Unfinished: Way of the Passive Fist 02/09/2018

Sweet more fighting games

Parry mechanic “beat em up”

Interesting concept.

Passive fisting time

Thems fighting herds

Donald duck orange juice sells here. We buy 2 for 5 bucks a week. Jeff does not know what he is talking about as someone who drinks orange juice more than most people on earth. Is he reading a geocities Web page saying they don't make Donald duck orange juice anymore?

@benpack@jeff Check this game out: http://store.steampowered.com/app/674520/FightN_Rage/

It seems like a better beat 'em up than this is.

Waiting for dudes to tire out makes me think that the developers were fans of Homer Simpson's boxing career.

I see what they were going for, but I don't really feel like it works. Having the enemies attack you one at the time and then reacting to their attacks feels a bit simple. The genre is traditionally about controlling the space to prevent enemies from crowding you. If the counter system had been implemented on top, like the Arkham games, I think it would have worked better. There's certainly nobody that seems to have done that in 2D yet, at least.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH, PACIFIST

I played this game at an expo back in August and didn't get that title until just now. Great.

Phoenix Down.

I feel like maybe they shouldn't have made this game based on a punny title.

It feels like an oversight to not have the enemy attacks synchronized with the music - if you need to time when you dodge / parry, they should lean into that and have it be a rhythm game.

Barrage of the Dis Missiles incoming

sorry

An all dodge beatemup/fighting game seems like a good idea, but this seems poorly done. Especially since you actually have punches.

This seems... lacking. It's just slow and you mostly stand around waiting. It feels like a gameplay element is missing. Pretty spritework, though.

Also I watched this while drinking orange juice!

Wasn't this the strategy Homer used as a boxer?

I don't mind McDonald's orange juice. I agree with Jeff about wanting it in a regular size drink cup, though, because I feel as though there's some confusion among the employees as to which size of orange juice is which and how many sizes even existed. I'd sometimes order a small and get a large, only to order a large the next time and get a large, which only confused me. I never knew which one to order. Also, I wish it was colder by default, but I usually ordered it with ice, anyway.

Trop50 is really good orange juice, by the way. It has 50% of the calories and sugar as regular Tropicana, and I kind of prefer its dialed-back flavor.

I've played this, it's really good but has a bit of a wall to get through as it looks like a brawler but plays more like a rhythm game (identifying and then hitting all the timing changes with parry's). When I changed my approach to it, it clicked and I had a ton of fun with it in the time I was able to play it.

No Player Agency: The Game.

Although the sprites look good, waiting for people to attack you and having to spend the entire game reacting instead of acting seems like...not a good mechanic to build your entire game around.

Also, Solar Panels are evil because they're sucking the energy out of the Sun, leading to the darkening of days. At least, that would be my justification for the "Evil Solar Power" storyline. :b

I like the "anti solar energy" twist on a post-apocalypse. Movies and games have been turning something as benign/beneficial as AI into an evil plot device for decades, why not renewable energy? It's a lot fresher, at least.

nope.

Somehow the developer managed to make the already one-note genre of brawlers look even more monotonous and repetitive.

6 o'clock.

@steveurkel: He should drink it, and make a video about it.

They've added the "You are forced to wait tens of thousands of times" mechanic to brawlers. Fun!

What would make this cool is if it were a music rhythm game that gave you some improvisation ability. Different enemies showing up would let you know different musical patterns and beats were coming, but you didn't know exactly in what order yet until they jump in to attack.

The developer should add 'provoke' skill wherein enemy goes enraged and attacks twice as fast for price of bigger stamina decrease and uses combination attacks. And sleep darts and interesting traps.

Call me Coaljob.

@littlegirl: Or at all

Did Jeff really just say he'd pay good money for an active fist?

This looks terrible. Why would anyone want to play this?

This is one of those situations where they got too wrapped up in thinking if they could, that they didn’t stop to think if they actually should.

I hate this.

This seems a lot less clever when you consider that they already made 3 Batman games and about 30 Assassin's creed games where melee combat was heavily parry driven.

I've actually met with the developers of this game and talked with them a bit about it. As others have said, it's pretty good once you get into the rhythm of it!

They're also doing tons of really good work in Passive Fist in regards to accessibility features which is what lends the gameplay to be as unique in the way it is. I have to say I'm a little disappointed that Ben either didn't know about it or neglected to mention it since it's a pretty big selling point for the game. I think this Quick Look kinda undersells what this game is.

Evo Moment 34: The Video Game

It's a thing that's existed since the '80s. It's not a new thing, so it can't be both treated as a selling point.

And, given the track record for that kind of selling, having it as a back-of-the-box selling point won't nudge the needle on sales, especially given it's passivity and despite the slick animation.

@genessee Not saying these features are going to sway people's opinions obviously, it's just something that would've been nice to see a mention of since it's being treated as a core design pillar more than it is a back-of-the-box selling point.

This really does look like a joke game from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

It's so close. There're such good ideas here but I'm not quite down.

Oooooh. "Miles per hour."

Yeah, this doesn't look fun. The mechanics look sound; it's the pacing that's dragging it down. The style is inconsistent, too. I wish the poke didn't come out so fast. Enemies should crumple pathetically, not fly off. Also, I don't like that you can straight-up punch, grab, shoulder check, and throw items. Why undermine the whole theme with active attacks?

There's a better game in here. The encounter design just needs work.

Falling and Laughing is pretty good

the final pokes, and punches defeat the whole theme of the game.. Finishing moves couldve been redirected attacks and and body shielding to keep with the theme.

@thepilgrums: That game sounds way better than this game. Somebody should make that game.

Seems like they just came up with a cool name then tried to shoehorn a game around that