It’s super late in the day and I still have tons to do but I had to drop everything to tell you guys about Flappy Fighter (Free). Yes, seriously, a game called Flappy Fighter has ground my productivity to a halt. Quietly posted to our forums yesterday morning, Flappy Fighter might sound like some sort of joke app or one of those games trying to ride on the coattails of Flappy Bird’s success only five years too late. I love fighting games so was instantly intrigued and definitely expected the worst. I was wrong. This is a seriously competent fighting game that has been ingeniously designed for mobile. It has fantastic pixel art and a very obvious influence from Street Fighter II (and, uh, Flappy Bird).

The genius of Flappy Fighter is how it strips the mechanics down to left and right dashes, blocking, and just four special moves. You can’t jump outright, but some of your special moves are aerial so you can actually manage jumping in and out towards your opponent. The movement physics, speed, and hit box detection are all so spot on it makes for a super frantic but surprisingly strategic fighting experience. The biggest problem is how limited Flappy Fighter currently is in terms of content, almost like it’s just a demo. There’s only a single fighter and an arcade mode where you’ll try to win as many matches in a row against the AI as you can over three difficulty levels. There’s also a very basic Training mode. And… that’s it.

The game promises new fighters and match ups each week so it’ll be interesting to see how Flappy Fighter evolves from here, but all I know is that it’s off to an incredible start so far. Hopefully this is the beginnings of what will become a full-featured fighting game for mobile. Check it out for yourself as it’s free to download with ads, and an IAP to remove them as well as one to unlock some additional outfit colors for your fighter, and be sure to drop by the game’s forum thread to share your thoughts on this curious but surprisingly entertaining little game.