Kung Fu Kicker!

Kun Fu Kicker is a video game for PS3 and Xbox 360 via PSN and XBL respectively.

Creative Vision
This is an idea I dreamt up many years ago, basically I thought let's make a little 3D action game that is, essentially, a music video. Later I thought let's sell them on the PlayStation Network or Xbox Live Arcade for maybe 3-4 dollars each. Then I thought this game would need to have amazing music. Later, just one song. Here's an idea: the player plays the role of a man whose wrists are cuffed behind his back. His cuffs are tied by a chain to a post in the middle of the floor. Alright sounds good so far, at the beginning, we see the man's face as the camera fades from black. He's a ‘Fist of the Dragon' sort of guy. He's chained up to a post in the middle of the ground in a dirt pit. All around him are shutters. He wonders. . .um... "Where am I?' Then the shutters fly up. Screaming crowds and monstrous people. The music begins to pump. Thugs with baseball bats come streaking toward him.

Let's talk about the gameplay.

This guy kicks at these freakish thugs. It controls like a First Person Shooter. The music is pumping and loud. The art direction is a lot like Gears of War, a bunch of big meatheads just screaming to be kicked. So you kick guys and they ragdoll into one another. You hold the trigger and then let go. Pinball kicks. Shotgun kicks. Kick with the left trigger or right trigger, left leg or right leg. Just kicking to the music. Just relentless action. That's all the game is, pure overly stylized violence, nothing more, nothing less. The longer you survive, the crazier the freaks become. Maybe they have different weapons. Maybe you can kick a huge clever out of one guy's hand, and if it hits another guy, he'll get cut in two and go flying. Maybe if you kick a guy right in the torso, his torso explodes out of his body like a projectile, slamming into a bunch of other dudes, blowing their arms off, as the original guy's arms fall onto the ground. Successfully kicking a thug into oblivion would feel like getting a fist bump from The Big Man Upstairs. And the music keeps pumping, and changing, the music is the best part of the game. This game would just be a simple stylish fighting game, but oh, what style it would have!

Oh, and also you die if one of them touches you.

If you don't like the whole death by one enemy thing, let me tell you something, you're trying to keep these guys away, closeness represents danger. Enemies throw projectiles (beer bottles maybe even baseballs?), and the game kicks into slow motion while the player retains full control speed with which to aim a kick and deflect.

The music should be of such awesomeness that cutting it off anywhere, with an instant snap to red, would feel thematically consistent.

Maybe suddenly, you'll find the screen full of enemies and projectiles, and you'll feel hopeless for an instant. Except there is no such thing as hopeless, at any point, one kick is all you need to clear the whole screen. It's just a matter of whether you are a tough enough ubermensch to take that shot and make it.

Thanks for reading. If you want please check out my other game ideas:

Indestructible Death Suit

Wasteland