Footsies: Rollback Edition
Developer/Publisher: HiFight
Available on: Windows, Linux (I reviewed the Windows version)
Version released on: September 30, 2020 (note that there was a previous version)
Price: My version was purchased on Steam for $3.99 (there were no other costs)
Reviewed by Robert Anderson on 12/2/2020.
Do you love fighting games, like Street Fighter or Tekken, but find them a bit complicated? I recommend Footsies: Rollback Edition. Why? It’s cheap, fun to play, and easy to learn. The 16 bit black and white graphics are also noteworthy and rare, giving a retro style. Have a look… (here’s the publisher’s game trailer).
As you can see, there’s a limited amount of content, but heck… what do you want for $3.99?
To review this game, I created a rubric to help me cover the aspects of generic fighting games. Here’s what I came up with (feedback welcome).
Here’s a closer look at each attribute, with commentary.
Training Modes
The Training modes in this game go in-depth on many of the common fighting game techniques and teach you the basics of what you need to know. It has specific modes to practice hit confirms and whiff punishes, along with a good base training mode with many customizable settings for it. All of the settings and modes make for a very useful training mode.
Online Modes
The online features of this game, although rudimentary, works very well for this game. The interface for online is simple and easy to understand for a beginner, with the settings being relatively self-explanatory. It also uses a rollback netcode, which ensures a lag-less connection when playing other players online. Although rough compared to other fighting games, it works very well for a game like this.
Replayability
One area where this game failed personally would have to be its replayability. The game was extremely interesting for the first few hours of gameplay, but the gameplay slowly becomes repetitive after that. The arcade mode stays constant throughout each playthrough and the premise can grow old after a while.
Controls:
The controls of this game, although simple, lend to this game’s aesthetic and premise rather well. Since the game was made to teach its players about a basic fighting game idea, it makes sense that the controls would be basic as well. They have numerous different inputs that lend themselves well to the limited control scheme, and even a super attack that is a reference to Akuma’s Raging Demon from the street fighter series.
Graphics
The graphics of this game are extremely interesting, with the usage of an 8-bit aesthetic to fit the simplicity of this game. It makes the game look more friendly to people not too familiar with the genre. These graphics also make sense when in context with the game, due to the nature of this game to be a barebones fighting game with only the core mechanics.
The bottom line
For $3.99 on Steam, you can get a fast-paced fighting game that will help a beginner trying to learn more about the basics of the fighting genre. If you’re more seasoned, you might appreciate something new and fresh to play.
REVIEWER:
The author of this game review is Robert Andersen. He is currently enrolled at TCNJ as a freshman in the Interactive Multimedia major.
