On the surface, Kick and Fennick seems to be another carbon copy of the generic platformer. However, once you immerse yourself in the game, you will find an innovative platformer that gives a nice breather from the stereotype.
The game opens with Kick, a young boy waking up in a futuristic isolated world. After walking around for a while, Kick finds a small robot named Fennick sleeping next to a giant gun, not something you see everyday. However, the meeting is interrupted by a giant guardian robot who then tries to attack Kick. Fennick manages to save the boy, but afterwards the two find out that Fennick’s battery, located in his tail, has been broken. From there, the dynamic duo embark on an adventure to find Fennick a new energy core.
The gun that Kick found earlier is the foundation for the gameplay found in the title. Being a physics-based platformer, you will need to use your rifle to adjust the trajectory and angle at which Kick will be launched in the air. You get two shots before you need to touch the ground, so balancing how far you fly and the strength at which you do so becomes a challenging puzzle. The right gamepad sticks control all of the gun’s movements and aiming the gun will actually freeze and slow time. This buys some time when it comes to planning out a strategy to get Kick where he needs to go. Somehow, shooting a strong gun to fly through the air is extreme fun, and I found myself having so much fun with the unique game mechanic. However, there are many obstacles ready to prevent you from enjoying yourself too much.
Kick and Fennick sports 45 levels distributed into 5 different chapters with the last level in each chapter being a boss-battle. However, there is really only one boss in the entire game, the same guardian robot that attacked you in the beginning of the game. Why he is chasing Kick or Fennick is a question that will probably never be answered.
That is probably the biggest fault with Kick and Fennick. While the game makes it known that Kick and Fennick are trying to find a new battery to save Fennick, not much else is really explained about the story. Why is Kick seemingly the last human in this world and why did he wake up from some sort of stasis pod? Why is a huge robot chasing and trying to kill the duo? What kind of robot is Fennick anyway, and are there any more like him? The game introduces a beautiful isolated world, but it is frustrating to not learn about the background or story of this world. Still, Kick and Fennick does make up for its thin plot with its gameplay.
While Kick and Fennick becomes increasingly difficult as the game progresses, there are three different difficulties to choose from before starting the game. Each difficulty either adds or takes away from the challenge. I played on normal and found the game to be nicely balanced. While there were some trial-and-error moments, they proved that the game was fairly challenging and incredibly balanced.
Each level sees you trying to make it to the “finish line”, marked by green lights and what seems to be a teleporting device. As stated before, there will be many obstacles preventing you from making it to the end. There are enemy robots, lasers, and pitfalls all trying to get in your way. Utilizing your gun to defeat enemies and jumping over chasms of lasers is key to beating each level. Also, one unintentional obstacle can be the game’s own camera. Since the camera can’t be manually moved in anyway by the player, the game tries to choose the best angle but sometimes fails. It doesn’t become a huge issue for much of the game, but it definitely was frustrating during some boss battles or harder levels.
Along the way you will be able to collect 50 small gears and one special gear in each level. Collecting enough of these special gears will unlock outfits for Kick, but other than that collecting everything is really only necessary if you are a fan of 100% completion, but this does add for some great replay value.
While different elements are added to levels as the game progresses, such as pools of water or grind rails, the level design does become repetitive fast. All levels start to look the same other than the placing of the aforementioned elements and obstacles. The world is beautifully isolated, but it comes at the cost of level variation. The graphics and soundtrack are especially nice, but repetition gets in the way of perfection.
Kick and Fennick takes the platforming genre and manages to add something new and especially fun. Flying around while shooting the rifle around is crazy fun and adds to some challenging puzzles and mechanics not seen anywhere else.
Developer: Jaywalkers Interactive
Publisher: Green Hill
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, Wii U
Release Date: 2nd June 2016