Evo 2013: Divekick

While I was at Evo 2013, I had the chance to play a title called Divekick, and it quickly jumped to the top of my most anticipated list for this year.

Divekick is a two button, one hit kill game in the style of a 2D fighter, with thirteen playable characters, and an astounding amount of depth. Each character has two specials, activated by simultaneously pressing both buttons, one in the air, and one on the ground. All specials require meter to use, which is gained by kicking. When your meter is full, you enter Kick-Factor, a parody of X-Factor from Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, which increases your speed and jump height, and has other effects on certain characters as well. There are 4 gems to choose from, one increasing your jump height by 10%, one increasing your kick speed by 10%, one increasing your meter gain by 10%, and the last increasing all of your stats by 30%, but giving your opponent 4 of the 5 rounds required to win. When time runs out on a given round, the victor is whoever is closest to the center of the stage. It's actually really cool, because with around 4 seconds left, it shows up on the screen as a big red line, and because it's a one-hit kill game, you can't use remaining health, so it becomes more about who held their ground/advanced better. It makes sense for the style of the game.

I had been skeptical at first, but after playing it, it was hard to deny how much fun the game was, and the technical complexities buried under the simplistic seeming system. It has an incredibly low barrier to entry, both in terms of learning curve, and manual exection. Divekick is one of those games you can bust out with a few friends over for drinks, and quickly leave you wondering where the night went, without it ever getting stale.

On the second day of Evo, there was a tournament for Divekick, streamed by Iron Galaxy. I've included a portion of the pools video below so that you can get an idea of how the game actually plays. I had the (mis)fortune of having all my losers bracket matches streamed; jump to 53:15 in the video to watch my Jefailey attempt to get out of pools.

Divekick releases August 20th for $9.99 for PS3 and Vita, and has yet to be greenlit on Steam. You can vote for it here. I'll see you all online, and I'll keep working on that Jefailey.

- Michael "Tsaikotyk" Kelly