One Finger Death Punch

 
Developer: Silver Dollar Games
Steam Release: Mar 2014
Hours Played: 3.5
Similar To:  Chicken Assassin / Crypt of the Necrodancer / Iron Snout / Timberman
Rating: 5/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY

OFDP is a simple yet unique arcade-style game requiring quick-thinking, sharp reactions and good timing. Occupying a place between a clicker and rhythm game, it has mechanics that sets it apart from the ordinary pack. With your sights focused on a well-rounded white match-stick man fixed in the centre of the screen, others of the same size and shape (but of a different colour) start marching towards you from the sides. When they enter an attack zone about two inches either side of your character, it's time to give them a good ol' whack with the press of the correct button (X or B on an Xbox controller) or mouse-click (right or left). Doing so initiates an animation like a kung-fu chop or a karate kick that sends them packing. With plenty of sharp hand-to-hand combat, the excellent sound-effects brings the experience satisfyingly to life. 

BALANCE & PACE

Survive for a minute or two against relentless charges of enemies and you'll be awarded a platinum, gold, silver or bronze medal according to how many of your attacks missed. Avoid getting hit altogether and you get a Perfect award. Different rounds such as those that give the player a nanchaku or sword are used to mix things up as well as rounds that test your speed etc. Furthermore, the varying colours of enemies determines their attack pattern. For example, green soldiers require two hits in the same attack zone while a blue enemy will switch to the other attack zone once hit. Red enemies need to be clobbered three times... and the list goes on. Weapons also get dropped once in a while for ranged attacks and special abilities open up as you go. The result is a stress-relieving exercise in non-stop killing.

PRESENTATION & DESIGN 

In its stripped down form, OFDP is a series of matchstick-men getting beaten up. To jazz it up, a large variety of backgrounds are used and there are various meters and scores flashing underneath. Yet to give it that true punch, a vast assortment of animations and sound-effects are used as your character chops and thwacks his way through the bad guys. Soldiers grunt and cry out in pain and glass and such smashes in the background. Especially riveting are the slow-mo sequences, played when you land a particular attack, that offers a brief respite. To give it that oriental and theatrical flavour, the narrator delivers his announcements in an exaggerated, albeit stereotypical, South East Asian accent.
 

PROGRESS SYSTEM

The game is divided into two modes. Survival is where you kill as many soldiers as possible before being hit ten times. Levels takes you to a map with diverging and joining paths. Circles are dotted around indicating levels but do get a little hidden and muddled amongst the trees. A pop-up appears as you select each, showing your medal status plus the perfect ring if awarded. With special skills unlocked as you go, the idea is to continue on your path while unlocking and redoing levels as you improve and grow stronger. Meanwhile, for survival mode, there is both a leaderboard showing an online rank and a local high-score chart (with fictitious names) showing number of kills. Finally, clicking on Mastery shows how much the game has been completed in the form of a percentage. 
   

CONCLUSION

What may first come across as a wanton button mashing game for non-thinking players, actually transpires into a skill-based game requiring quite a degree of thought. As you enjoy your journey through the gruesomely violent OFDP you'll notice that as scores become irrelevant, the need to accrue those platinum and gold medals becomes the new goal. Further considerations like smashing that killer-ball from your attack zone to land the perfect strike and how to tackle that crown-wearing boss who turns proceedings to a mini-game within a game soon crops up. With the animations and the sound-effects blending in anarchic harmony to create a smashing title, I'd say the boys at Silver Dollar Games have done a very good job indeed.