Indie developer I Fight Bears has just released its inaugural title, Fist of Awesome, on Steam. If you like the idea of beating up deranged forest animals in 90s arcade-style sidescrolling combat, this game is probably right up your alley.
Fist of Awesome casts the player as a time traveling lumberjack who “gets caught up in a needlessly complex interstellar plot to enslave Earth by populating history with homicidal wild animals.” In other words, players, as the lumberjack, must travel through various time periods while beating up all sorts of animals, most notably grizzly bears.
The game is being billed as a celebration of retro gaming, with simplistic but vivid 3D pixel art, a soundtrack straight out of the days of the NES and Sega Genesis, and sidescrolling melee combat a la Streets of Rage. On mobile devices, fighting moves are pulled off by swiping and tapping the screen in various combinations.
The game’s development is headed by Nicoll Hunt, a Scottish developer who has worked with developers Codemasters and Visual Science and Realtime Worlds. His resume includes well regarded titles such as Colin McRae Rally, Carmageddon, and APB.
Fist of Awesome was successfully Kickstarted to the tune of £11,808 on December 2012, and is available for iOS, Android, PC, Mac, and OUYA, but only now has made its way to Steam. It can currently be purchased at a 15% discount for $6.79.