DSiWare Review: Mighty Flip Champs
When I think about the game Mighty Flip Champs, a few words come to mind. These words are simple, unique, and frustratingly fun. This is my first DSiWare review, and this is a game that deserves to be reviewed not only because of all of the reasons listed above, but for the fact this is the first title for this service that really showcases what handheld downloadable games are capable of.
Developer: Wayforward
Publisher: Wayforward Technologies
Genre: Action, Puzzles
Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 800 DSi Points ($8.00)
# of Players: 1
You are Alta, a tiny 8-bit sprite wizard, who uses a wand to flip through each page of a variety of different mazes. Your goal is to make it to a frog like creature, on one section of the map, as fast as you possibly can to earn the best ranking possible. Sometimes you will have to collect certain items, hit a switch, maybe break a block or two, or constantly flip through screens to land in certain areas, all before you can go to the frog and advance to the next stage. The game is split into numbered worlds, each with around 8 stages or so in them, with a set amount of screens in each area. I’m in world 4, stage 2, and I have been playing the game for at least five hours or so, so this is not something that you could breeze through in one day, trust me on that.
Controls are simple and easy to use, and are not frustrating at all. You move your character left and right with the directional pad, use the up and down buttons to move up and down things like ladders, wired fence areas, steps, etc. All of the face buttons on the right side of your DSi will make your character raise its wand, and flip the screen over to the other side, and that is about it. All of these controls work out just fine, but the addition of a jump button would have definitely made some of the puzzles a lot easier to solve. Also, mapping the switching controls to all of the face button can cause some unwanted deaths by flipping the screen when you do not want to, but for what this game is trying to do, the controls work out just fine.
The music is great, with a variety of 8-bit melodies that will either tense you up in certain situations, or calm you down in others. When your character dies, she spirals off the screen to a theme that sounds a lot like Mario brothers when you die, which adds a nice nostalgia factor to those reminiscent of the old 8-bit days. The flipping sound when the screen changes to the other is great, and makes a loud thud type of noise when you switch the bottom screen to the top, which sometimes scared the crap out of me. The noise that is made when the main character raises their wand is a swooshing kind of noise that sounds simply awesome. The music and sound design in this game is simply fantastic.
This games uses an old school 8-bit design reminiscent of the NES days, and it works out quite well. No high polycount here ladies and gentlemen, so stop the complaining, because not a lot of graphical power is needed to make a game like this look great. You will walk around in places like dungeons, Egyptian pyramids, robotic factories, temples, etc., and all they consist of is a few plain blocks and background, represented in a variety of colors, with some decent images used in the background to represent the theme of each level. The characters will range from frogs, to bunnies, to cats, and so on. Each of these, along with the main character, are represented in the way that they should be, and that is in a basic style, with more emphasis on color and art style, than on polygon count.
Mighty Flip Champs is a fun game to play, but not a game in which you should try to rush it to the end of a level, just because you want to finish it in the fastest time possible. This is more about paying attention to what is going on in both of the screens of your DSi in each level, and figuring out the best way to navigate through it, and then trying for the best time. Honestly, some levels took me almost 20 minutes or more to complete because I kept landing in the wrong area, I did not collect the right items, hit the right switch, etc. If you are not into challenging games, or are easily frustrated, then you will not have any fun at all. For me however, I like a good challenge every once in awhile, and I am a fan of unique puzzle games, so Mighty Flip Champs was right up my alley.
There is some replay value here, but not too much. Each level you complete has a ranking system, D through S, according to how fast you complete the level. There is also a Flip counter on the right of the screen, which will count how many times you flip through the different screens (numbered on the left side of the screen). Showing off your best scores to your buddies locally is nice, but an online time attack mode, or leaderboard functionality would have been nice to have, so that you could compete for high scores with people from around the world instead of just people sitting next to you in your living room. Still, you will challenge yourself for the best score time and time again throughout each level, especially if you are the completist type. There is replay value here, but there needs to be more if a sequel of this game gets made, so that it could really show its potential to the world.
Mighty Flip Champs is a DSiWare title that is worth your money if you are willing to put the time and effort into. The old school graphics style, mixed with a challenging twist on the puzzle genre, makes it a winner in my book and it is definitely worth checking out. (A)
- Matt H
For the cost of this product, you get your moneys worth. I bought it mainly for movie watching but found out that its also great for video games.