14 DAY TRIAL // 
Fighting video games, even if they're quite popular all around the world, are notoriously hard to get into especially for those who didn't catch the old days of going to arcades, memorizing different attack patterns, and spending a lot of time learning the different tricks of various characters.
Divekick wants to subvert this trend of complexity and features just two moves, a jump and a divekick, requiring just two buttons during actual matches.
With such a simplified mechanic and with the promise of parodying lots of fighting game stereotypes, the developers at One True Game Studios are looking set to subvert the whole genre.
Do they achieve their goal or should Divekick be an example of simplification taken to the extreme? Let's find out.
Fighting games drew me in back in the 1990s when I used to go to arcades and spend lots of money on Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, or Tekken. In recent years, however, I felt a little uneasy when picking up newer versions of those franchises, as developers crammed in all sorts of complex things, from different gauges and meters, to outlandish over-the-top moves that required elaborated button combinations.
As such, I was cautiously optimistic about Divekick, a game with a simple premise and no-nonsense mechanics. You have just two buttons to press, one for a jump and one for a kick. That's it, no moving forward or backwards, no holding a guard, no nothing.
Movement is handled by the two buttons, as jumping and kicking propels you forward, into the direction of the other player, while just pressing kick takes you backwards, as long as the screen edge allows it.
In practice, the simplified fighting mechanic is pretty decent, allowing for simple matches to take place both as part of the single-player story, that sees various plots involve the different characters, but also in the Versus mode or the Online one.
While fighters have a health gauge, one hit depletes it so it's basically a race to see who hits the other first. Sadly, while the collision detection works well enough when in certain matches, other times it behaves erratically and there are many situations where a correct hit isn't acknowledged by the game.
This gets a bit worse when talking about characters with extra powers, such as The Baz, who shoots lightning after a kick, or S-Kill, who can teleport around the match, as they all suffer from missed hits or random behavior despite pressing the correct buttons.
While you can only execute divekicks in the game, each character has a set of two powers that can be deployed once a meter fills up to the corresponding mark. If the meter fills completely, then the characters enters a Kick Factor mode that gives him more speed and better kicking.
There's also a gem system, similar to Street Fighter X Tekken, which awards players different bonuses to their jumps, kicks, or meters.
Divekick also makes fun of many fighting game tropes, not just in terms of other titles or franchises but also in terms of the community, parodying its major members, from players, to executives or developers. While some jokes will most certainly be understood by regular players, those who aren't that familiar with the genre will just write them off as a lackluster attempt at comedy.
One of the big downsides of the game is the visual style, as it looks like a cheap game made in Flash with faded colors, questionable character design, and lackluster environments that, while varied, aren't that lively or animated.
The soundtrack is also a bit disappointing and you'll quickly get tired of the announcer's voice, as well as of his attempt at an Asian pronunciation of English words. The different cries of defeat of the characters are quite funny in some cases, but they also repeat themselves rather often.
Conclusion
Divekick impresses through its attempt at delivering simple mechanics but its execution isn't the best, as inconsistencies in terms of hit detection and erratic mechanics like the teleport one decrease the amount of fun you can have with it.
Fighting fans will certainly take pleasure in the different riffs and jokes in the game, but even they might scratch their heads at some of the more outlandish references or the bland graphics.
