EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/hLLHTiw.jpg)
I'm surprised no one made a thread for this when I woke up. So here I go. Divekick is an Indie Fighting game with quite a few quirks and gimmicks. Divekick only utilizes two buttons, dive and kick. And to add to the ridiculousness of it, every attack is a one hit kill. Divekick has 13 characters, but each of them are very unique. While there are some standard characters, some characters have hilarious special abilities. For example, the character Jefailey (reference to Alex Jebailey) has his head inflate every match win. This becomes a double edged sword because his hitbox becomes huge, but it lessens the force of gravity too! This game also has tons of references to and parodies of fighting games (Street Fighter, Tekken, & Marvel) and eSports. And to top it all off, the game is only $9.99 on Steam or PSN.
Links
Divekick.com
Divekick on Steam
Divekick on Wikipedia
GiantBomb's Divekick Article*
*Giantbomb's Article is a great overview of the game with all of the characters, references/parodies, and an overview of gameplay. I'll be quoting it a lot.
Gameplay
Controls
Divekick is played by using only two buttons: Dive and Kick. The only way to strike your opponent is to divekick into them, which will instantly K.O. if it connects. Movement is handled by using the trajectory of your jump, the descent of your divekicks, and hopping backwards (known as "kickbacks"). This in conjunction with the fact there is no way to block or duck in the game makes the positioning of your character and the anticipation of the opponent's character paramount.
-GiantBomb
-GiantBomb
You can also divekick off of the small air time you get from a Kickback. This is useful to counter overly aggressive opponents, and faster characters can punish very effectively doing this.
Match Conditions
Matches are first to five rounds, with each round lasting 20 seconds. If there is no winner at the end of the round, the winner is judged to be the player who is closest to the middle of the screen, as indicated by a red line that appears during the final 5 seconds. Only if the players distance to the line is equal will a drawn round occur (in the form of a giant foot stomping on both players). Double knock outs are not beneficial in Divekick as neither players are awarded a round.
-GiantBomb
-GiantBomb
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/2w8qjy6.png)
What happens when the game is a draw from the timer ticking down
Kick Factor Gauge
Any divekick will increase your Kick Factor gauge. You can either partially fill the gauge to use a special move or full fill the gauge to activate Kick Factor which dramatically increases your speed for a limited time. If you're KO'd or Draw, you'll lose your Kick Factor next round, but if you lose by the timer, you'll keep it.
Each character has one ground move and one air move each, activated by pressing dive and kick at the same time. They cost varying amounts of Kick Factor meter, prolonging Kick Factor activation. Special moves can be used during Kick Factor but will shorten the amount of time that Kick Factor is activated for, as Kick Factor drains the gauge by nature.
-GiantBomb
-GiantBomb
Headshots
If you get kicked in the head, you'll be concussed for a few seconds next round. It drains all of your Kick Factor Gauge, prevents charging of it, and drastically reduces speed and jump height. If you get multiple headshots in a row, the announcer will reference Unreal Tournament (Double Kill, Triple Kill, ect.).
Gems
After you select your character, you can select a gem. There are 4 gems. The three standard ones are Dive, Kick, and Style. Dive increases your max jump height, Kick increases your Kick speed, and Style increases your Kick Factor Gauge gain. Then you have the YOLO gem (yes, it's actually called that), where you get the bonuses from the other 3 gems, but your enemy starts off 4 rounds ahead. So while you'll be significantly advantaged versus the enemy, he'll only need to win one time to win the match.
Characters
I haven't played the game enough to add my own insight on each character, so I'll just link you to the GiantBomb article that I've been quoting. Otherwise, I'd literally be quoting them word for word for each character.
http://www.giantbomb.com/divekick/3030-38394/
Videos
If you find any good videos, feel free to post them!
DiveKick - Dang vs. Daigo Umehara - Unveiled 2013 day 4
+ Show Spoiler +
DiveKick Final - Tokido vs. Mago - Unveiled 2013 day 4
+ Show Spoiler +
Divekick Top 8 Norcal Regionals 2013
+ Show Spoiler +
*I have the video set at the final match.
Multiplayer
There is an online game search in place. (Not sure if it's an actual matchmaking or just a match finder) You can also set up private lobbies to play with your friends, although there is no multi-person lobby available yet. Something that is amazing is that you can easily use this game as a "party game." There is an option for versus, and since there is only two buttons for controls, you can easily 1v1 your friends with only using one keyboard! Just set one set of buttons to the left side and the other set to the right side (arrow keys or numpad), and you instantly have a fun game on your PC to play with friends without the need for extra controllers and most importantly, no extra PC.
Closing
So even though this game seems like a joke, it's pretty amazing and actually strategic. You can play this game with an aim to improve competitively, or you can play this game for fun with friends. Either way, it's really fun. Considering its cheap price and how easy it is to get into, I definitely recommend this game. And you need absolutely zero experience with fighting games as there is no combos or difficult inputs, just positioning and strategy
