Ok, I'm just going to say it: The fact that there are people in this world who don't think Divekick is fun just makes me makes me terribly sad. I've read far too many reviews that waffle back and forth between the opinion that the game is "too simple to be interesting" while also being "too complicated to be accessible" that my head is spinning. And don't get me started on the youtube commentating assholes who say that the art style looks "cheap"! WTF?!
In a way, I almost understand the confusion. Divekick is super weird and as such it's something that requires a bit of time and dedication to understand the nuances of its systems. It's a game that attempts to distill the entirety of competitive fighting games into two buttons, Dive (or jump) and Kick. You attempt to attack your opponent by diving into the air and then kicking them. Characters have unique angles to their kicks, and pressing kick on the ground makes characters jump backwards. Oh, and one hit kills, ending the round. First to 5 wins.
In this way, the entire game becomes lazer focused on knowing the angle of attack of each character (i.e what space you or your opponent threaten) and controlling space. BUT (and this is an important "but") there is an extra level of complication in that characters can build meter with each kick that can be spent on special moves (activated by pressing both buttons at once). These specials are character specific and dramatically alter how the characters behave. In the most simple example, the character Dive can fall fast to the ground when activating his special in the air, or can makes a shallow jump forward when activating his special on the ground. Ground and air specials are balanced by the amount of meter they drain to activate.
HOWEVER the player also needs to balance the usefulness of these moves with the fact that they can become incredibly fast and jump super high when their meter is completely full. When you fill meter you activate "Kickfactor" and move super fast and jump higher, but you proceed to drain said meter until you run out. The balance between whether or not you blow meter for an advantageous special move, or hold onto it to activate your kickfactor is one of the many risk-reward scenarios the player needs to be mindful of. The other system that augments this system is the "headshot" system.
A hit directly to a player's head will cause them to become dizzy. Dizzy characters are temporarily slower and kick shorter for a few seconds in the next round. But more importantly, dizzy characters lose any meter that they might have gained in previous rounds. This adds to the risk-reward element of meter management since a well placed headshot from your opponent can ruin your plans to dominate by rushing to kickfactor.
And the final element of the gameplay, which really hammers home the importance of proper positioning on the battlefield, is the timer. Each round is 20 seconds. Since the game operates on a one-hit-kill rule, when the time runs out the winner of the round is the player that is closest to the center of the fighting arena. If both players are an equal distance from the center, the round ends in a draw. A large red line is drawn when the timer hits 5 seconds, but this information is largely redundant since each arena is intelligently constructed with a large graphical vertical line the allows players to immediately see the central position of the arena as soon as each round starts.
While all of these systems may sound a bit complicated when written down, the genius of Divekick is that, by removing the complicated execution elements of fighting games, it becomes easier for EVERYONE to pick up on the deeper, meta elements common to pretty much all fighting games. Divekick is a game that can play just as well in a party scenario as it can in an EVO tournament. It's a game that anyone can pick up, but a master will still dominate a neophyte since there is meaty and deep strategy behind its gameplay. And really, at the end of the day, that is exactly what you want out of a good competitive game; skill being the main deciding factor in success. Often times developers will mistakenly try to add in chaos or rubberbanding to make their games more accessible. Instead, Divekick understands that a truly enjoyable competitive experience can only be achieved when the players immediately understand what they did wrong when they lose. In this way, it becomes possible for players to immediately understand how best to correct their mistakes, and in doing so, they improve. And that is the true genius of Divekick.