Divekick Review

In an effort to attract new players, recent fighting games have tended to reduce barriers to entry with easier controls and inputs. But how simple can a fighting game really be? That’s the question in Divekick, One True Game Studios’ loving roast to the fighting community.

Originally released in 2013, Divekick is a 2D fighting game that forgoes the traditional six button layout introduced by Street Fighter in favor of two buttons: dive and kick. With no combos, counters, or quarter circles, Divekick’s ridiculously minimal approach to the 2D fighting genre results in a game that’s easily accessible to casual fans, yet offers a level of depth that will satisfy any fighting game veteran.

Game

Divekick’s gameplay may seem simple at first glance, but make no mistake, Divekick is a fighting game through and through, with the same level of depth and strategy that the genre is known for. Each character has a health bar at the top of the screen, but that’s just to show how a kick will kill.

Scoring a kick will win you one round and the first one to win five rounds wins. The two buttons, dip and kick, offer more control than you might think. The dive button causes the character to jump high into the air and pressing the kick button while in flight causes the character to return to a corner with his signature divekick. Pressing “kick” on the ground does not perform a traditional kick like other fighting games, but rather a kickback: a short jump backwards.

Each character has different properties for the dive and kick, changing the speed and height of the dive or the angle of the divekick. It all adds up to a tense one-on-one showdown where a hasty press of a button can lead to a swoop kick in the face. Add a special indicator activated by pressing both buttons together and a world of options will open with each character having their own special moves.

To master the art of diving and kicking, you need to know the opponent’s reach, his skills, his habits, predict his next move, get them to make a mistake, control space, manage the meter … and hey, what do you know, sounds like a real fighting game to me. Of course, with just two buttons casual players can come in and have fun without the need for a solid foundation, but button mashing doesn’t always work against seasoned fighting players, which is exactly why this game really is.