The Filler Arc: Mighty Flip Champs!

Ah Band Camp. The time of the year where those who joined marching band spend a week away from home to practice their hearts out. Or you can spend the few hours of free time camping out in the cabin waiting out the storm. As I sit in the cabin with two hours to kill, my options are weighed between looking through all the saved images on my phone for the third time, or playing on the ever-lovable 3DS. And I can tell you that one of those options sound far more appealing than the other. When looking through my games, I noticed one that I got a very long time ago. This game was Mighty Flip Champs, the game standing out by being an original title by the amazing WayForward. So let's so another one of those mystic Filler Arc reviews and look at Mighty Flip Champs for the DS.

Plot in this game is pretty much nonexistent. You play as Alta, a Flip Champ whose goal is to traverse through many different multi dimension mazes and reach the Fishman to be transported to safety, while saving other Flip Champs lost in the maze. And that's the name of the game here. You travel through many mazes trying to reach mister Fishman. You do this by flipping with the face buttons, which changes the layout to whatever the layout is on the bottom screen. There is no time limit, no flip limit, and no way to damage yourself by falling. The only ways to die are the ever traditional spikes, and flipping into an obstacle.

The game challenges players in more ways as the game progresses. In many levels you'll have to rescue other Flip Champs before you can exit the level, there'll be switches to press, blocks to break, wormholes to teleport through, and more. The biggest challenge is through not only locating a way through the maze, but actually executing the plan. The game relies heavily on timing, meaning to perform flips at a precise time to either make it into the area you were trying to get to, or in most cases, die trying. More on that later.

In terms of presentation, Mighty Flip Champs looks very good for what it is. Sprites look nice, areas have a lot of color, each of the worlds has a different theme, and it looks about as good as a 2D sprite based game should. The music on the other hand, is absolutely fantastic. Just a quick forewarning. Anytime I review a WayForward game, expect the name "Jake Kaufman" to be praised a lot, because he makes some fantastic music. It's amazing music to be listening to while playing, and many of the tunes will get stuck in your head at some point.

Now there is one major flaw with this game,and it's something that's a recurring issue throughout the whole game. I mentioned the timing aspect a bit ago, and multiple times you'll have to fall and flip at the right time to get where you want to go. However, the game can be really picky on whether or not you made it or were a few pixels off and die. Even if you're not falling and are trying to get in a 1-space hole, it's not unlikely that you'll miss the safe zone by a few pixels and die, sending you to the beginning of the stage. It's nothing game-breaking, but it is a consistent problem.

But at the end of the day, Mighty Flip Champs is good. It's pick up and play style puzzles that are good to play during short bursts. It's not very long, and there's a few quirks here and there, but the gameplay is solid with good visuals and a fantastic soundtrack. Nothing ground breaking, but fun and worth the price of admission. The game is available on both the DSi and 3DS, as well as a version titled Mighty Flip Champs DX on the Playstation Network, though both versions are exactly the same.

All images are the properties of their original owners. I continue to wish I had the ability to make stuff like this.

The Silent Protagonist is trying to flip-flop his way to victory. And then chokes on a pair of spikes he didn't see coming.