Kick-Flight has released simultaneously worldwide 13 February 2020, so how’s our first impressions? First of all, it’s a 4-on-4 aerial battler as advertised, where you can move around quite freely in the map. Movements use a mix of taps and flicks as you maneuver in mid-air.
At first blush, the character designs are varied and colourful, easily differentiating themselves apart. There is some map variation, presumably without that many to start considering I got the same map twice in a row. It might differ with the other game modes. You’ll be going through tunnels, arches and so forth and battling four others according to the map objective.
I personally found the controls a little awkward. You’re told to hold down on the screen to fly, which itself isn’t an issue. When wanting to flick for quick movements, though, it won’t register the secondary input if you do so. I prefer to play this kind of game with two hands myself, but one supposes this implementation is to ease one-handed play. Depending on yourself, the controls may feel fluid or otherwise, if you’re less adept at the flicks. You can lock on to an opponent and you will automatically attack.
Skills come in the form of Discs, your unique Kicker’s skill and one Special Skill. With the exception of the Special Skill, flick your Discs and Kicker skill upwards to use it. Special Skills charge up over time and just requires a tap to unleash. The effect types are all helpfully labelled, though the colours might be something you want to watch out for. Any Disc you select has a helpful visual to show you how they work.
You get Discs from the gacha system or from capsules after matches. Duplicate Discs are used to level up the corresponding skills. URs are on a somewhat generous 3% rate. Of course, these UR discs are generally powerful, but they also have a cooldown to go with them. Upgrading Discs give your Kicker additional stats too, so you’d do well to do so. Number of Discs, as well as their content, depends on your rank, so there’s no exact “pay to win” you can use to start off besides your stats.
Buying a certain quantity of Discs will give a Kicker Ticket for a new character, which you cannot get dupes of. You can get “special” Kickers, which are just alternate outfits with no additional stats. They do include “Gears”, which will randomly provide an equippable buff to a specific Kicker they are for. Kickers can equip three of these Gears.
There’s also a premium Flight Pass for 28 days, providing Jet Coins, Kicker Tickets, Gears and Disc Forces used in upgrading Discs. Capsule Slots are also increased. Jet Coins can also instantly open Capsules, besides rolling in gacha for more Discs. Free Capsules are obtainable every 4 hours too, and they also provide rewards such as Kicker Tickets after a certain number of Discs.
Two game modes, Flag Flight and Rapid Ball, are locked behind S Rank. The former is a spin on “Capture the Flag”, where you can defeat opponents to drop their flags, while your team plants a certain number of them to win. Rapid Ball is a more streamlined version of the Scramble mode, collecting balls and going through goal post of sorts.
Scramble, the one you’d likely be playing most, has you collect crystals to deposit to your guardian. Guardians can attack opposing Kickers. Likewise, Kickers can attack Guardians to make them expel crystals already collected by the opponent, or directly defeat opponents carrying crystals to steal them. The minimap will helpfully show you uncollected crystals and location of Guardians, team members and opponents.
Kick-Flight gives off pretty strong first impressions, with perhaps more polish possible. Maybe give it a try to see if you like it!