Knock fairies into the river
Touhou Fairy Knockout is a 2D platform fighter where you play as a fairy from Gensokyo and throw the others off the stage. The core loop is short and readable: stomp on an enemy's head or crash into them to knock them down, then kick them into the river for the KO. Nothing more complicated than that is required to start winning, which makes it easy to pick up between other games. The fairies are bubbly and mischievous, and the whole thing plays out in a colorful, cartoony pixel style with plenty of comedy in the dialogue.
Playing it with your friends
Story Mode can be played alone or with a friend along for the ride, so you can run through the five stages and their bosses as a pair. Each fairy has her own storyline, which gives your group a reason to swap characters and compare runs rather than always picking the same one. The roster is planned around nine fairies, with four available in the Early Access version and the other five arriving later, so your group's options will grow over time. Online Co-op and Online PvP are both listed as features, covering cooperative story runs and head-to-head matches.
Weather, items, and collectibles
Two systems keep the arenas from going stale. Weather changes every 10 seconds and applies a new environmental rule: standing in the Scorching Sun beam for more than 3 seconds costs 1 HP, flying for more than 3 seconds without touching the ground during a Sand Storm costs 1 HP, Sunny instantly KOs any enemy whose health runs out mid-air, and Thunder spawns an invincible ball of electricity that KOs anyone it touches. There are 12 weathers in total. Items drop from the sky on the same 10-second timer and can be held and used whenever you like, with 26 in total. The Giant Popsicle restores 1 HP, the Durian forces every enemy to the ground so they cannot fly, the Boomerang pierces everything in its path, and Shrimp Sushi lets you dash without limit for a short time.
Before you start
Expect an Early Access build: the roster is incomplete, trophies are still to come, and the developers say they plan to keep adding ideas, including ones suggested by the community. Collectibles are a big part of the loop, with achievements, enemies, bosses, weathers, items, and music CDs all tracked in-game. The tags cover a lot of ground — action, sports, RPG, tactical, casual — but the actual play is head-stomping and kicking, so go in expecting fast rounds rather than long strategic ones.