One Strike | Quick Review

One Strike is an indie game that takes a good amount of influence from retro fighting games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat and mixes it with simplistic controls that would feel at home on the NES. Yet despite the simplicity of One Strike, I find the game rather enjoyable.

PROS:

-The retro aesthetic is a bit overdone, but the large sprites in the game look nicely detailed. Most games use this art style as a gimmick, but the character sprites and the animated backgrounds for this game move in really appealing ways. It's also not bad looking game when stationary.

-The simplicity of the controls make One Strike not only unique, but also easy to grasp. There aren't really any issues I have with the controls, although they take a bit of getting used to.

-The music fits the mood of the game perfectly. I'll touch on the music a little later, but for now I'll just say it sounds right out of the NES...

CONS:

-While the controls are simplistic, I wish there were more attacks. Every character has a very small number of ways to attack, and it left me not getting along with any of them. Some characters are also far stronger than others, making it feel unbalanced.

-The music is literally right out of the NES. One of the songs from the game was taken from a Famicom game. As of October 19th 2018 the game is currently unavailable on the Nintendo eShop due to copyright concerns. A composer was hired to work on the music for the game, but instead decided to lift a song from a Famicom game. You can find more information on JapaneseNintendo.com.

Update: the game has been updated with new music and is available once again on the eShop.

CONTROLLER REVIEW:

One Strike works with the Joy-Con controllers, Pro Controller, and GameCube controller perfectly. Sideways Joy-Con controllers are also usable in multiplayer mode.

OVERALL OPINION:

One Strike is a simple game, but it's also a fun game. It isn't revolutionary, but nothing is trying to make you think it is. I find One Strike to be a fun, yet simple game.