Mighty Flip Champs!

Mighty Flip Champs! is a puzzle/platform game hybrid, requiring players to explore stages that vary from having two areas to up to eight areas. The objective is to get the player-character, Alta, through the stage and to find the Fishman. Later in the game, levels will add characters that Alta must find before she may exit the stage. Alta has only two abilities: movement and flipping. Movement requires use of the Nintendo DS' directional pad, allowing Alta to move only left or right. The player controls Alta on the top screen, with another area being shown on the bottom screen with a mirror image of Alta shown. Players are able to flip to a different screen by pushing a button. When these screens are flipped, the area on the bottom screen will appear on the top screen; depending on the number of areas, the top area will be moved to the bottom area, or a new area will be revealed. If Alta does not have any footing to land on, she will fall, though uninjured. If there is an obstacle in the way while flipping, she will lose and the level will end. Some special stages exist where Alta cannot flip the screen, and is at the whim of a clock which flips the screen every so often. Once a stage is completed, the players are shown their time and an accompanying rank, the highest being an "S". ==Development==

Mighty Flip Champs! was announced in March 2009 for the Nintendo DSi's DSiWare download service. It was developed by WayForward Technologies, using only five developers, the lead designer being Matt Bozon. It was designed for the sake of taking advantage of the Nintendo DS' features, though scaled to work with the DSiWare. Initially, the developers were contemplating the inclusion of enemies and items. They chose to leave enemies out of the game, feeling that if they had enemies, it would make the game too complicated. However, Matt commented that if players responded well to the game, they may implement enemies in a clever way next time. While the difficulty level was not designed to cater to younger or inexperienced players, the developers designed earlier levels to be more forgiving. They had younger players play it, and were surprised as to how far they could make it through. One of the developers, Mark Bozon, commented that it was as difficult to create the levels as it was for players to beat them, adding that they have to build the concept, account for player movements, and then ensure that players cannot exploit any mistakes in the level design. The developers used very little storage space in developing the game, attributing this to the small sprites, which allowed them to have improved audio and cutscenes. The developers took inspiration from multiple other video games, such as Wendy: Every Witch Way, which was developed by Mark and Matt Bozon, the former describing Mighty Flip Champs! as a spiritual successor to it. They also took inspiration from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the idea of dimension traveling. Mark called it the "grand daddy" of the concept. Development took a total of two months, while testing and the publishing process taking a month. When asked if they would ever use the DSiWare service's ability to add new content to games, Matt stated that he would rather do a sequel with new ideas. Mark concurred, adding that if they have the time, money, and fan support, he would like to do a sequel, stating that they have some great ideas for it. ==Reception==

Mighty Flip Champs! and the PlayStation 3 version of Mighty Flip Champs! DX received "favorable" reviews, while the PSP version received "universal acclaim", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Official Nintendo Magazine praised it as a "charming, addictive and original addition to the growing DSiWare library". Edge described the same DS version as being both a "cold study in design brilliance" and a "speed-runner's dream" in certain points, comparing it to video game developer Treasure's Gunstar Heroes. GamesRadar+ included it as one of the best DSiWare games, calling it an interesting puzzler and one of the most ambitious titles on the DSiWare. In 2011, IGN ranked it as the 13th best DSiWare game, calling it one of the first must-have games for the service. Mighty Flip Champs! was a nominee for best downloadable game of 2009 by GameSpy. ==References==