The Fencer from Nidhogg

After over two years of ongoing support, fighting game parody and community in-joke Divekick has received its final update.

Dubbed Divekick Addition Edition Plus Final, the free update introduces The Fencer from the popular indie game Nidhogg.?? You can see the trailer in all of its sword-lobbing glory up top.

If you own Divekick, the upgrade to the Addition Edition Plus Final version should have already been applied to your? Xbox One, PC, PS3, PS4 and PS Vita copies. If you don’t already have it, the game is getting a permanent price slash of 50%, dropping it down to £3.99/$4.99.

It’s incredibly impressive that what is essentially a joke game is for a niche community has done well enough to warrant free update?s for two years. It’s kind of sad that this is the end ?of the line for the game.

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Death from above

People once thought they knew what they liked about fighting games -- big rosters, big?? violence, big complex combat systems. The more that a fighting game had, the more it was valued. This caused developers to pack more and more of those traits onto their fighters until they looked like pizzas with a foot of toppings packed on them. Toppings are great, but too much of a great thing can be overstimulating, numbing, and gross. This glut caused the populace at large to lose their taste for fighters for a while. 

Sadly, the "too many toppings" formula is already starting to take its toll again, with Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 and Street Fighter X Tekken both selling below expectation. When you've had so much of a great thing that you can't taste it any more, what you need is a palate cleanser, something like thin crust pizza. Divekick work?s to be that pizza, offering fewer ingredients?? overall, but blending them together in a way that tastes amazing.

Sprinkle a dash of salt on top, and ?you have the fig?hting game event of the summer.

Divekick! (PC, PlayStation 3, PS Vita [reviewed])
Developer: One True Game Studios
Publisher: Iron Galaxy
Released: August 20, 2013 (NA)
MSRP: $9.99 

On the surface, Divekick! is a parody-tribute to fighting game community culture. Just about every character is a goof on either a real life member of the fighting game community, or a character from another fighting game. The second the game boots up, you'll get a quick laugh, but only if you're aware of the strange mix of bravado and social awkwardness that is telltale trait of certain corners of the fighting game community (FGC). There's a lot of "inside baseball" humor here, but a lot of genuine love of fighting games as well. S-Kill, the character based on Seth Killian, even has Seth's signature flip-grip fighting posture. Divekick! was created by competitive fighting game expert Adam Heart, and ?it shows in ever??y frame.

Under the surface is a game that takes itself very seriously. If you were afraid that the idea of a fighter that's controlled with just two buttons was a joke that would get old quickly, then you clearly haven't played much Divekick!. Combos, traditional character movement, blocking, and even life meters are out of the equation, but that just leaves room for your mind to focus harder on strategy. Working the angles of your fighter's moveset to your advantage, as your opponent attempts to do the same, is a constant process. It almost feels like violent Tetris. You may only have five-or-so different kinds of pieces to w?ork with, but finding the best use for each piece at any given time?? is endlessly engaging.

For most characters, the "Dive" button causes you to launch straight up into the air, Vs Capcom-style. When pressed in the air, the "Kick" button sends you down-and-forward with a (you guessed it) kick attack. When pressed on the ground, "Kick" causes you to kick off the turf with a small backwards hop. Some characters can double-dive, double kick, or carry other variations to the formula, but regardless of the details, moving forward is a constant balance between risk and reward. The only way to get closer to your opponent is with a flying ki?ck, but that will also put you in harms way. Baiting, faking, and mid-air footsie are constants, and the tension is always turned up to the max, as it only takes one successful divekick to take out an opponent. 

Each character has an air and a ground special move that's activated by hitting both buttons. These moves range from the kind of stuff we take for granted in "normal" fighting games (crouching, forward jumps), to more traditional fare like projectiles, levitation, teleports, and auto-counters. These moves will cost you some meter, which you build by performing a (wait for it...) divekick. These specials c??an make or break a match, but they rarely do damage. The only way to win is to score a divekick, maintaining the game's single minded sense of purpose. 

It's not just?? about if you score a divekick, but also where you score a divekick. Landing a kick on an opponent's legs, arms or body will grant you an instant win, but headshots do damage that's more substantial. Take a blow to the skull and you'll start the next round dizzy, slowing the character down and limiting their ability to build meter. In a game about gaining air advantage and land the first (and last hit) as quickly as possible, a hit to your speed stat can make the difference between champ and chump.

You can increase your stats as well. Before each match you can select a gem that will slightly increase your jump height, movement, or both (at the cost of putting you one round away from losing). You also gain increased speed and jump height when you hit full meter. Certain characters, like Markman, Stream, and Jefailey, can change more than that mid fight. Jefailey's head grows every time he wins a match (increasing his hitbox, making him more vulnerable), Markman can assemble an in-game controller that allows him to perform the game's only shoryuken-style move, and Stream can light his own feet on fire. These little touches and tweaks might not have had much of an impact in your average fighting game, but in the minimalist design of Divekick!, they can make all the difference.

Beyond the main game, there are a few extra features to dress things up. Same console local combat is great on the Vita, with player one using the D-pad and player ??two using the buttons on?? the right side of the console. The game is a Cross Buy title too, so you can play it on the PS3 and PS Vita with one purchase of the game. 

Online play was nearly lag-free during my matches with both PS3 and PS Vita, but as of right now finding a match is taking a little longer than I'm accustomed to. Online features are pretty barebones at the moment. You have the option for r?anked or unranked matches, and that's it.

The art and animation is also relatively limited. I really like most of the characters designs, though quite a few of them are based on real people, which puts a slight damper on potential visual spectacle. It's all nothing that a little downloadable content couldn't fix though. I've already got my fingers crossed for Super Divekick!: Turbo Edition. 

Divekick! sits in pefect balance between the new wave of deconstructed fighting games like Nidhogg, and Samurai Gunn, and traditional fighters like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.

You will not lose in Divekick! because your opponent is better than you at dialing in big damage combos or successfully completing complex hand motions. You will not lose in Divekick! because you haven't learned a library list of character specific moves, or how to exploit the details of a highly variable combat system. If you lose in Divekick!, it's only because you didn't make the right decisions at the right time. It levels the playing field between people who love, hate, or are just plain intimidated by the genre like few other games have. If you've ever enjoyed flying kicks in any form, Divekick! is the game for you.

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Start your fanfics: Dive and Kick get Steamy

We already knew that the two-button fighting game Divekick was coming to PS3 and Vita next month. Now, thanks to a tweet from the official Divekick Twitter, we also know it will be launching on PC, throug??h Steam, on the same day and for the same price. That's August 20, $10.

Well, now that that's settled, what system are you picking up Divekick on? I might be leaning Sony thanks to cross buy letting me play on both PS??3 and Vita. Then ?I can practice my dives and kicks on the subway.

I'm just assuming a good chunk of you are planning on picking it up, because excitement for it seems high. I'm a believer myself. Playing it at GDC with the giant, two-button controller sold me in a handful of tense and taut rounds. The game is definitely more than parody and in-jokes, even if you can play as Seth Killian and a lot of other weirdos. I mean, like, a whole bunch.

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And it will also support cross-buy!

Divekick, the two-button fighting game, now has some solid details for its release. Dave Lang has announced on Twitter t??hat the game will release on August 20 for $10 on PS3 and Vita. Best of all, it will join the ever-growing library of games that will support cross-buy between the two systems. No word yet as?? to whether or not these same details will apply to the PC version, but I think the lack of a mention means it will release separately. 

I cannot wait for Divekick to be released. After getting my hands on it at PAX, I can say that I truly believe it to be the next milestone in fighting games. It's a game that manages to capture the essence and spirit of every fighting game and distill it down to two buttons, ensuring that anyone can grasp the concept and play. Considering that fighting games are notoriously horrendous in this category, I'd say Divekick has something special.

@JosephJBroni [Twitter]

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Play as the fighting pro

That's right! Seth Killian is a playable character in Divekick, the unique fighting game slated to hit the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and PC later this spring. S-Kill, as he's called in the game, is one of the harder characters t?o master as his jump is replaced with a teleporting move ?instead.

Seth and Adam Heart, the lead designer on Divekick, go way bac??k in the fighting game community, and Seth got to check out Divekick wh??en the initial concept was being created back in the day.

"He showed me a prototype of this game a long time ago," Seth told me. "I said 'Obviously this is silly, and you're having a good time with it, but I think you're really on to something here.' This is fun and it legitimately boils d??own a lot of what's awesome about fighting games.

Obviously ?Adam ke?pt at it and after the game got picked up by Iron Galaxy, Seth was asked if he'd be down to be a playable character. "How could I say no?" Seth told me, and the rest was in Iron Galaxy's hands.

"He's definitely one of the trickier characters in the game. He doesn't really jump, he just teleports to different locations around the screen, and then [can] perform the dive. He's got some tricky moves on the groun??d, he can parry and then follow that up with a kill. So that's pretty cool, but overall you sort of have to know where you're going ??cause the teleport is not instant. So you have to be pretty quick, but he can really bait opponents out well."

I have to say, it was a little surreal playing against Seth as a caricature of Seth. Seth himself was pretty happy with how S-Kill turned out, especia??lly as he had no input or say on the design. 

"I like him. Hopefully someone wins a tournament someday. You get a free hug for every Divekick tournament that you win with S-Kill."

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Enter The Baz

[Update: According to comment from Woolie Madden of the Two Best Friends series "Dave Lang and Adam ac?tually put him [The Baz] in the game because M??att and I asked for him as our 'create your own character' donation reward [on Kickstarter]. They honored all supporters after the campaign was cancelled. So we created him, they put him in". So that's the scoop on how The Baz got into Divekick. Thanks, Woolie!]

Once again, Adam "Keits" Heart and the team at Iron Galaxy have managed to put a new spin on simple idea. The Baz is the latest entrant to the roster of Divekick, the two-button fighting game about diving, kicking, and not much else. The Baz makes a name for himself with an indirect approach to combat. His primary attack causes him to leaves a trail of lightning behind him after diving horizontally across the screen. It's the lightning, not The Baz's mighty feet, which fell his foes. Pair that with his whip-aided, Spider-??Man-style swing, and you have a truly special man indeed.

It seems that The Baz is Iron Galaxy's riff on Zubaz, a rejected character design from Street Fighter II. I applaud the Divekick team for picking up where Capcom left off, and hope that this is just the start of many revived Street Fighter design rejects. Brazillio must rise again. 

L??atest Divek?ick Character Revealed is “The Baz” [Gameranx]

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Evo competitor and creator of Divekick! tells all

Last week's Sup Holmes (now on iTunes) had multiple tiers. Adam "Keits" Heart (creator of Divekick!) has been a champion level fighting game player for years, though as I got to know him, it felt more like mastering fighters was just an outward expression of his underlying love of the science of design. It seems that he loves taking systems apart and discovering how to optimize them for the purpose of capturing the he??arts and minds of the people. That's what he does when beating up pals in the virtual fight club, and that's what he does in game design. 

We hit a lot of points on the way to that conclusion, like the factors that helped Street Fighter IV to bring 2D fighters back to the forefront, why the genre is starting to die out yet again, what the FGC is really all about, the joys and perils of making a two button fighting game, new Divekick! features like "Choke Detection", and a lot more. My favorite moment was was probably when we came up with a new metaphor for fighting games to replace the old "chess" comp?arison. I can't remember what it was, but I'm sure it was genius.

Thanks again to Keits for joining us on the show. If you want to see more of him and Divekick!, check out Iron Galaxy's weekly live stream where he'll be revealing new fighters (like the recently unleashed stance character Uncle Sensei) and other fun stuff. As for this old show, we'll be welcoming Tomm Hulett (Persona, Contra, Silent Hill) to the program this Sunday at 1p?m PST/4pm EST. It's going to be pretty darn good.

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Dive and kick this spring

Iron Galaxy Studios and Shoryuken.com editor-in-chief Adam Heart have been hard at work getting Divekick together for a formal release. It appears as if an agreement has been made, and the game is getting a full release on the PS3, PC, and PlayStation Vi??ta later this spring.

This version will contain online support, a full campaign, and other features. For those of you who haven't heard of Divekick before, it was initially a Kickstarter-fueled fighter that turned to publisher ?support, and it uses two buttons.

After first being dismissed as a simple parody, people actually started to take a liking to the game, and there's a decent hardcore scene around it. As someone who's been interested since the beginning, I can't wait?? to see how thi??s pans out!

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