Interesting to have a fighting game within the mech theme and nicely designed characters for some nice visual diversity.
PROS:
- The visuals overall were well done and the presentation shows quality in the craft from a UI and UX perspective.
- Having an AI opponent that's decent at the game is very impressive with all the other things also in the game.
- The animations on the characters gave some unique personality to each of them beyond just their different silhouettes.
CRITIQUE
- Possibly just my lack of experience with fighting game norms/expectations, but the controls felt oddly positioned on the keyboard. The classic WASD movement keys and then using keys close to those like Q and E for actions like "Attack" and "Block" are closer to my expectations coming from other game genres since those are commonly used for those purposes. Giving me the option to remap keys would be ideal, but I know that's a big ask for a jam game.
- I found myself wanting at least one special move for each of the characters that could really differentiate them from the others in some way other than character mesh and possibly hit boxes on attack animations. Even if the game only had 2 different character options, but each of those felt more functionally unique it feels like that would have felt more complete as a fighting game overall.
- Minor UX gripe: I had to use the keyboard inputs to select characters and stages, but then was forced to use mouse input in clicking a button to confirm to the next set of options (couldn't just hit the "Confirm" button again to effectively click that button). When I'm running through this menu often because it's necessary to setup a fight I want to be able to get through it as quickly as possible. Every time I get forced to switch between inputs rather than just press the "Confirm" button 3-5 times it makes me feel like the menu is trying to keep me from just jumping into the game.