Kickback Clicker

The game is OK I guess. By all standards, its pretty so-so, with really nothing all that special going on, in a genre that is no longer so friendly to games of that caliber. On the other hand, the game is dirt cheap compared to its peers, and while the genre of short incrementals has certainly become more competitive over the years, it has also seemingly become more expensive on average as well. It does a fine job as a quick little thing to play when you feel the incremental itch starting up again, but if you are looking for something truly special to play, you should definitely set your sights on some greener pastures. This is very far removed from being the Mona Lisa of short incrementals, and is instead more akin to a small and basic square painting of maybe a sailboat or sheep pasture or something, that you might expect to see hung in some corner of a house somewhere, perhaps at the back of an unimportant set of stairs or hallway. Fortunately for Kickback Clicker, it regularly goes on a massive 70% discount, and considering that it lacks the overall quality for there to be any urgent need or desire for one to pick it up, you can effectively treat that discount as the general price for the game, being around $1.20-ish, maybe a little less if you already own one of the games in its very modest number of bundles. For being dirt cheap, you are getting something that is on the whole, a fair bit more valuable than dirt, and while this game would be blown out of the water by almost any other incremental at its "normal" pricepoint, it actually offers you a pretty decent experience when you pick it up on sale. As for its qualities as an incremental itself, the game is very short, having about the same lifespan as the little bugs that you will be squishing. The gameplay is also very basic, although fun enough for the 80 or so minutes you will spend playing it. The general presentation is also not particularly special either. While there is some decent variety in the little bugs that you squash, the overall pixel aesthetic and art style felt a bit lackluster and barren compared to the general standard of these games, and the sound design likewise didn't feel like anything to right home about. There are also a fair few issues with the balancing. The economy upgrades go a little crazy, with too much of an emphasis on upgrades that give you a passive income while you are playing the round, which goes a little against the spirit of it being a clicker focused incremental. The supplemental upgrades are also quite bad overall. Kickback Clicker unfortunately commits one of the great sins of incremental games, in having upgrades that are actually net negatives. Instead of using a set timer, the game works on a stamina, or in this case "fuel" system, where alongside passively losing a bit over time in the round, every attack also costs a bit of fuel. Unfortunately, this also extends to any other abilities you get later on in the game, and not all of them are useful enough to actually be worth the fuel cost to use them once you get them. In particular, the Sawblade upgrades are basically entirely useless to buy, and detrimental to use in round, and the Gatling upgrade, while fun, doesn't really earn its keep either. This phenomenon should never happen in an incremental, and while I can see what the developer was attempting to go for, the truth of the matter is that adding upgrades with tradeoffs is a risky business, and not all abilities are very compatible with that style of design. It was also a strange choice to make it so that the Nuke ability does not regenerate on its own if you use it and then still fail the round, making you have to recharge it by having to complete another, probably easier, round. The last issue is that there is actually a fair amount of RNG that goes into each round. Between in round events, and special bonus enemies that can spawn, each round can vary by quite a large margin. The difference doesn't matter as much in the early game, but it can make quite a bit of a difference later in the game as you get weaker in comparison to the enemies, while the RNG powerups stay as powerful as ever. It isn't the worst overall, and there is even some amount of skill in trying to properly manipulate things to both control it and make the most out of it, but it is definitely there, and a significant enough factor to be worth mentioning. Ultimately the game is still short enough that this is a relatively small issue in the grand scheme of things though. All in all, Kickback Clicker is far from the worst short incremental out there, and while it IS short and unimpressive, it doesn't overstay its welcome either. For the price that you should be getting it for, I would say it is a pretty reasonable game. It is very easy to fit it into your cart during any seasonal sale, and as is often the case with games like these, the investment in time and money is so negligible that there is next to nothing to actually lose by playing this, provided you actually enjoy playing incremental games. It is also short enough to comfortably be able to refund it if you just REALLY want that $1.20 back, but honestly that probably costs more mental energy than it could be worth, and its always nice to support indie games anyways. The last thing of note is that rather amusingly, the base language of the game is actually Russian, so its very likely you will have to change that when you start it up, although it only takes a minute to do so.

Very good incremental game

short and neat

очень сыро

fun clicker, medium length, played for a couple of days. enjoyed the music, ui, functional tree, and the pace. thank you for the work on your game!

kick back innit

short and sweet