After having played the early access of Flat Heroes I’ve already come to the conclusion that this game is something to get excited for. This single-player reaction puzzler is both devious and brilliant, an exhilarating exercise in testing your ability to use a tight moveset to survive. Flat Heroes is also perfect with a group of friends, it has a great mix of both simplicity and nuance driving fast-paced multiplayer fun. Screen shots and video don’t do justice the experience I’ve had, but I fear because of its minimalist appearance people will mistakenly pass it by.

Flat Heroes has precisely what I am looking for in an indie title, and that so often is missing in mainstream offerings: the purity of a great idea impeccably executed. What looks to have begun as an exercise in working control mechanics to an extremely satisfying level of quality has been turned into a gauntlet of maddening challenges.

While the campaign starts out feeling more like a simple puzzle game you’ll quickly begin to see signs of what’s to come. It very effectively begins to nudge you towards learning the control mechanics like double-jumping and sticking to walls, as well as the various enemies you’ll need to contend with. With each level new combinations of enemies and level designs will push you to further to refine your skills and then each world culminates in a boss fight to test what you’ve learned. Perhaps it’s the years of playing too many games with underwhelming boss battles talking but every boss battle is a challenge and several of them are downright brutal to take out.

On top of the single-player campaign (that can optionally be played in multiplayer as well) there’s also a Survival Mode and a multiplayer-focused Versus Mode. Survival mode requires little explanation, it is a gauntlet of challenges on a single level that will test all of those evasion skills you’ve mastered. Though the enemies and placements will remain the same for each round every match will inevitably play out differently the moment you begin moving. Through persistence and a bit of luck, you’ll then unlock additional levels to further test your skills. Versus mode offers a variety of relatively simple game modes that will pit you against up to 3 friends or CPU opponents. Gameplay is fast and chaotic, seemingly perfectly suited to a raucous time with your friends locally.

As the game is still currently in development, there are likely changes to be made but I’m very eager to see how the game ends up, it’s already a very compelling and challenging package.

This preview was created based on the current Early Access PC build of the title.