Flix the Flea is a two button platformer where we play as some kind of mutant flea that snuck on-board into a space shuttle and is brought to space. If you were to skip the opening you would have no way of knowing you are in space as there are pterodactyls, bats and even trees. Granted it does take place in caves but why mention we are in space then? Nothing really makes sense which is not a bad thing but you see all this game has to offer in the first mission. Each level feels very similar even though they are visually different. There is a life system and if you lose all of them it is back to the beginning of the game.
The only way to lose your life is if you touch a pterodactyl that flies around the stage. It is a lot easier said than done as the screen is far too zoomed in and everytime you jump you will have no idea what lies ahead. Most of the time that leads to you following down all the way to the bottom since pterodactyls do have a huge arrow pointing at their location when near that also makes a highly annoying warning alert. But it is not uncommon to land directly on top of one and die. There is a shield powerup that allows you to take up to two hits which comes in handy.
Jumping itself is pretty simple and works well enough. As said before there are only two buttons. One to jump to the left and one to jump to the right. The longer you hold down a button the further and higher you jump. It works well enough when the game is not demanding precise platforming but it does feel like a lot of trial and error as you can’t really see where you are heading until you take the jump and get a better feel for the level. Bugs and stars both litter the stages for you to collect and add to your highscore but I don’t believe it adds lives once you reach enough. Though I did not bother collecting most and may be wrong.
Which brings me to my main problem with the game. It can only be played in a tiny window with no way to increase it’s size or play in fullscreen. That may not be matter to some people but I find it worth mentioning as I personally can not stand playing in a window. There are no graphic options which doesn’t really matter much since this game is not demanding at all. Graphically it is not a bad or good looking game. It is acceptable and does the job. There is no way to rebind the keys which may bother some as the default keys are left arrow and right arrow. Flix the Flea is really lacking in any options and is as bare-bones as they get.
Unfortunately the music in this game doesn’t fare any better than the rest of it. It is mediocre but the main issue is that it is very short and loops over and over again with no option to turn it off. It is one song throughout the whole game which will be burned into your consciousness by the end of it. The jumping and bug crunching sound effects sound fine but the pterodactyl’s screech is obnoxious. Repetition sets in fast due to all these factors and Flix the Flea doesn’t do anything to remedy that issue in later levels. Instead it focuses more on precise platforming which just don’t work well with the way you move in this game.
The novelty of only using two buttons is a good one but executed poorly. It is a very low budget game made by one person but I’m afraid I still can’t recommend it. There is just very little fun to be found here and your time could be better spent elsewhere. Slamming into walls while trying to jump to the exit can be entertaining for a while though it quickly loses it’s fun when the levels start to demand more precision. The only reason to play this game is if you got it through a bundle and want to collect it’s trading cards. Which is actually broken and no cards can drop during the time of this review. It’s kind of a shame to slam down such an obscure game but it simply isn’t worth a recommendation.
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