Stick It to the Stickman has left Early Access after five years and a lot of updates, and the big 1.0 patch adds a whole bunch of new content to the absurd action-roguelite.
Developed by Free Lives and published by Devolver Digital, this side-scrolling platform game is a fast-paced beat ’em up with a wicked sense of humour that isn’t afraid to pull its punches. Pun intended.
In my opinion, nobody does over-the-top comedy violence better than Free Lives. This is the studio behind the incomparable Broforce, one of my favourite pixel platformers ever and an homage to classic action movies. Honestly, I’ve no idea if it still stands up, but I have such good memories… I digress.
Free Lives has been on a spree since Broforce blew me away all those years ago. So when I saw Stick It to the Stickman on Steam a couple of years ago, and when I saw who was making it, and then when I saw the game that they were making, well, I immediately purchased it.
Then, as I so frequently do, I completely and totally forgot about the game that I had just bought.
Fast forward to September’s monthly update, and Stick It to the Stickman appears in my news feed because, after almost six years of development, the game is finished and ready for public consumption. Reminded of Past Me’s canny investment, I immediately forgot the game again.
Fast forward to today, launch day, and I was once more reminded that I hadn’t played Stick It to the Stickman, and finally, despite my terrible short-term memory’s best efforts, I booted up the game.
Therein, I was reminded that Free Lives are a funny old bunch. From the first moment until I shut the game down to write this missive, I didn’t stop laughing. It’s not just slapstick comedy either; when you’re not stabbing a supervisor in the eye with a knife or kicking an office manager out of the window, you’ll be laughing at the corporate humour instead.
In fact, the writing team delivers a series of observational jokes that hit just as hard as the kung-fu kicks. There have been so many games recently with strong anti-corporate messages or themes, but I think Stick It to the Stickman might be my favourite of them all.
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for you. This is a news piece and not a review, because I’m still an intern right now and I need more work experience before I attempt to think anything deeper. That said, I’ve enjoyed my first day at Stick It to the Stickman, and I’m absolutely going to try the co-op at some point soon, too.
Stick It to the Stickman is out now on PC (Mac, Win) on Steam.
