, not in a spectacular visual way, but in it’s execution. Simple, joyous fun that won’t have you filling in holes in the wall on the weekends, or cursing your mother because the battery has rolled under the couch again.
