Review: Iron Fisticle

A modern take on the classic arcade arena shooter. Taking inspiration from an entire generation of action games, Iron Fisticle builds on classic titles like Gauntlet and Robotron while adding over 100 collectible items, an RPG style upgrade system and local multiplayer.

Pros:

• Retro old school graphics with some lovely pixel art.
• Full 360 pad support.
• Top down shooter roguelike, Very much like Robotron with Gauntlet style pickups and presentation.
• Good decent bit tune soundtrack.
• All keys are re bindable for both the controller and the keyboard.
• Steam achievements.
• Online leaderboards.
• Pick up power ups like imcreased speed,shurikens,axes and extra health.
• Find chests that can contain random loot including power ups and coins.
• Collect money and spend your coins in the shop. Items can be things that can be used instantly or are used on your next run through.
• Rogue like meaning you have just one life and must get as far as you can with it.
• Level up and earn new items and increase health etc.
• Aside from your typical shooting control on the right stick, you also get a special move called the Fisticle. Its basically a huge area of attack move that kills everything within the circle. You can also do a huge run/slide/dodge move to get out of trouble.
• Big boss battles.
• Two player offline multiplayer.
• Video options include V-Sync,screen size and even add scanlines!
• Collect letters in levels to spell out BONUS, This will then unlock a 2D fast paced platformer in an almost endless runner way. Collect coins and get to the door.
• Levels have timers and when your near the end, New enemies will spawn in and hunt you down to try and rush you.
• Multiple routes.
• Randomized levels so every game is different.
• Ledger keeps track of all pick ups collected.
• Handful of areas to discover.
• Nice selection of enemy types.
• Chain a multiplier by collecting the drops for maximum score.
• Choose starting level. When you beat a boss you can choose to start on the next floor.

Cons:

• No proper tutorial to explain the mechanics.
• Pad options just show the generic input like joypad0, joypad1so re binding them is a bit of a nightmare.
• Only 4 stages to battle through.
• The game is really short and can be done in under an hour.
• No new game plus.
• Little replayability outside of leaderboard chasing.

In Summary, it is a fun little game. it pulls at the nostalgia heart strings with a true old school vibe through out. Its a solid shooter with a really good loot system. the shortness of it all and lack of replayability really stop t from being a really good game. If we could get a batch of new dungeons and bosses it would really elevate it. As is it is a great charing little game that has good potential. its worth a punt for fans of the genre as it does do the gameplay really well.