PSP Archive

Apparently when flies are not being swatted at or stepped on, they are using kung fu moves to destroy an evil army of insects in order to save the ones they love. Fly Fu is a simple, yet fun beat em up that does nothing new to revolutionize the genre in any way shape or form whatsoever. Sure, it is probably one of those games that most people will look at and go “what the hell is that”, or “how can a fly possibly know karate”, but sometimes a strange idea could possibly end up being a good one. Can killing other insects while playing as one be as fun as it sounds?, read on to find out.

Developer/Publisher:Invictus Games
Genre:Side Scrolling Beat ‘Em Up
Platform(s):PSP Minis, IPhone, IPod Touch, and IPad
If you like:Seeing limbs of insects breaking apart, a fly who wears boxing gloves, and fighting in a paper cutout world.



Here’s the deal, Mcfly Moth’s girlfriend Kate Moth (No Joke) has been kidnapped by the evil Queen Overseer, and is now a prisoner in a dark attic in the suburbs. Marty must now destroy the queen’s minions and save the girl. The story is played out through paper cutout cutscenes, which were funny, but could have been better if some subtitles were thrown in to help explain what’s going on. Since the idea here is to keep things simple and effective, it ends up working for the most part.

One of the most intriguing things about Fly Fu is it’s design. Every level is hand drawn, full of detail, and looks absolutely beautiful. The designers did a great job in making it look like we are seeing the world from the flys point of view. All of the enemies, including Mcfly himself, look pretty decent, and have an impressive amount of animation to them. Each sound effect really packs a punch(no pun intended), and the background music is basic and stereotypical, usually revolving around rapid drum beats, high pitched flutes, etc.



Each stage has a certain amount of enemies that need to be killed in order to fight the boss at the end. Your main objective here is to take them all out, defeat the boss, then move on the next area. Mcfly has a few moves at his disposal to make this job a little bit easier. He can use a kick or a punch, flip backwards and forwards to dodge attacks, pick up items to deal some extra damage, jump to avoid smaller creatures, and use the berserk maneuver to perform one hit kills (this was my personal favorite). Performing each and every one of these moves felt tight and responsive.

Most people will finish the main story in about an hour or so, leaving them with little to no incentive to play through the game more than once. Sure there is a survival mode to take a part in, but since there are no online leaderboards, the appeal of this feature diminishes rather quickly. The lack of a versus multiplayer mode doesn’t make things much better. Not sure if any PSP Mini games have trophies, but this certainly seems like the type of downloadable title that is screaming for them to be in there.

Fly Fu is an enjoyable experience while it lasts, but it doesn’t last for very long. Those looking for something a bit unique may want to give this one a chance. (B-)

 

 - Matt H.

P.S.-In case you were wondering, the version I played was the PSP Minis version.