Nintendo Switch – Flipping Death #202

I couldn’t take this game seriously with the voice of Louise talking to me…

Flipping Death – Nintendo Switch – Released: 8/7/18 – $19.99

Short Review (Review copy provided by Zoink!)

Flipping Death is not exactly what you think it would be judging by the title. It is about a girl named Penny that dies and while being dead takes over the Grim Reaper’s job but his job is pretty boring. Instead of going on mowing down people you are trying to help them find inner peace before moving on in the afterlife. The current reaper has been doing his jobs for a very very long time until Penny appears and is given his job. She loves it as she is able to help people find their killers, work on their tennis game, paint their boat, and get someone back on their bike. Flipping Death does what the title suggests though… you are death but you are flipping between the alive world and the dead world to figure out puzzles. You will find yourself being immerse in the story as the comedy hits hard from the beginning to end with even some fourth wall breaking. The only issue is if you decide to wait years to play this game, I believe some of the jokes won’t age as well. One of my favorite characters is “Poke-Man” which is clearly a play on Pokemon but it is common for adults that are unaware of Pokemon to call it, Pokemans. You use him to poke objects which is fitting for the play on words that some adults confuse with Pokemon. The game much like Stick it the Man tries to find humor at every step so if you are not a humor person this game will go right over your head or drive you nuts with how it tries to force jokes down your throat. Personally I loved every minute of this game but can understand how some people may not enjoy it. I would give this game a 9 out of 10!

Story

Penny is a pretty average teenage trying to find a job that is willing to accept her “uniqueness” but her current job at a funeral home, doesn’t appreciate her. While there she would wear her Halloween outfit and mess with customers. Today was the final straw and she was let go so she goes with her boyfriend to hang out but crashes her car when a ghost goes by them. They decide to walk instead but have to walk through the graveyard when Penny decides to jump up and down on a mausoleum… and the falls gives sending Penny to her doom.

When she wakes up, she doesn’t believe she is dead and talks to several characters before meeting the Grim Reaper. He informs her that he has been waiting a very very long time for an intern and that she must be it. He decides it is finally time to go on vacation…. TO THE MOON! He gives her his scythe and cloak so she can do his job while he is away. Her objective is to help other lost souls find their way but finds that someone has taken over her body in the living world and must stop them.

Gameplay

If you have played “Stick it to the Man!” (shameless plug for my review of it: Click Here!), then you already know how this game plays out. It is mainly a glorified fetch quest but using characters to change, lure, cut, bite, chew, blow or poke to unlock what to do next. It is a fairly simple game and even has a hint system in case you get lost. I used several of the hints when I wasn’t sure what to do, just to find out I did something out of order.

Each stage has several characters that you will need to understand and use their abilities to complete the main quest. During the stage you will collect small ghosts that allow you to swap between the real world and ghost world after you feed a human the required tiny ghosts. Sometimes it is as simple as figuring out how this person died to helping someone get out of a coma.

The best part about Flipping Death is you can easily move around the stage using teleportation once you unlock a character. The map makes it simple to teleport to their current location to quickly zip across the map. Your scythe also acts as a method of teleporting as you can use it to reach ledges that are outside your jump height.

Personal Experience

I went away this weekend to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child so I was able to play through several chapters on the bus ride to and from NYC. I only play this game and another game until I completed both of them… both were amazing games but Flipping Death takes the high road as it hits that mix of platforming and being funny. Zoink! is excellent at telling stories even if Louise’s voice from Bob’s Burgers made me think I was watching a glorified episode of Bob’s Burgers at times. Her voice just fits so well for Penny that I easily forget that I am playing a game.

There was some slight issues with the game nothing gamebreaking or disruptive but two things… subtitles don’t always match what a character is speaking. So a character could say “Got” but the subtitle reads “Get” so that is something to note if you are hard of hearing and the other thing is characters will stretch in weird ways or disappear at times. Everything is still there but nothing is breaking the game you will just see a limb shoot off into one direction if it gets caught between two objects. Certainly for the character “Poke-Man” he will extend his hand to hit something and if it gets caught on something on the way back it may fly off before returning to him.

Final Thoughts

While Flipping Death is an excellent game with the simple art style of Zoink! and the simple gameplay elements. It is the humor and story that really excel this time around with Penny and the rest of the cast being bizarre and forward about many topics. The game will definitely not age well due to some of the jokes but currently it could easily bring tears of laughter to anyone. Flipping Death takes the sad nature of death and flips it to bend and mold a character that finds humor in all things death. I would give this game a 9 out of 10, if the minor issues were cleared up it would be a 10 out of 10 with no problem. Hopefully patches come through so I can raise it just one point higher since it is better than Stick it to the Man but new issues found their way to the surface.

My Gameplay Footage:

Will be adding on the weekend haven’t had time to restart the game yet!

Trailer:

Cocktail: Temp Death Penny

1 oz Watermelon Pucker

1 oz Sour Watermelon Vodka

1 oz Tequila

4 oz Watermelon Juice

Decided to go with more of a color I think Penny would enjoy but with a twist as the drink looks sweet and innocent until the tequila is added into the mix. Showing that life and be interesting but always throwing you something new.

End Credits

Finally back to doing more end credits but for now just keeping it short since outside of Harry Potter nothing really happened this weekend. I mainly uploaded reviews and posted a ton of things on Instagram. Pretty jam packed weekend as well since I didn’t have much time to do anything but write and play video games. So I focused on that instead of anything else. Playing through some games is much harder than you would think since some games require a lot more attention than others or sometimes other require more time. Yes…. I did write this before I did “The Wardrobe”…. Just don’t notice it!