Flat Kingdom Review

First impressions with Flat Kingdom were not great. The game felt like it was lacking a certain fluidity to its controls that left me wanting. The style didn’t immediately grab my attention either and it felt a bit sterile in the early sections. The only thing that made me want to keep playing (other than professional pride) was the instantly charming soundtrack. But, much like an unwanted rash, Flat Kingdom grew on me as I made progress though its campaign.

Flat Kingdom reminded me a lot of Super Paper Mario (the one on the Wii) and most of that feeling comes from the game’s art. You see the story of Flat Kingdom is about the chaotic relationship between the 3D world and the 2D one and the graphics reflect that theme by having 2D sprites move around of a Semi-3D backgrounds. To anyone who played Super Paper Mario that description will probably sound very familiar, but unfortunately Flat Kingdom doesn’t quite live up to the same visual quality as its spiritual forefather. I’ll make the very safe assumption that developers Fat Panda did not have anywhere near the same amount of budget that the Big N command, so I’m going to cut them some slack here. My main issue with the graphics was with how flat the colouring felt to me, but then again that was only really an issue in the early game as the art did start to come alive the more I played.

Which is a common thread when talking about Flat Kingdom as I had more or less the same journey with the gameplay. The main hook to Flat Kingdom is the main characters unique, yet surprisingly unremarked upon, ability to change shape between Circle, Square and Triangle. Circle is a standard jumper, while triangle is your Sonic style speedster and square is heavy. You’ll need to switch between the three forms to traverse the disappointingly basic levels and triumph over the much more impressive bosses. Initially the three shapes have very little interplay between them and this lead to a strange lack of flow in the early levels as you get to grasps with the effects of each form. As you play on you do unlock more abilities and by the end there is a decent amount of variety to the moves you can pull off. I can’t help but feel like the game would have been improved by giving the player access to all the moves from the outset as it would have lead to a better sense of character mastery as you naturally improve your skills. Flat Kingdom keeps skills unlocked from you because of its psuedo-metroidvania style in which you can access new areas in old levels as your progress. Unfortunately I don’t feel as though this elements adds much to the overall game and mostly just wastes time. Perhaps if the game was one interconnected world this gameplay element would have had more weight, but alas, this is not the case.

Flat Kingdom comes with full controller support for both Xbox and PS4 controllers. Given the option however, I would suggest you use your DS4 to play this game. The reason for this is very simple and its because of the geometric shapes that make up the PlayStation face buttons relate directly to the forms you transform into (Square = Square etc…). It makes it a lot more natural feeling while switching and you will need to switch fast because the enemies in this game follow rock, paper scissor rules in that Square beats Triangle, Triangle beats Circle and Circle beats Square. In the general moment to moment gameplay I can’t say this twist on traditional platforming combat adds much but it really starts to shine brightly in the boss fights. These fights are where the game comes together and really starts to impress, as the are mentally taxing, skill demanding battles that make you feel like a genius and a bad-ass at the same time.

I mentioned the music before as being instantly enjoyable and there is a reason for that, its because it was composed by industry veteran Manami Matsumae. A name you may not recognise but you would definitely remember her work on Shovel Knight and Megaman. She’s definitely on form here and puts on plenty of catchy tunes. Nothing revolutionary, but it is a fun listen and the devs know it because the album can be purchased separately or as a package with the game.

In the end, I only have one way of describing this game and despite the title, Flat Kingdom is Solid. It doesn’t excell in any one area, but it does everything it tries well enough to keep you invested for the duration of your play time. If the same amount of ambition of quality shown in the boss fights could have been applied to the whole package, then there could have been something special here, as it is… we have a damn good game, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all.