One Finger Death Punch Review AND GIVEAWAY - FINALLY, True Kung-Fu!

There are two things you should know before you go any further with reading this review. One - I'm NOT going to do this game justice. It's simply not possible. Even after letting the game stew with me for a week or two, this game has become one of my favorite games of all time. Two - There's not much point in reading it, you should just go buy the game now, and then vote it up on Steam. It's as simple as that. It will be the best dollar you've ever spent on your 360 (or $2 on PC). And don't you DARE say "well, they're stick figures, so..." because the animations, destruction and absolute anarchy are perfect; in fact, because of the complexity of the enemies, there's no way this game would have worked with anything but stick figures!

Don't even look at these screenshots, they can't possibly do the game justice either!

One Finger Death Punch does what no other game I've ever played does - it turns the perfectly executed Kung-Fu fights from TV and movies into an actual game. Great Kung Fu seems more like dancing with fists and weapons than simple fighting, and that's exactly what OFDP does - it turns your attacks into a smooth, perfect flow of movement and power. You use only two buttons - X and B on the 360 (the version I played) - to attack either direction of where you're standing. What's absolutely amazing about that, though, is that even after 8-10 hours of play it doesn't get old or feel any less awesome. Have you ever played a game and been completely in the zone, perfectly completing something and feeling like the best gamer ever in doing so? One Finger Death Punch is that feeling EVERY second you play! I seriously can't stress that enough, even when I lost (and trust me, that happened plenty, especially when on the Master difficulty level) I ALWAYS felt like that. Heck, I played it in the morning and didn't even need a Monster for caffeine, I was wide awake and even hyper! And I am not a morning person! [Edit: I'm posting this a week and a half or so after initially playing it, and I still play it most mornings!]

Okay, now for the hardest thing I've had to do since starting this blog - trying to actually explain to you why and how this game is so absolutely amazing. Imagine Guitar Hero, but with fighting, and where you use a lot of strategy with your rhythm, and you have seemingly countless levels to go through before winning, and you have to balance special skills that you earn from extra-difficult levels. And where you can use a Jedi guitar. Sure, it's a "Light Sword", we all know what that means. Wink wink, nudge nudge.

That's right, it's a Light Sword duel. Didn't see that coming, did you?

Levels are typically "beat x enemies" with varying amounts of health, but there are lots of extra types as well. Some have you using the Light Sword (or the somehow-even-cooler Nunchaku rounds that are basically like being a Jedi Michelangelo from TMNT. That's worth a dollar alone, isn't it?), some others have you defeating a horde within an insanely small amount of time. Then there are crazy ones like the Defender rounds where you use a sword to deflect incoming knives, or the Knife or Bomb rounds where you throw, well, knives or bombs at incoming enemies. Retro Film and Thunderstorm rounds mess with the visuals, giving it a sepia tone or making it extra dark so that it's hard to see what you're fighting exactly, and Smash rounds make you destroy the environment with baddies. Finally, Boss rounds are brutal one-on-one (and eventually more than just one) fights to the death.

And it's not even the types of rounds... There are all sorts of enemies too - basic enemies take just one hit, others take up to four, but what makes them extra crazy is when they swap sides on you. Certain enemies, for example, will come from the right and then flip to the left before coming back to the right. You can see under each enemy how they'll attack, but when you have 10 of them surrounding you and projectiles coming at you it's easy to get a little overwhelmed in a good way. There are also brawlers, who are basically the badass fighters who can actually keep up with you. On 360, a typical brawler may require, say, XXXXBBBBXXBBBXX to defeat. These symbols come down just like Guitar Hero, and you fight them one-on-one until they're defeated. You pick up weapons and use them to fight from a further distance, can throw them, clear an entire screen and do all kinds of other stuff, but you're still only using two buttons!

Skills carry over from each play through and also go into the Survival rounds when you play them.

Oh, and it doesn't hurt anything that this game has the coolest Survival Mode in a game I've ever seen. Survival lets you fight forever, sure, but it also mixes in the Light Sword and Nunchaku rounds over time where you can gain some health back if your fingers and brain can process the insanity.

Yes, I was given an XBLIG code to review this game, but I certainly wasn't bribed and don't get commission or anything, so please believe me when I say that you NEED to buy this game! If you have any faith in me as a reviewer, go do it immediately, you'll thank me later for sure. Then go vote for it on Steam, it absolutely deserves it!

The Giveaway is Now Over

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was granted a review copy of this game.

Available for: 360 (reviewed), PC

Website: http://www.silverdollargames.com/ofdp.html

Price (at time of writing): $1 for 360, $2 for PC

Developed by: Silver Dollar Games