Brawlhalla Review – A Platform Fighter with Merits of Its Own

<p>2017 has been a year of surprises for me&period; First&comma; I was taken aback by the beauty and the sheer excellent game design of <em>Horizon&colon; Zero Dawn<&sol;em>&period; Sonic has finally had a great game with <em>Sonic Mania<&sol;em>&period; The sequel to <em>Knack<&sol;em>&quest; It&&num;8217&semi;s actually pretty good&period; And then we&&num;8217&semi;ve had some outstanding indies&comma; such as <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;rise-shine-review-beautiful-brutal-brilliant&sol;"><em>Rise &amp&semi; Shine<&sol;em><&sol;a> and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;super-cloudbuilt-review&sol;"><em>Super Cloudbuilt<&sol;em><&sol;a>&period; <em>Brawlhalla<&sol;em> is one of those surprises&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Brawlhalla<&sol;em> is a platform fighter that finally feels good to play with no floaty controls&comma; and it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t have the word Smash or Bros in it&period; All of the characters add their own flair to each attack&comma; and it feels so satisfying to spike your opponent down the pit&period; And the best thing about this&quest; It&&num;8217&semi;s free-to-play and it&&num;8217&semi;s a great platform fighter for both PS4 and PC&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;131101" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-131101" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-131101 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;30163556&sol;Brawlhalla-1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-131101" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Brawlhalla&comma; Blue Mammoth Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Here&&num;8217&semi;s the thing that drives me nuts about the gaming community&colon; this is not a clone and we should stop using the term for games that add their own elements to a genre&period; This is akin to the difference between <em>Soul Calibur<&sol;em> and <em>Tekken<&sol;em> to <em>Brawlhalla<&sol;em> and Nintendo&&num;8217&semi;s iconic fighting game&period; This is a platform fighter that has a deep focus on weapons&period; Each character has 2 movesets at their disposal and each moveset is dependent on the weapon that is equipped&period; Both feel fundamentally different and can change the pace of a fight in an instant&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s also really cool how each character uses their weapons with their own style and unique powers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a sense&comma; it can be like <em>Nidhogg<&sol;em>&comma; which is a fighting game based on weaponry&period; At points of a battle&comma; you will be weaponless either from falling off the stage or by being hit by a string of heavy attacks&period; Strategically&comma; this adds a lot to the game&comma; as players linger around a weapon or choose to throw away a weapon for the one that they prefer&period; One strategy that is interesting is that players throw their weapons or other items at their opposition to stop their recovery from a fall&period; <em>Brawlhalla<&sol;em> also has an interesting dash mechanic&comma; which speeds up the gameplay&period; Rather than having a shield to take damage&comma; you have to slide and dash between enemies&period; Fights feel more energetic this way&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s riveting to play and watch&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Once you get the mechanics down&comma; it is a lot of fun&period; I played with my friends online&period; We began to learn the game&comma; figure out the character movesets&comma; and as we were playing&comma; this happened&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote class&equals;"twitter-tweet" data-width&equals;"500" data-dnt&equals;"true">&NewLine;<p lang&equals;"en" dir&equals;"ltr">This felt so good&excl; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;Brawlhalla&quest;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">&commat;Brawlhalla<&sol;a> <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;hashtag&sol;PS4share&quest;src&equals;hash&amp&semi;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">&num;PS4share<&sol;a><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;t&period;co&sol;WKiWTUD3I1">https&colon;&sol;&sol;t&period;co&sol;WKiWTUD3I1<&sol;a> <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;t&period;co&sol;EXuIFfXCAH">pic&period;twitter&period;com&sol;EXuIFfXCAH<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&mdash&semi; Chris Penwell &lpar;&commat;PenwellWrites&rpar; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;PenwellWrites&sol;status&sol;924532203857395713&quest;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">October 29&comma; 2017<&sol;a><&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;platform&period;twitter&period;com&sol;widgets&period;js" charset&equals;"utf-8"><&sol;script><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As you can tell&comma; we had a lot of fun&period; But it does have a few shortcomings&period; Sometimes the hit collision is off&period; When characters are near each other&comma; attacks fail to hit&period; It can be frustrating to have something planned out get missed because your opponent is too close to you&period; The stages also fail to be that interesting&period; Final Destination only players will get a kick out of it as most stages are flat&comma; and there isn&&num;8217&semi;t a lot going on in the background&period; The developers try to change up the formula a little with rotating platforms but with flat unmoving background art &lpar;which can be nice to look at&comma; don&&num;8217&semi;t get wrong&rpar; and a few blocks here and there&comma; the stages are boring to play in&period; The music doesn&&num;8217&semi;t help the stages either as it sounds generic and adds very little personality to the world of <em>Brawlhalla<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Something that <em>Brawlhalla<&sol;em> succeeds where other platform fighters do not is it&&num;8217&semi;s online multiplayer&period; 95&percnt; of the time&comma; it is buttery smooth and feels as if you are playing someone next to you&period; The other 5&percnt; is from bad connection speeds&comma; which is custom for the fighting game genre&period; <em>Brawlhalla<&sol;em> also offers a plethora of different modes to play&semi; both casual and ranked&period; And as it&&num;8217&semi;s crossplay between the PS4 and PC versions&comma; there will be players to go against and it matches you up with people fast&period; Something else that <em>Brawlhalla<&sol;em> offers that other platform others do not are lobbies&comma; and they work well&period; I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t figure out how to connect a PS4 and a PC player through a lobby&comma; but you can likely set up a private lobby and enter the code for both players to enter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you don&&num;8217&semi;t have a Wii U or a 3DS&comma; <em>Brawlhalla<&sol;em> is the next best thing for a platform fighter on PS4 and PC&comma; and even then&comma; it has a lot of merits of its own&period; The online is superb&comma; and the game has a unique spin on the genre that is thrilling to play&period; I hope the game expands to more involved stages and improves on its hit detection&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em>A Founder&&num;8217&semi;s Pack and in-game currency was provided by Blue Mammoth Games&period; The PR representative we worked with has written for BagoGames before&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;