You might have missed WayForward's puzzle platformer Mighty Flip Champs!, because it had the misfortune to be released 1½ hours before Microsoft's E3 press conference began. It doesn't take an Einstein to realize that hardly anyone was thinking about checking DSiWare that day.
As of now, though, E3 is over, and it's the perfect time to go back and take notice of this ingenious little game. It's a very DS-oriented design that would have been very comfortable in those long message-board threads and speculative articles we used to have back in 2004, wondering what sort of new game designs could take advantage of a system with two screens.
But you can't just have a neat game design, of course; you need to follow up with the gameplay, too.
Mighty Flip Champs! puts you in the shoes of Alta, a decidedly WayForward-ish female protagonist in possession of a magic Warp Wand. Her goal is to get from point A to point B within the level on the top screen, but she can never simply walk there. On the bottom screen, you'll see the next "page" of the level—containing its own floors and obstacles—and pushing any button to use the Warp Wand will flip that page up to the top screen. In this way, you'll be able to pass through walls, climb through space, and skip over spikes, among other things.
Now, the levels may even look simple at first gaze, but Alta moves in a very old-school fashion. She'll fall straight down if you walk off the edge of a platform, and she can't jump. Part of getting into Champs! was re-learning the rules of those games of yore. That said, it works rather well for the game design, especially since one of the game's little tricks—requiring you to flip pages while in mid-air—needs you to be as lined-up as possible or you'll materialize inside a brick and have to start the level over.
Apart from re-learning the rules of platform physics, ramping up into the meat of the game is rather easy, to the point I was beginning to be afraid there would be no challenge. About a half-dozen levels in (out of 40-odd), though, it settles in to an enjoyable level of challenge, slowly introducing a few new mechanics on the way to maximize the head-scratching. I had the most trouble with levels that had large numbers of pages to flip just because my mental stack is a bit limited; thankfully, there's an option to highlight any square on the map by touching it on the touch screen, which provided a much-needed signpost for some of the trickier levels.
If I had one criticism to make about Champs!, it would have to do with the ranking system; you'll get a better rank the more quickly you finish the level. Here, the game shows a little multiple personality disorder that I think harms it: is it about speed or is it about thought? While obviously it makes perfect sense to not award the highest rank if you make a wrong turn, the S-rank times seem (and I don't have many of them, so I can't say for sure) to be times best pulled in by machines rather than men. I've been denied an S-rank because I stopped a pixel or two to the left and didn't climb the ladder fast enough, for example. While I appreciate a difficult challenge, the rank times could have really done with a little loosening-up, especially since the online manual taunts me to earn those coveted S's.
That minor complaint aside, if you don't mind pulling in B's, C's, and D's—which I learned not to—Mighty Flip Champs! is an enjoyable puzzle platformer with a novel twist that makes it one of my recommendations for DSiWare. It's best played with the mindset that clearing a level means completing it, though of course if you are the type who wants to see if you can pull off the perfect run-through, you may just find joy here as well. It's a neat little title that makes for a worthwhile entry in the still-fledgling DSiWare library.
As of now, though, E3 is over, and it's the perfect time to go back and take notice of this ingenious little game. It's a very DS-oriented design that would have been very comfortable in those long message-board threads and speculative articles we used to have back in 2004, wondering what sort of new game designs could take advantage of a system with two screens.
But you can't just have a neat game design, of course; you need to follow up with the gameplay, too.
Mighty Flip Champs! puts you in the shoes of Alta, a decidedly WayForward-ish female protagonist in possession of a magic Warp Wand. Her goal is to get from point A to point B within the level on the top screen, but she can never simply walk there. On the bottom screen, you'll see the next "page" of the level—containing its own floors and obstacles—and pushing any button to use the Warp Wand will flip that page up to the top screen. In this way, you'll be able to pass through walls, climb through space, and skip over spikes, among other things.
Apart from re-learning the rules of platform physics, ramping up into the meat of the game is rather easy, to the point I was beginning to be afraid there would be no challenge. About a half-dozen levels in (out of 40-odd), though, it settles in to an enjoyable level of challenge, slowly introducing a few new mechanics on the way to maximize the head-scratching. I had the most trouble with levels that had large numbers of pages to flip just because my mental stack is a bit limited; thankfully, there's an option to highlight any square on the map by touching it on the touch screen, which provided a much-needed signpost for some of the trickier levels.
If I had one criticism to make about Champs!, it would have to do with the ranking system; you'll get a better rank the more quickly you finish the level. Here, the game shows a little multiple personality disorder that I think harms it: is it about speed or is it about thought? While obviously it makes perfect sense to not award the highest rank if you make a wrong turn, the S-rank times seem (and I don't have many of them, so I can't say for sure) to be times best pulled in by machines rather than men. I've been denied an S-rank because I stopped a pixel or two to the left and didn't climb the ladder fast enough, for example. While I appreciate a difficult challenge, the rank times could have really done with a little loosening-up, especially since the online manual taunts me to earn those coveted S's.
That minor complaint aside, if you don't mind pulling in B's, C's, and D's—which I learned not to—Mighty Flip Champs! is an enjoyable puzzle platformer with a novel twist that makes it one of my recommendations for DSiWare. It's best played with the mindset that clearing a level means completing it, though of course if you are the type who wants to see if you can pull off the perfect run-through, you may just find joy here as well. It's a neat little title that makes for a worthwhile entry in the still-fledgling DSiWare library.