Quickie Reviews is a super quick run down of a game I don’t have time to dedicate a full review to. That doesn’t mean I won’t come back to it later and drop a full ramble. Basically, if you want a review but don’t want to read 20 paragraphs, then these are for you!
The Switch is no stranger to Fighting Games. Practically every great fighting game of our generation has made its way into our grubby mitts. Let’s not forget that the Switch is also home to the best selling Fighting Game of all time – Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. With the rise of the fighter, an equal amount of usurpers crawl up from the abyss to swipe the crown. How does Qubic’s One Strike stand up to the competition?
One Strike is a stoic representative of the ever popular ‘less is more’ party. One Strike, as the title would imply, is a one-hit kill brawler. To keep things simple, One Strike has refined it’s control scheme to only include three buttons – block, dodge and STRIKE!. Battles are lightning fast affairs thanks to the insta-gib nature of the combat, but are also incredibly tense ‘footsie’ duels. Feigning, misdirecting and slaying your enemy all happens within around 10 seconds, and it is glorious.
Keeping in theme, One Strike has an incredibly simplistic, but appealing pixel art styling. Characters have just enough detail to be recognisable, backgrounds are muted, but fit the grim nature of the combat and the animations are silky smooth allowing for split second reactions. It is complemented by a great soundtrack and some meaty sound effects that help sell the tension the game is injecting into your bloodstream. There are few things quite as satisfying as hearing a chain of blocks in quick succession.
One Strike is a budget title, coming it at under a fiver. Naturally concessions had to be made to accommodate this price tag. This is in the form of a seriously limited character pool. You have half a dozen or so fighters to choose from, none of which have a scrap of background, leaving you with empty shells with swords. In addition, there are not many stages making battles blur together and diminish the effectiveness of it’s minimalist style. Finally, and most disappointingly, there is no online multiplayer.
What helps save One Strike from falling to obscurity is its brilliant local multiplayer. Anyone can pick this up, learn the super simple controls and have a blast. All that ‘footsie’ is made even better when you throw in psychological warfare and banter. If you have a few mates over for a brewski and a gaming sesh, One Strike is a worthy addition to your line up.
One Strike is one of the best games to come out of Qubic. A bit more content could have elevated this to true greatness, but as it stands, this is still a mighty fine fighter. Let me know in the comments below if One Strike is popular amongst your gaming group!
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