A stickfellow in a top hat’s just burst through a twentieth story window, taking a fatal tumble down the corporate ladder, and all because I lobbed a parcel at him. This kind of thing happens all the time in Stick It to the Stickman, the roguelite beat ’em up that Anger Foot devs Free Lives are set to release in early access form later this month.
It’s glorious enough to forgive any frustration you might have been left with when publishers Devolver Digital announced late last year that the corporate slapfest had been delayed into 2025.
As you can probably make out from the trailer below, Stick It to the Stickman’s premise is cathartically simple: “Stickmen need jobs, but more importantly, shareholders need growth. Climb to the top of the tower to crush your boss’s nuts, and please note that 50% of office work is kicking stickmen out of windows.” Once you brawl your way to the roof of the office in simply cathartic fashion, you fight the existing CEO for the honour of leading the corporate megastructure, and the power to choose between spitting in the face of or bowing before the cabalistic corpoverlords which rule all.
The game’s finally set to come out in early access form on August 18, but you can get a taste of its floppy fisticuffs by giving a freshly-revamped Steam demo a go. I have, and as my first exposure to sticking a fleshy wrench in the gears of capitalism, it gets a big thumbs up.
You start off sitting on a park bench, then beat your way through a throng of job applicants gathered around the lobby of a skyscraper. Naturally, you’re asked to provide a reference in the form of the name of a friend who already works at the firm. Once you’re hired, your first task is to beat this old friend and Fortnite buddy senseless via slapstick scuffle. Then, it’s off up the tower, climbing ladders and entering lifts that sound suspiciously like toilets flushing to reach ever new levels of suited sticks in need of dragon punching, spin kicking, or just having a coffee mug lobbed at their bonce.
Free Lives seem to have gotten the mix of hilarious body floatiness once a stickperson gets smacked and the weighty punch you want inflicting such a blow to have pretty close to the sweet spot. Much like Gang Beasts, the cartoony physicality’s top notch. The jokes about capitalism are pretty damn funny to boot.
The devs are aiming to have Stick It to the Stickman’s early access last for “approximately 12 months”, with fresh additions being made each month. “We plan on expanding the corporation to include manufacturing, marketing, a science center and a doomsday bunker, as well as corporate lobbying,” they write. “Each new job within the game will have unique gameplay. And each new job will take the player one step closer to the final chapter of the story.”
I’m pretty hooked on booting execs out of windows thanks to the demo, so this is definitely on my radar going forward.
