Flat Kingdom Paper’s Cut Edition Switch Review – Rock, Paper, Scissor Combat

Flat Kingdom originally released back in 2016, and it has since seen a couple upgrades. The one debuting on the Nintendo Switch is Flat Kingdom Paper’s Cut Edition, and I am honestly not sure what is new here, as a previous release of the game never released on the hybrid console.

Despite that, this is a cute 2D action platformer with a Paper Mario-like art style and a strange rock-paper-scissors combat system. So is this a game you need to add to you ever-growing Switch library? Or does this one fall flat? Let’s find out!

The story of Flat Kingdom is that chaos engulfed everything long ago, and wars and conflict were the norm. The people were terribly unhappy, obviously, but then a wise sorcerer came down from the skies and created six magical jewels that banished all the monsters and evil and brought peace to the kingdom.

The jewels were then placed in different realms of earth for safe keeping and to continue protecting the people, but there is a rumor that removing even one of these jewels from their location would disturb the balance and return chaos to the lands. Well, of course the game begins with some mysterious character not only kidnapping the princess (typical), but they also stole the magical jewel from the Flat Kingdom! It looks like it is up to our hero Flat to navigate there way through the realms to restore balance, save the princess, and bring peace once again.

As far as stories go, this is a fun one, albeit pretty standard in the fantasy spectrum. There are 6 convenient jewels in 6 different locations to give us reason to go to new places and experience new enemies, colors, and action. It isn’t the most profound story, but it is still a fun one that carries itself well from start to finish.

Unfortunately, things go down due to the gameplay. Combat is rather weird, albeit a unique approach. Basically, Flat Kingdom uses a rock-paper-scissor system that just does not feel right. Flat, your avatar, can transform its shape to a circle (double jump), a triangle (speed), and a square (strength and weight), and the system is basically this: triangle beats circle, circle beats square, and square beats triangle.

Enemies throughout, including bosses, are shaped like one of the three and can only be defeated by the appropriate one. One of the weird things with the combat is that there is no “attack” button. You simply transform into the appropriate shape and touch the enemy. There are times where comboing transformations is necessary, like double-jumping as a circle and changing to a square for a “stomp”-like attack. There are more upgrades over the course of the game, but the combat never feels good, for a few reasons.

One is that movement across the board is slow. Even using the triangle, which is fast, feels like a standard pace, so the circle and square, especially the square, drags and drags. Another reason is the lack of an attack button, which takes the thrill of attacking off the table. Finally, some enemies do not even reveal their shape until way late, and predicting what it might be is not the greatest design.

Another issue is stage design. They are not necessarily bad, but they go on for what feels like ages. Long and exhausting is not a great combination for a stage, and when bosses are mixed into that, levels go on for way longer than desired. Had the team split the stages into more bite-sized increments, I think that would have been much more enjoyable. What is on offer, though, is a bit painful.

One area of Flat Kingdom that is quite lovely is the art and graphical design. Character models, environments, and enemies all have a great look, and the fantastic use of color causes so many of the areas to pop in really wonderful ways. The main character, particularly, is adorable and very well designed. Bosses, too, stand out really well in this area and are a marvel to look at.

The soundtrack is really nice, but I did notice on many occasions that the audio glitches. There were moments where the music sounded muffled, other times where the enemy attack sounds from previous areas continued into new areas, and I even experienced one occurrence where the audio was crackling like my speakers were about to blow out. Each time was so disappointing, because again, the soundtrack is nice and compliments the game really well. Hopefully this gets fixed in a patch.

Flat Kingdom Paper’s Cut Edition is a tough one for me to recommend. It is not necessarily a bad game, but it does have some bad problems. The story is fun and the comedy lands really well throughout, and the art style is excellent! But the gameplay feeling awkward and unsatisfying, as well as the audio glitching out frequently, sours the overall experience.

Like I said, hopefully the audio stuff gets fixed over time, but the gameplay is an area that I think does not work out so great. However, since the price of the game is so cheap and the story is so pleasant, Flat Kingdom can definitely be something to enjoy over a weekend. It is not a long adventure and there is little reason to return, so play at your own risk or jump on the opportunity when the price drops.

Flat Kingdom Paper’s Cut Edition Switch Review provided by Nintendo Link
Publisher: Ratalaika Games
Developers: Fat Panda Games
Release Date: April 1st, 2021
Price: $7.99, £7.99, €7,99
Game Size: 493 MB