Reviewed: October 18, 2009
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Clickgamer

Developer
Mobirate

Released: October 13, 2009
Genre: Fighting
Players: 1

5
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7.0

Game Info:

Now Clickgamer is bringing that awesome stick-figure fighting action to my iPhone, and I no longer have to sit back and watch. Stick-Fu actually lets this grasshopper become a skilled fighting machine, all with the touch of a few buttons, but sadly, it is this same lack of control that also dooms this game to more of a fun and casual diversion than a serious fighter.

Stick-Fu spans numerous levels spread across five unique environments. You go up against a seemingly endless supply of enemy combatant allowing you to unleash a flurry of kicks and punches, streaming them into combos to build your combo meter, then finishing up with a super-powerful and ultra-cool looking special attack.

Controls are extremely simple. You move left or right by touching the arrows and you punch and kick using the attack button. The goal is to get close enough to actually hit something then back away to avoid their attacks. Once you have landed enough combo blows your special attack button lights up and you can unleash a deadly spin-kick, crack them with a staff weapon, or unload a few barrels from a shotgun.

The resulting animated combat is extremely rewarding and the simplest of touches will yield amazing visual eye candy even to the point where I didn’t feel I deserved to see such awesome action for simply tapping a few buttons. Gameplay becomes almost incidental to the experience. Either I am really good at this game or it is just way too easy to play and win. Even the boss fights don’t prove to be that much of a challenge.

Between levels you get to assign earned points to various stats like Power, Defense, and Hit Points. Again, I didn’t see much point, as stats had no obvious bearing on gameplay. I was just evenly distributing the points each time, which seemed to make me more than a match for any encounters in the next level.

Graphically, Stick-Fu is awesome with colorful scrolling backgrounds and animated combat so flawlessly smooth and accurate you’d swear it was mo-capped. Even the load screens have little animated sequences with a truck or motorcycle driving along and a text box with something to read. I was surprised to see as much blood as I did. It splatters and splashes and pool on the sidewalk with every encounter. There are some other nice subtle effects like real-time shadows for the stick characters and the liquid effect used to make everyone materialize and vanish from the screen, almost like they are made of ink.

The sound is equally as awesome with four music tracks and some great kung-fu sound effects. If you prefer, you can create your own soundtrack with any music stored on your device.

While it doesn’t require a lot (if any) skill to play Stick-Fu successfully, it is nonetheless fun to play if for no other reason than to watch the slick animation and see what clever finishing move you are going to unlock next. And if you are a sucker for the high score board there is even an online leaderboard to keep you playing longer than you might without one.

As long as you don’t go into Stick-Fu looking for a portable DOA or Tekken experience you will certainly be delighted with this colorful fighter. Mindless button mashing has never looked this cool or been this addictively fun, and Stick-Fu is easily worth the buck it costs to nab this gem from the App Store.