Developer: Lowteck Games
Platform Reviewed: Dreamcast (also available on Steam and NES)
I absolutely adore new releases on older systems, especially when they are as great as this one.
Flea! is a pretty huge game set out over 80 levels (including various, very cool, scrolling boss levels) in which you play as a constantly-jumping flea called Harry who is off to collect bottles of blood to save his people (or *ahem* flea-ple).
I’m a big fan of a simple idea done well and Flea! is a textbook example of that principle. The controls in this pixel art, 2D platformer are immediately accessible with left and right controlling the direction of your jumping and a hammering of the A button required to lower the leap-height (a surprisingly satisfying mechanic).
This is pretty much all you need to make your way through the 80 challenging stages that make up the game.
Accompanied by a chiptune soundtrack that had the same effect on me as the classic Bubble Bobble theme – in that, it’s heavily repeated but never feels repetitive – you start with 21 lives that, in the wrong circumstances can disappear faster than a pint of lager in the hands of Chips Rafferty.
This game is SAUCY!
You gain lives by collecting blood and handing it over to a rotund flea every few stages, each bottle translates to one extra life and hear my words as I say that you should NOT get cocky when you bank up over a hundred and feel invincible, as one level can easily see thirty or forty chipped off at an alarming rate due to the games fast-paced instant restarts.
The balancing of going off-piste to snag a few extra bottles of blood at the risk of having to restart the stage is wonderfully pitched and led to some very, VERY tense moments for me!
I am a big fan of Flea! and it has put Lowteck Games on the map for me
If you are a fan of single-screen puzzle platformers, then I highly recommend this, It’s a game with really high replay value due to the challenge it presents and I’m clearly going to give it a spin at my next gaming night to see if myself and a group of friends can finally save the flea kingdom and get past the boss of level fifty which put paid to my current run, this is a flea bite I’m happy to have!
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