FiNCK thrown into the Web

May 25, 2010

by Eric-Jon Rössel Tairne

As of yesterday, Within a Deep Forest and Knytt designer Nifflas has unleashed his briefly-awaited, user-supported, toss-’em-up FiNCK. As reported earlier, the game’s abrupt announcement and release are due to an impulsive yet inspired development cycle, brought on by affection for the odd man out of the NES Marios.

FiNCK (“Fire Nuclear Crocodile Killer”; yes, it’s nonsense) has the same grab-and-toss mechanics as Super Mario Bros. 2 and a few other gems like Rescue Rangers, and Pastel’s much longer-coming Life+. Perhaps understandably enough, considering the free level editor and Nifflas’ existing fanbase, the game only comes with five (in effect) demonstration levels.

Of course if you want to play your custom levels, that’s four bucks; if you want a copy of the soundtrack, that’s another three. Again, with the development scene around Nifflas’ earlier Knytt Stories, which one might compare to a modern-day ZZT, you can see the reasoning here. I guess time will show how that pricing model works out.

The game is as elegant and simplistic as all of Nifflas’ work, if maybe a bit more rudimentary than usual — deliberately so. The mechanics feel a bit floatier and less refined than in, say, Knytt. The visuals are pared down and a little rougher than they need to be. And again, the levels are barely there, and seem mostly to exist to demonstrate the mechanics for future level editors. And yet the enhancements and additions to the basic Doki Doki ruleset are seamless, and you can tell he’s been thinking about a game like this for years.

Oh, the music is as atmospheric and nifty as ever. Thus the extra soundtrack option.

All in all, FiNCK comes off like a neat little experiment that Nifflas whipped up and then tossed to the community, to see what happens. (The controls are even set up like an NES emulator.) Given the tools and motivation, maybe they can make him the SMB2 sequel he’s always wanted to play.

You can download FiNCK here.