Do you know Kung Fu? If you don’t, this game isn’t going to help you much with that… but it’ll be nice to pretend. One Finger Death Punch 2 is a rapid-paced 2D stick figure brawler with a Kung Fu film aesthetic. It utilizes all of two buttons, and is more a test of speed and coordination than anything else.
The 20-minute demo offered up over 15 levels of new techniques and weapons, but the full game contains over 400. The play is simple enough: when enemies enter the screen from either side and reach a specific zone, you push the correct button for your character to execute an attack. The faster they come, the more precise you’ll need to be, because button-mashing will ensure your gaming experience ends rather quickly. If you attack when the enemies are not in the required zone, you’ll be given a “miss” in your scoring. Misses reduce your round score, and more often than not means you’ll be the one punched in the face instead of the enemy.
The tutorial demo introduced multiple enemy types and attacks. Some enemies require multiple hits, some are able to dodge, and some throw weapons at you. You’re also able to make customizations to your skillset—upgrade weapons, gain special abilities to neutralize certain attacks—that will enhance the play experience.
That said, while it’s an entertaining product for a short time, it is essentially a flash game on a big screen. Since it’s played solo and the stages are more or less the same with slight modifications made to how the attacks play out, you’re still only pushing two buttons… you’re still playing on one screen, by yourself, for 400 levels. It’s entirely possible that the mechanics will change in a significant way over the course of those hundreds of levels—and we’re honestly hoping so—because after our demo is was difficult to get a sense of how interest and excitement in gameplay could be sustained for 50 or 100 levels, let alone 400.
The full version of the game will launch on Steam on April 15th, with the Switch version coming later this year.
