“Fleo” by Aube Games
Fleo is a two player game with no option of single player. It’s set in medieval times where you control a knight in a duel with flails. The only way to win said duel is to push your opponent into the spikes behind him.
You can do that by hitting him with your flail, or by furiously mashing the “Headbutt key”. Man does that bring back memories...
Picture 1: Title screen
Combat system Combat is very simple. Change the rotational direction of your flail and try to hit your opponent, while avoiding being hit yourself. It’s this very concept that makes the game so much fun. It kinda feels like trying to dodge that fiery death in Super Mario Bros. And don’t get me started on headbutting. I mean button mashing? I haven’t done that since I was a kid. Perhaps that’s why this was entertaining.
What is that percentage though? There is absolutely no explanation. Given that you’re forced to see the tutorial every time you play, i think this could at least be explained once. After some experimenting though I found out that it’s some sort of a flail modifier. Basically the higher the percentage, the further you’ll be pushed away.
Picture 2: Rocks falling from the sky
Giant rocks from the sky I mean ... seriously? I guess the catapults must be launching them, but why are they square? And why do they only stun the character momentarily? And why would the king even order the catapults to fire rocks at the competitors? I really don’t know. I’ll leave this one for you to decide.
Art The art is quite charming. It’s minimalism really emphasises the simplicity of the game. The colors are vibrant, the music sounds happy. All in all, nice. Too bad it was too focused on the tournament screen. The main menu, for example, just looks empty.
Picture 3: Main menu
Bug count: Two.
You can’t exit the game once you press Enter in the title screen.
The game supposedly takes care of both azerty and qwerty users... and it does, just not in the character select.
The game was in Development Build when I tried it out though, so the lack of polish can be forgiven.
Features I would add/remove:
A mute button for sure: I know for a fact that many people prefer to play games muted and just listen to their own music.
Key bindings: Why make it “optimized” for azerty and qwerty only, when this allows users to create their own optimized layouts.
Lose the blood: Or at least give the player the ability to turn it off. I personally found it off putting. The game just doesn’t feel like there should be any blood involved in it.
Many extra features would ruin the game: My list of features is sparse, because any added features would probably just remove the simplicity of the game, which is what makes it so fun.
Even though the game has no context, and may be lacking in some departments, I have one thing to say: “The king may not be entertained, but I sure as hell am.”
I give it an 7/10
This game definitely deserves more than 10k plays.