When it comes to indie games on the eShop overall, there’s absolutely a sort of bell curve distribution of titles by quality you can chart. While there are some truly extraordinary games out there, the closer you get to roughly the 6 or 7 range the more concentrated the numbers tend to get, and then diminishing again as the scores get to the bottom rungs of the ladder. While I’m typically not inclined to give out very low scores, trying to see the positive in indie offerings and the diverse audiences some titles can appeal to, at some point there’s just no getting around serious problems. With Agnostiko VS, despite some areas where you can see definite effort, unfortunately there’s no way to avoid running into its many shortcomings.

In theory, making a fighting game could seem like it wouldn’t be terribly difficult, but this title really points out that assumption is quite incorrect. What it does at least do reasonably well is come to the table with a roster of 12 pretty different combatants. These range from more traditional, to more fanciful, to possibly a bit weird, and when fighting they at least have a fair number of frames to basically accentuate different movements, from generally jumping around, to punch and kick attacks, to their special and signature moves as well. 

Unfortunately, outside of that, pretty well everything else goes downhill. There are simpler issues like the different sounds and voices that seem like they were recorded in a cavern, the fact that the sound often synchs poorly to the on-screen action, the really strange jump for most characters, and the sometimes odd button combinations for signature moves that make them troublesome to execute for no good reason. More troubling issues arise with the controls and how they correspond to the on-screen action itself, which tends to be a button-mashing mess. Technique quickly gives way to simply going on the attack and mashing between different moves, sometimes allowing you to practically pin your opponents to the wall. Odd circumstances where the camera will jerk suddenly, where your character will just randomly fly across the screen, and just general all-around jankitude unfortunately rule the day more often than not.

Yes, you could choose to play this, and look for what few silver linings there may be among the storm clouds of poorly tested and refined code. I don’t doubt that perhaps there could be people who, for whatever reason, find amusement of some kind in the overall mess of the experience. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that this doesn’t even feel like a game ready for alpha testing, let alone a full release. It has some areas fleshed out for a good start, but too many aspects of play are really lacking to the point that this is a title I would recommend you don’t consider adding to your backlog.