Island Bender

Only played a little bit so far! Got a key from the devs and making a video as we speak, loved the entertainment it provided no matter who was winning, the pure chaos from throwing rocks was unexpected. The bots Ai is amazing as well, I thought they were players. Definitely recommend this!

Island benders is a fun party game similar to Stick Fight: The game. Excepts this game is SO much more predictable and rooted whereas in Stick Fight, its almost completely up to chance. Good game. I recommend it. Go buy it. Now.

Consider watching my Lets Play of ISLAND BENDER on my YouTube Channel
So to start things off, Island Bender is in Early Access. It's a fast paced multiplayer couch or remote play game. Best played with friend(s)- as both my friend & I had an absolute blast playing against the CPU. But as afermentioned it's in EA & while the gameplay mechanic is solid, there are a ton of quality of life improvements that could greatly put this in my repetoire.
Instead of giving my usual reviews- I'm gonna make this into a short wishlist of stuff I would love seeing added to the game, the price & my final thoughts.
//Full Disclosure, I have not seen any road map if any of these ideas are implemented, great minds think alike!//
♦More graphics options, for some reason my PC lagged a bit a few times I played Island Bender.
♦Difficulty option for A.I.
♦Ability to choose the color for your character
♦MAP SELECTION- this one is a huge one for me. The randomized maps is nice but as in our gameplay shows, we kept getting the same maps over and over. Column Island needed to be showcased, it's such chaotic fun.
♦the ability to toggle holding a button to go to the next screen. maybe just pressing A twice would suffice. It really messes with the flow of the game.
♦sometimes opponents spawn on top of you. I understand how some levels don't have more space than whats available but others have plenty of other spawn points
♦more powerups, I think I saw a crate in an earlier dev vlog and that would be pretty dope to use
♦ACHIEVEMENTS- please, give us things like "20 Victories" "playing with yourself- a single player game with no bots" "ordering a pizza for a party when no one showed up- play a game against as many possible bots" "500 kills" stuff like that-
The price for what it is, is not it. $9 seems a bit steep for a game like this (at it's current stage) I can see how it cost that much if it had more things, like what I added above, at $5 USD this is an instant buy though.
My final thoughts on this, is that Island Bender has such amazing potential to be a game I play for years. Much like Gentlemen by Lucky Frame. The artwork is beautiful, I want to see more of every stage and even though I was killed upon spawn on Hands Island (timestamp 4:10 on my video) I loved it. Spawn points need to be addressed asap! But honestly other than that, this game is right up my alley, it's a niche couch multiplayer game with an amazing gameplay physics mechanic that immediately drew my attention to it. If you want to check this out and have people to play with, i'd still advise you to wait for a sale as in it's current state i just don't see anyone getting more than an hour or two of entertainment. I will be back to play this again when we get some quality of life improvements there's a lot of potential especially because it runs on Steam Deck beautifully.
Wait for Sale!

This is a fantastic game by all rights. It's not a Cyberpunk or a Call of Duty, it's a simply delightful fighting game about ninjas with magic.
This game has something that I love to see: a low skill floor and a high skill ceiling. In other words, this game is easy to get into and addicted to, but you can spend a lot of time perfecting some crazy skills. My friends and I have sunk hours into this game without even realizing it. I lost my voice screaming from excitement (and disbelief when I fumbled a rock shot).
The music and maps set the vibe perfectly. Cannot recommend highly enough. This game is worth every penny. Yes, especially at full price. Let's show some love to an epic dev! Can't wait to see what you do next!
(P.S. I received an early access code to this game as I have with some others. I do not know the dev beyond very limited interaction, and the price did not affect my review. My friends and I have purchased this game elsewhere as we believe the dev deserved the money.)

I.B. is fighting 2D platformer. With some gorgeous backgrounds and music, it's a must for lovers of fighting games. The pace is quick and can sometimes be overbearing, although this might be because I played in single player mode, only.
My video is the game running on Steam Deck, and it runs perfectly. You can check it by pressing the link below:

awesome!!! having alot of fun, very similar to Stick Fight: The Game, Rounds, Ultimate Chicken Horse, and other couch multiplayer games like that. obv its a demo so its a little buggy but its still a great time.
i did find a weird bug however, im not sure how i triggered it, but i think when i unchecked the reverse inverse aim option, all the enemies would only shoot away from me for the whole game. it fixed itself once i started a new round, but it seemed like it was thinking it was in reversed aim but it wasnt? if you get what i mean? idk it was weird if i figure it out ill update
also! could probably use some more moves or something to make it a little more dynamic, the power ups are great and i like the wall sliding while knocking a bunch of rocks down, such n such, but i feel like we need like a catch or a block. like have the same circle appear around you but your kinda blocking with your hands, it would either just let the rock you get hit with break past you or you catch it without grabbing the ground under you. im explaining it weird but i want to be able to intercept thrown rocks without pulling rock from the stage.
TDLR very yummy plz keep updating 8/10!!! i feel like toph beifong

Fantastic couch coop action