Divekick!

I wanted to do a playing to win blog about Divekick, the greatest fighting game of all time which was released yesterday. Unfortunately, this plan runs into two problems at the outset:

1) I don't know almost anything about fighting games (ironically, since the name Playing to Win is obviously a reference to David Sirlin's book).
2) The game was only released yesterday, and I am nowhere near good enough at it to tell you how to play to win.

Because that is the case, I'll do something like my older blogs, where I introduce you to a game I love and tell you why it's awesome. This was somewhat difficult with Pokemon Puzzle League and Kerbal Space Program, but with Divekick it should be easy simply because the game is so obviously great.

Background
Divekick's path to fighting game greatness, or more accurately, the fighting game genre's path to the greatness of Divekick.

I was not present for the birth of fighting games; the earliest fighting games were before my time. Like the Iliad and Odyssey, they came into existence in a dark and chaotic time in history, and like the Iliad and Odyssey, they reflect the forms and characteristics of that time. These games were born in the arcade era, when nerds went outside their homes to play video games, to some arcade which would allow them to play video games at a fee per game.

Every day I thank whatever deity or deities control this bizarre universe of ours that I did not grow up in that era, when a player's time spent on video games was limited by the amount of money I had, rather than by the number of hours in the day. When games were designed like slot machines, with flashing lights and loud noises designed to attract me and pull my money away. When a player was motivated not by the desire to win, but the desire NOT to lose and have to put in another quarter. It was a grim time for humanity, and I'm glad we are passed it. And yet, like the dark age of ancient Greece produced the great epics of Homer, or the Middle Ages in Europe gave rise to the great tales of Beowulf and King Arthur, or the American Wild West gave rise to countless cowboy westerns, this trying time gave rise to a new artistic form possessing charm and heroism. The fighting game, complete with massive arcade joysticks and buttons, continues and loud obnoxious announcers, was born.

Had the technology of the time been different, Geoffrey Chaucer's great
artistic achievement might instead have been Divekick.

This new type of combat was not a battle of strength. Some won on wits, others on reaction time, and still others on pure mind games. But the genre was still young and being discovered, and different franchises took different routes to create a fighting format with complexity and strategic interest. Tekken and Mortal Combat had big pools of moves available to each character, performed with various sequences of buttons (and, as a result, the games are the friendliest to button mashing of any games to date). Street Fighter used complex joystick movements to limit button mashing, and as such, just performing the commands is an achievement, let alone performing them with the precise spacing and timing necessary to win. Super Smash Bros. brought Nintendo IPs and platformer elements to make games that are supremely fun for casual players, but sometimes break down at high-level play. Marvel vs. Capcom used teams of characters and character assists to create one of the most dynamic, complex, and chaotic fighting spaces in a game to date.

But in all of this, something was lost. Everyone was looking for the new, flashy addition that would make their game better than the rest. Perhaps new focus moves which telegraph in advance, but can absorb hits and break a block? Or maybe more complex stages to create new spacing and high ground-low ground dynamics? Or perhaps more characters on screen at any given time to increase the permutations of characters that players could use? Different franchises added more and more nuances and complexities to try and gain an edge in the fighting game world – but many of these new mechanics began to obscure what the genre was REALLY about: strategic understanding, raw reaction times, and above all, getting in your opponent's head.

Enter Divekick. The game is controlled by exactly 2 buttons. No joystick. No complex button sequences to perform your ultra mega super move. There's no game mechanics to hide behind, just the basic fighting game elements of spacing, timing, and prediction. This is the heart and soul of fighting games, distilled and separated from all the fluff and frivolity of the modern genre.

+ Show Spoiler [A Disclaimer] +

For the sake of avoiding a war with fighting game fans, let me clarify that I don't actually think there's some massive syndrome of all modern fighting games being too complex. Super Street Fighter 4 is one of my favorite games to date, and while I don't follow the fighting game genre as much as some, I know that there's a lot of great games out there that demand respect. For that matter, I know that even in the old arcade days there were lots of complex game mechanics to create strategic diversity, and that's not necessarily bad. But I do think that it's wrong to equate complexity with depth, or simplicity with easiness. Divekick's premise is simple, but people really ought to wait until more than a couple days after its release to conclude that it lacks strategic complexity.

The Game

Divekick, as mentioned, is controlled with two buttons: dive and kick. While the details vary by character, the basics are as follows. While on the ground, the dive button causes you to jump vertically into the air. The kick button causes you to do a "kickback," or jump diagonally away from your opponent. While in the air, the kick button causes you to do a diagonal divekick down and forward towards your opponent. Each round lasts either 20 seconds, or until someone gets kicked (you only have one hit point each). If neither player kicks the other by the end of 20 seconds, the winner is the one closer to the center of the stage, as indicated by a vertical red line that appears when 5 seconds remain.

Every kick also builds some of your kick factor gauge at the bottom. Once it is full enough, you can press both dive and kick simultaneously to do a special move – each character has one special move while on the ground, and another while in the air. If you let your kick factor gauge fill all the way, you will enter kick factor mode, in which your character dives higher and kicks faster. This slowly drains your kick factor gauge.

If you kick your opponent in the head, you will achieve a headshot. This causes them to lose all their kick factor gauge in the next round, and they will start out the round dazed, so that their dives will be shorter and their kicks will be slower. The dazed effect will drain over the next few seconds, at which point they will return to normal with an empty kick factor gauge.

The Characters

The point of the section is not to give an exhaustive analysis of the lore of this game, nor is it to give a guide to playing each of the characters. I don't think I'd be qualified to write either of those. Instead, this is intended to give a taste of each of these characters to explain why they're awesome: a little lore, a little game mechanics, but plenty left to you to discover for yourself.

Dive

Dive and his brother, Kick, grew up in West Philadelphia until, after a playground brawl, they were sent to Bel Air to live with their Divekicking champion uncle, Uncle Sensei. He enthusiastically studies mathematics, shouting things like "Multiply!" when he is hit. His knowledge of vector calculus makes him one of the most formidable Divekickers in the circuit.

Dive is the Ryu of the Divekick universe, with the most standard moveset. His kickback begins at a steeper angle than his kick, meaning that a quick kickback -> kick will still take you closer to your opponent. His air special, with relatively low gauge cost, is called Terminal Velocity and stops him in midair, including in the middle of a kick. His ground special is called Parabolic Arc, and causes him to do a short hop forward.

Kung Pao
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She is the daughter of an evil Divekicking dictator named Theodore Khan. In practicing her Divekicking skills with her friends so she could overthrow her father, she accidentally opened a portal in reality and got trapped in our world. She is training to kick hard enough so she can open another portal and return home.

Kung Pao is also a fairly standard character. Her kick is a pretty shallow angle, giving her good range, but also making a whiffed kick quite punishable. Her air special and ground special form the entrance and exit points of portals (just like in Portal), which enable her to dive or kick through one and come out the other. She can kick the cracks she makes to move them around.

~~Redacted~~
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A clear reference to Wolverine, ~~Redacted~~ was a pregnant Skunk Bear who was exposed to radioactive gel to become large in size. She was attracted to Uncle Sensei's dojo by the smell of his expensive cigars, where she watched from the bushes and learned to become a fearsome divekicker.

~~Redacted~~ has a very steep kick and kickback, making it very difficult to retreat. The ground special is a crouch to avoid attacks. The air special is a Chun Li-style leap off the back screen.

Kick

Kick is a freestyle rapper and a ladies' man who grew up in West Philadelphia. His mother sent him and his brother Dive to live with their Divekicking champion uncle, Unlce Sensei, after a playground brawl. He neglects his diving practice in favor of chasing the ladies, but his kicking skills make him an intimidating divekicker.

Dive is my favorite character, with a somewhat steep kick and kickback that come out fast. He can repeatedly kickback -> kick to build meter. His ground special is Party Starter, which forces his opponent to jump. His air special is New Angle, a new technique he's been working on which moves much faster than his ordinary kick.

Mr. N

Mr. N is a shady character (based on real life fighting games/LoL player Marn) who ended Uncle Sensei's 10 year Divekicking champion streak by managing to get everyone disqualified. He also sabotaged Kenny in a Divekick match, resulting in his death. He fights to earn money to pay back his debt to mob boss Don Luo, who is employing Baz to hunt Mr. N down for him.

I hear Mr. N is a good character, although I can't quite figure out how to play him. His dive is really high, and his kick is fairly steep, making it tough to use the full height of his dive against players with more shallow kicks. His air special, Marneto, allows him to hover a bit, making his jump slightly less vulnerable. The ground special GTFO is a backwards dash (I think).

Dr. Shoals
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Dr. Shoals was studying a particular kind of foot fungus (Ped Urino) which seemed to appear only on the feet of divekickers when she discovered she had contracted the fungus herself – on her face! She wears a metal mask to prevent it from spreading, and is constantly taking notes in hope of finding a cure (I assume).

Shoals is a really powerful character if used right. She jumps crazy high, and her first kick is very shallow, giving her possibly the best range in the game. During her first kick she can kick again to transition into a steeper, faster kick, preventing the shallow kick from being quite as punishable as a lot of characters' shallow kicks are. This also means that if Shoals has headshotted you (and the second steep kick is at an angle where it's almost certain to) it's virtually impossible not to get headshotted again – she can just jump and kick, and then when you try to get under her she switches to the steeper kick. Her air special is a hover, from which she can move left and right using the dive and kick buttons. Her ground special is basically a more powerful kickback.

Uncle Sensei
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Uncle Sensei is a 10 time Divekicking champion whose reign was finally ended when Mr. N rigged the brackets and got everyone disqualified. His greatest weakness is his poor management of money, and he doesn't actually own the New Angle Dojo where he trains Dive and Kick. He fights to pay off his debts and figure out who keeps stealing his expensive cigars.

Uncle Sensei is a unique character because he has two different kicks which alternate. He has boots on his feet AND his hands, so when he stands on his hands he kicks at a steep angle, but when he stands on his feet he does a shallow angle, Superman-style ~~punch~~kick. His ground special causes him to leap higher in the air than a normal dive. His air special causes him to loudly announce "SWITCH!" and switch stances, enabling you to do, for instance, do repeated steep kicks without doing more vulnerable shallow kicks to switch your stance back.

The Baz
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Divekick began as a Kickstarter game, and though it reached its Kickstarter goal, the developers cancelled the Kickstarter when they found a publisher. Despite not actually receiving any money from the people who supported the Kickstarter, they still honored the Kickstarter benefits, including one high tier of support which enabled two people to design characters.

One character produced from this was Baz. Baz is a man with tight leather clothes and a whip who has failed in other fighting tournaments for weird reasons (e.g. "not having the right look"). Having been rejected by other major fighting tournaments, he's in the Divekick circuit as a last resort. To earn money on the side, he's working for mob boss Don Luo hunting down Mr. N.

Baz is a difficult character to play, although he's really good. When he dives in the air and then holds kick, his kick starts out at a vertical and then rotates until it can be fully horizontal, so the player can choose whatever kick angle they see fit. But he doesn't have a hitbox on his kick; his hitbox is the lightning that follows immediately behind him when he kicks. That means he can paint lightning across the stage and destroy you wherever you are, but in a head on kick vs. kick, he loses every time. His air special wraps his whip around a target, from which he does a semi-circular swinging kick (this kick does damage). His ground special summons lightning from the sky around him, causing the opponent to be KO'd if they try to kick him. His Kick Factor lasts for only three seconds, and has a similar effect to his ground special.

Markman
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Markman (a reference to Mark Julio of Mad Catz) has invented a device called a Kickbox (resembling a 2-buttoned fighting game controller) which he believes will enable anyone to improve their divekicking. He enters Divekick tournaments to convince people to buy his product.

Markman's dive isn't very high, but his kick is at a very shallow angle, giving him decent range. His ground special under ordinary circumstances is to spend a moment scavaging for items, at which point he either assembles a piece of a Kickbox, or tosses one of various items onto the stage (glue, an oil slick, a black hole, etc.). His air special during this time is Feint, which sends him flying backward from the air. Once he assembles the three pieces of a Kickbox, he is briefly in a mode where he can cancel his shallow divekick into an upkick and divekick again. The Kickbox is REALLY good.

Stream
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Stream is a stream monster. Apparently a strait-jacketed demon imprisoned in some Twitch chat prison, he breaks out to troll people in person. His campaign dialogue consists of him trolling various other characters into fits of rage.

Stream has to double-jump before he can kick. His kick is a yoga spear which can be tilted up or down by holding dive or kick after using it. The combination of these makes him a very powerful defensive character, although advancing on his opponent is a bit difficult. His ground special is "Spooby PLS," which causes his character model to "buffer" in place, granting brief invisibility. His air special "Flame Bait" throws a fire projectile on the ground, which catches fire. If his opponent stands in the fire they are forced to jump. If he stands in the fire his legs catch fire, greatly expanding the hitbox of his kick.

Jefailey
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The Alex Jebailey parody, Jefailey, is the organizer of the JEO divekicking tournament who decided to enter himself so he could win and feed his insatiable ego. With every round he wins, his head inflates, enabling him to jump higher but also making him much more vulnerable to headshots.

Jefailey does a weird dropkick that charges for up to five seconds. The uncharged one just leaps in the air and gets hardly any distance, but the charged one explodes across the screen. His air special is Disqualification, which shouts the words "DISQUALIFIED" across the stage as a projectile which, if you are hit, removes all your kick factor. His ground special Timer Scam freezes both players to take two seconds off the clock while he shows you a bobble head.

S-Kill
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S-Kill is based on fighting game player and commentator Seth Killian as well as on Street Fighter IV's boss Seth. His evil organization plans on rebalancing the world and selling it. He crosses his hands at all times in further homage to Seth Killian. He is the final boss of story mode, where he has perpetual kick factor.

S-Kill is a weird character, mostly because I haven't figured out where his teleports take him yet. His kick is fairly steep, but that doesn't do you much good without knowing where you're kicking from. He has three different teleports: one from his dive, one from his kickback, and one from his air special, which teleports him directly above his opponent. His ground special Parry blocks his upper body from kicks, and if the opponent attacks into this parry, he teleports directly above them for a certain kill.

Kenny

Kenny was the other character produced by the Kickstarter character creation tier. The pledger wished to commemorate his deceased brother in a video game, so Kenny was created. In-game, Kenny was in one of his first Divekicking matches when he was sabotaged with a poison by Mr. N, later resulting in his death. Kenny won 5 consecutive Divekicking tournaments in heaven to earn the chance to return to the land of the living and compete.

Kenny is sort of like a random character select – every round he copies some other character's dive, kick, kickback, and kick factor. He retains, however, his own special moves. Both air and ground fire a Spirit Bullet which will stun enemy characters for a second – the ground one flies straight, the air one is homing.

Closing Thoughts

If you ask people what fighting games are about, they'll answer a lot of things – fancy move combos, crazy block and parry reaction times, projectile traps – but they rarely answer with what's really the heart of fighting games' strategy: spacing, timing, and mind games. Whether you're new to the genre and want to know where to start, or if you're a seasoned fighting games fan who wants an interesting new take (with plenty of references to the competitive fighting scene), this is a great game. Because even for a seasoned player of fighting games, if you strip away all the modern conveniences of the genre – dashing, focus blocks, or even just joystick control of your character's movement – you get something entirely new.

Or to put it simply, I'm having fun with this game, and I can't imagine how you wouldn't, too.

Divekick!

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