The debut game by Fire Foot Studios, Kick’n Hell, is tongue in cheek what it’s all about. Players control a no name monk with a decent right push kick. The goal is to bounce off glowy brains onto various platforming challenges until you get to Satan. Let’s review how that went.
From the jump, players have all the signs to see what they have to do. The visuals are simple but polished, with options to toggle pixel blur on or off. Naturally, I went no pixels. The challenge is unique. Kick’n Hell commits to the central mechanic of kicking to ascend, and it pays off. The kick-to-launch mechanic is insanely accurate. No two kicks are the same. Never truly knowing where I’m going to go, or how much maneuvering I’ll have to input. I thought about Anger Foot while playing this, but there kicking and shooting mechanics in that game. This is purely kicking. Kick’n Hell is a fine example of easy to pick up and hard to master.
The small pool of painfully hard games can make one think. Am I good at video games? A lot can go into what defines someone’s experience with a game. How they’re feeling, the condition of their hardware, and whether the game runs as it should are all significant factors. There comes a point in challenging video games that push the uncaring out, and draw out the committed.
I certainly began facing that in Kick’n Hell. It’s the kind of game very similar to Getting Over It With Bennet Foddy. Suffering for suffering’s sake. It doesn’t want to be a friend. Checkpoints exist only in Apprentice mode, one of the game’s two difficulties. But there are no hidden mechanics to help lock on to the brains, or slow-motion tricks. Players achieve success strictly on their own skill.
Players can kick anything, but few things will interact like NPC’s and enemies. Players can get air from enemies, and they respawn if kicked off the map. NPC’s have arbitrary and filler dialogue so don’t worry about missing any lore or development. The same goes with Satan and his taunting. Hidden in the game are eight Chi orbs found by jumping to every nook and cranny. They don’t offer any upgrades or benefits.
The music goes along with the game. Short spurts of organs, or a choir of hums. IT doesn’t feel out of place, and doesn’t stick around long enough to feel overdone. Some of the sound effects like crunchy kick noises are great, but the static snake noises and monster screams are not so great. Together it forms a solid space to lock in.
For me, the tip of the toe came in the Burning Desert. It’s the level right after the beginning, and the first place combo kicking is mandatory. The location is where I began trying to think outside the box. But I was met with disappointment. Kick’n Hell will let you get away with standing on a chain, or a tiny corner of a tower sometimes. But most of them time, there’s nothing to help. Players must do what the developers want, and get better at it.
Kick’n Hell is a wildly simple game that focuses on gameplay only. The game has a finish rate of 2-5 hours, and the in-game leaderboards are already stacked with absurd speedrun times. Kick’n Hell doesn’t want you to succeed or be happy. The game won’t even let you kick Satan! Truly, there is no reward in this game. I feel comfortable saying that it can sit on the same shelf as Sexy Hiking, and players can expect the same kind of experience.
