EARLY ACCESS REVIEW | "Stick it to the Stickman"

It’s been nearly three years since I went hands-on with the Stick it to the Stickman demo. Since then, the latest game from Free Lives (Broforce, GORN) has always been lingering in the back of my mind. The demo was a lot of fun, and its fighting mechanics allowed me to experience what it’d be like to control a John Woo movie. Finally, after a long wait, Stick it to the Stickman has arrived on Early Access. And thus far, its badass levels have yet to dwindle!

The main aspect of Stick it to the Stickman has you climbing the literal corporate ladder. You start from the bottom floor, and you make it all the way to the top. With hard work and dedication, you can get there. But it’s not the corporate kind of work you’ll be doing; it’s the butt-kicking kind!

How you’ll fight depends on the character that you choose. Be it with kung fu skills, anime-styled attacks, brute strength, or even the art of the talk, your stickman will go through armies of corporate brown-nosers in order to reach the top. On occasion, you’ll have a couple of mini-boss fights, which come packed with unpaid interns wanting the taste of the green. But when you reach the top and fight the boss, it’s a battle for supremacy.

Sometimes it’s a mere one-on-one battle, and other times both he and you will have your own interns and coworkers aid in taking each other down. When the fight is over, and if you are victorious, a gaggle of CEOs emerge and dub thee the new boss. And then, the cycle begins anew! Every time you win, you secede control of your newly crowned boss and take control of a new corporate lackey.

Control-wise, it’s very easy to handle the mayhem that Stick it to the Stickman is able to deliver. One button jumps, another attacks, and one will unleash a special power-up that you’ll earn. Said power-ups can be a reclaiming of one health, earning extra cash, or slowing down time. As you climb up each floor, your attacks can all be upgraded, but they’ll start from scratch every time you start the level anew. On top of that, if you have a shooting or throwing weapon, you’ll only be given a few to work with before you’re depleted.

Fortunately, it’s not just a whole bunch of lathering, rinsing, and repeating in Stick it to the Stickman. The more you play the main part of the game, the tougher it will get. New enemies, more levels, and the occasional hazard will keep you on your toes as you play. Even if you have the fists of Bruce Lee or the kicks of Michael Jai White, the quantity of enemies that’ll come rushing at you will sometimes be overwhelming. Hence why it sometimes pays to run and evade, until you can find something or somewhere to up your combat advantage.

Climbing the corporate ladder also isn’t the only thing you’ll be doing in Free Lives’s latest. The world you roam — filled with trash, hobos, and far too much nature — can be transformed as you earn more money. From gentrifying parks to adding new areas, this aspect expands on the world your stickman resides in. And the more it grows, the more fun you’ll get to experience!

As the game progresses, the world itself you live in starts to get livelier. You can steal cars, attack citizens, trash police vehicles, and even send folks flying into the ocean. It feels like a nod to the old-school Grand Theft Auto, and while the only thing you can earn here is cash, that dough does come in handy when it comes to purchasing upgrades for the main part of the game. From new areas to new ways to earn more health, these all enhance your experience with the battle to the top all for your benefit!

One of my favorite areas of Stick it to the Stickman takes place in a packaging company. No sooner do you begin your task when you get the urge to run, beat up your coworkers, and face off against the boss in a delightful display of cartoonish violence. It’s a fun change of pace from when you need to take a break from the main game, and it delivers a hell of a lot of challenges that make it very hard to beat it on the first try!

Perhaps the best part about Stick it to the Stickman is its sense of humor. The comedy here is a nice, sharp attack on corporations and the like, as it mocks the poor and those who work for less than minimum wage. Sure, it’s not going to make the people at Wal-Mart or Amazon change their tune when it comes to treating their employees, but you can have just a brief moment of living out the fantasy of decking the heads of these companies square in the nards!

PROS:

• Very fun, delightfully violent
• Great sense of humor
• Lots of terrific side quests

CONS:

• Won’t really teach you how to become a proper CEO

FINAL THOUGHTS:

After three years of waiting, Stick it to the Stickman delivers one of the most fun and silliest beat ‘em ups of the year. Free Lives takes those old Newgrounds stick figure Flash games and amplifies them with plenty of testosterone and a very sharp funny bone. You might not end the game with billions in your bank account, but Stick it to the Stickman will give you a lifetime supply of knuckle sandwiches to forever satisfy your hunger!

EARLY ACCESS RATING:

Promotional consideration provided by Colby Tortorici of Tinsley PR. Reviewed on the PC via Steam.

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