One Finger Death Punch Xbox 360 Review

Publisher: Silver Dollar Games  Developer: Silver Dollar Games  

Genre: Fighting, Rhythm, Action  Age Rating: 12+  Other console/handheld formats: N/A

Some games make you feel really cool and as if you have godly gaming powers in your fingers. I’m not merely talking about having to be a Street Fighter pro or anything like that, as the most simple of games can make you feel like a master that others should look up to. One Finger Death Punch is one of these games.

Yes, as games go, One Finger Death Punch is very simple to play. With a faceless stickman representing your fearsome fighter, the game allows you to be absolutely anyone you want to be. Without the screeches, it may be difficult to imagine the stickman as the legendary Bruce Lee, although Jackie Chan and Jet Li are always options. You’ll certainly look just as godly as these big screen martial arts stars do in motion, and precise and quick fingers is all that the game asks of you to achieve this.

You’ll know as soon as you boot up the game that this is one that is extremely simple to play. A Chinese accented voice tells you that the game only uses two buttons and that button mashing won’t get you anywhere, and this is no lie either. As each fight begins, your fighter stands in the middle of the screen, with enemy fighters soon pouring in from both sides, and, when each enemy enters the attack zone, you simply press the button that corresponds to the side they’re coming from, with enemies being colour coordinated, and new ones being introduced as you progress. If you button mash, you’ll miss your enemies, of which will result in a worse grade at the end of the fight, and as developer Silver Dollar Games obviously wanted the player to look as cool as Neo from The Matrix, it would be rude to not try your best to aim for the platinum medals.

The game is ultra responsive, too, with button presses resulting in instant attacks. Additional challenge comes in the form of enemies who shift from one side of the screen to the other multiple times, which obviously means you are required to make use of both attack buttons to defeat them. When the game is in motion, and enemies are mobbing you from both sides like a legion of unwanted fans, and you are striking them down with your furious button presses, you’ll feel like the best fighter the world has ever seen.

Add in weapons, and One Finger Death Punch proves to be the ultimate game for the ultimate show off. There’s swords, staffs, axes, brushes, as well as bombs, daggers and bow and arrows which can find their ways into your hands during one of the many scuffles in the game, and some of which give you extra attack range. All of these are so satisfying to use, but the Death Ball is extra satisfying, as you can hit it in any direction, with it killing any enemy in a single blow, and through precise button presses you can continue to volley it in whatever direction you choose, which causes plenty of death and mayhem.

One Finger Death Punch also has a skills system, in which you can equip up to three perks to take into each fight with you. The 21 skills include everything from turning every single enemy gray (all gray enemies only take a single hit to vanquish) for 10 seconds, another allows you to use certain weapons for longer, and another example results in a powerful attack that takes out every single enemy currently on the screen. Skills are unlocked after winning specific fights, and you are able to switch any of the ones around that you have unlocked, with some obviously being more suitable for helping you out in certain fights.

Speaking of fights, the game has various modes. Along with the Mob fights, which have you taking on a horde of enemies, there’s other rounds that have you facing enemies with a particular weapon, and others which alter all the enemies to a single colour, leaving you to keep an eye on the gauges underneath them to determine their movement patterns. Despite the games’ boast of 13 different modes, a lot of these are similar, which can make things feel a little repetitive over time, although one can hardly complain too much given its small asking price.

The game has some wonderfully aggressive animations as well as basic but eye catching visuals. There’s some rather comical animations, with portions of heads being sliced off, as well as eyeballs and hearts being removed from enemy bodies, and hits which result in an x-ray view of the bodies of your foes.

The game has over 250 levels set across a gigantic map, three difficulty levels as well as a survival mode. For 89p you definitely get a lot of content for paying so little. With its smooth, simple and responsive controls, as well as its fast and fluid action, One Finger Death Punch is definitely one of the highlights of the Xbox Live Indie Games service. What’s more is that it’s a game that makes you feel like a god if you can manage to find a perfect rhythm, but it’s also a game that does feel slightly repetitive from time to time, so is perhaps best enjoyed in shorter but very satisfying bursts.

8/10