Divekick is such a gloriously amazing game that Bitmob did not one but two articles about it! The first goes over the history of the game and it’s creation. It also explains what a dive kick is to the casual fighting game player, and why they are being parodied in a game where Divekick is the title, controls, move list, character list, strategy, and gem selection.

Divekicks are jumping attacks where you stop your usual jump arc and strike your foe at a difficult-to-counter angle that have been around since Dhalsim in Street Fighter 2. Over time, however, it’s been common for divekicks to be low-risk offensive tools with huge combo and mix-up possibilities. They make getting into close range easy and terrorize those without an invincible go-to move like the Shoryuken to keep the opponent from getting too overzealous. In Divekick the game, you use a lap-size controller with two giant buttons: Dive (jump) and Kick. All successful strikes instantly KO the opponent, and if you nail him in the head, he’ll move slower during the next round. You also have a super meter you can build through repeated dives until you activate a “Kick Factor” power-up. As simple as the game is, it does require a fair amount of strategy and mind games as each character has different jump heights and kick angles. The two initial characters are Dive and Kick, two teens with a striking resemblance to Street Fighter 3 twins Yun and Yang whom you can tweak using Street Fighter X Tekken-style gems. In an pre-tournament exhibition, Heart revealed that the game had three secret characters: a giant wolverine with a cigar; obligatory, sexist, female combatant Kung Pao; and Mr. N, a not-so-subtle jab at an famous tournament player. The game has a couple of in-jokes only hardcore players would understand, like a super gem locked behind a $8.95 pay wall and a Fraud Detection System.

Their second article focuses a lot less on the technical of Divekick and more on what it’s like to join the Divekick community. It follows one player’s journey toward being revealed as a fraud by the game’s unique fraud detection system. I’m sure he realizes now that Divekick is serious business!

One of the characters whom I didn’t see much of on the stream was Kung Pao, a cross between Mortal Kombat’s Kung Lao and Street Fighter’s Cammy who shouts gibberish when she attacks. She is also a girl in a fighting game, and therefore, wears a fetishized outfit. I used her a lot during the event, but I quickly found out why I hadn’t seen her much: Unlike everyone else, Kung Pao can only hop very low off the ground, and her divekick is slow and travels at a nearly horizontal angle. I like playstyles that make you think differently, but as an attendant told me, she is not for beginners. Divekick lets you customize your high flier with gems — a concept borrowed from current genre black sheep Street Fighter X Tekken. I tried increasing Kung Pao’s kicking speed to keep her from becoming a free target, but other players still cornered and bullied me easily. Things got worse the next day. I decided to try Kick, Dive’s Will Smith-quoting training partner who excels at building the Kick Factor meter. But I made a heaping number of mistakes. A red line will appear onscreen in timeout situations, and the person closest to it wins. When it appears right next to me, however, I’d jump away like an idiot. Sometimes, I would use the right button to retreat but press the left button instead when I had a chance to escape death. I lost five rounds in a row, activating the Fraud Detection System that lets everyone know how garbage your playing is.

If you are a hardcore Divekick competitor, then be sure to catch the game at EVO this year. You can play in casuals for free and even enter an arcade ladder tournament, if you think you are good enough. Also, be on the lookout for an announcement about the future of Divekick on Monday.

If you want to study up on your Divekick techniques, check out the Top 16 tournament replay from UFGT8.

Source: Bitmob