Flea! Review – It’s Sort of Like Super Meat Boy, but for the NES and Evercade!

Over the last few years, precision platformers have become a popular genre. Especially after the release of Super Meat Boy. Since then, many platformers of that style have been released. For the Evercade, one of the most well-known is Flea!, which is included on Indie Heroes Collection 1.

Premise and Gameplay

It starts simple enough, some refu-fleas are in need of blood, and it’s your job to go get some! Being a hyperactive flea, you are constantly jumping. In fact, you can’t stop!

You bounce around from one screen to another collecting blood and making it to the end of the level so you can go on to the next. Nearly all of these are a series of single-screen platforming challenges. Some things to contend with include spikes, mosquitoes, slugs, and other hazards. Touch any of them and you explode in a tiny little mess of blood. You then reappear at the start of the level just a second later to try it again.

Difficulty and Gameplay Progression

After making it through 5-10 levels you’ll meet one of your friends again. He’ll exchange the blood you’ve collected for more lives. You’ll need them because this is a pretty challenging game! It’s made up of at least 80 levels, some of which are quite devious in their design!

Still, when I played this again to get images for this review, I had 200+ lives by the end of 15 minutes and made it up beyond level 25. Although players on the Evercade can use save states, know that Flea! is old school in its design; there’s no passwords or any way to save your game. In some ways this can be frustrating, but I think if you get more proficient at it you can clear it in an hour or less. Some stages only take about 15 seconds to complete.

Despite its difficulty, I found Flea! to be really enjoyable. The control of Henry (the flea) was very precise and most of the time I knew that when I died it was my fault. Also, even though you can’t stop jumping, you can mash on one of the buttons (or use turbo fire) to slow down your jumping. This is necessary to make it past certain platforming challenges or avoid being hurt by another critter in the level. Actually, that is just one of the gameplay mechanics that are introduced as the game progresses. And really, one of the best things about this title is how the level design progresses every 10 stages or so.

Speaking of the 10-stage element, many of them end in a boss of some sort. These change up the game a bit by having Henry be chased by other vermin. While normal levels take place on a single screen, a lot of the boss encounters feature an auto scrolling mechanic. You have to keep adapting to approaching hazards as you make your way to the right, with the hope of reaching the exit before being defeated. These are a fun diversion from the standard gameplay design and usually test what you’ve been dealing with in the last 10 levels.

Graphics

Going on to graphics, just know that this is a NES game, so there isn’t a lot of color depth. Even so, what is here is reasonable for the hardware. I appreciate that the developers worked hard on designing the look of the game within the confines of the system. Sprite flicker wasn’t distracting and the use of color was good. Seeing the flowing blood and vermin in the levels makes a lot of sense based on the game’s premise, too. I liked the look of the game and the animation was smooth.

Music and Sound Effects

Surprisingly, one of the things I didn’t grow tired of was the music. The reason why I mention surprise is that since some stages take so long to complete the first time, I thought the tracks would grate on me. Yet, that was almost never the case! The compositions have that NES charm that I enjoy, and thankfully they don’t restart after you die. This is a big deal since you could die a lot in this game. I liked the sound effects as Henry bounced on the ground, along with the audio that plays when you donate blood as well

Final Thoughts

I will admit, as I played this game it had moments where it was extremely frustrating. From those times I can recognize that Flea! isn’t for everyone, and I expect some won’t enjoy it.

However, I can’t help but be impressed by it! Having 80 stages or more is a lot for a NES title, even if some of levels are very short. I would have been pleased with 60. What we have here is a great amount of content.

I’ll even say that I think this is one of the best games on the Indie Heroes Collection 1 cart. Of the titles I’ve reviewed for it thus far, only Deadeus (Review) and Chain Break (Review) have received the rating that this game is getting. That being, Very Positive!

Flea! is charming, it has a good deal of challenge and a high skill ceiling, and the graphics and music fit it well. Part of me wants to think that it not having passwords available between every 10 levels is a shame, but when a game such as this is so well done, I can’t complain too much.

I hope that Flea!2 is of similar quality, although I hear it is significantly more difficult than this one. It’s available on Indie Heroes Collection 4 (Blaze website). In the meantime, I will probably play this at least one more time, and see how far I can go without using any save states.

My last two reviews from the Indie Heroes Collection 1 cart include Alien Cat 2 and Super Homebrew War.

Title: Flea!
Genre: Precision Platformer
Year Released: 2020
Developer: Lowtek Games (Itch.io)
Available On: NES, Dreamcast, Itch.io, Steam, and Evercade through Indie Heroes Collection 1.
Price Paid: $1.14, or $16.00 for Indie Heroes Collection 1

Remember, we can have different opinions about the games we play. If you like something more (or less) than I do, both of our perspectives are valid.