The Indie Game Magazine May 2014 | Issue 37 | Page 11

Man-styled everything, then it’ll definitely be called
a Mega Man ripoff unless you exercise a healthy
amount of self-awareness and tact. On the other
hand, if your game has Mega Man-styled combat,
Sonic-styled physics, Gunstar Heroes-styled bosses
and Mario-styled bonus stages all wrapped in an
oriental aesthetic, suddenly all those features melt
together into a fresh recipe.

that’s surprisingly absent in a lot of platform games.
And then there’s Carol’s motorcycle. I won’t spoil it,
but I’ll just say that I get a really big kick out of the
way most players react when they ride it for the first
time.

IGM: Platforming and smooth combat

rarely go hand-in-hand. What sort of design
mechanics are in place to allow for fluid combat?

Strife: I think one of Freedom Planet’s most

unique aspects is how it incorporates the
momentum-based physics from games like
Sonic with fighting mechanics. In a typical
platformer, you usually defeat enemies by
simply jumping on them. It works a little
differently here. You don’t take damage from
touching enemies (unless they’re covered in
spikes) and you have a variety of close-range
attacks you can use, such as Lilac flinging her
hair like a whip, or Carol attacking with a flurry
of punches. The faster you’re moving when you
land the finishing blow, the farther away the
enemy flies. It gives a satisfying level of feedback

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