Thoughts on Brawlhalla

I remember coming across Brawlhalla in the past, as it was an Early Access or Beta title on Steam for a while now. As something that looks and plays much like the Super Smash Bros. line of games from Nintendo, it wasn’t a game that I thought about playing on PC, so I likely saw it in the discovery queue and hit “not interested.” Early Access titles are very hit or miss and usually it ends up in a developmental slog before finally releasing some years later. Sometimes EA games can be gold, and feel like completed games while in their Alpha or Beta states. Other titles are less fortunate, and end up being piles of trash until they are finally released or the devs go MIA. In this case, the game was announced in 2014, has been in an open beta state for a couple of years, and officially released last week. While I haven’t played the PC version, it turned up on the Playstation Store, and having played some of the Smash Bros. games in the past, I knew I’d enjoy this one.

The last Smash Bros. game I played was on the original Wii console, and it was a blast, but I never had anyone to play with. If I recall correctly, you could still play online in that version of the game, but I eventually sold off my Wii and haven’t played this style of game since. I do have friends via PSN that would be interested in playing this game though, so I downloaded it and convinced a friend to do the same.

If you aren’t familiar with Super Smash Bros., it is a fairly basic 2-D fighting platforming game. You control one of a few dozen characters (called “Legends” in this particular title) in a small arena. 3 other AI or players will control other Legends and you fight it out. The platforming elements involve several levels of the game, running, jumping and trying to keep from falling to an early demise. Simple one-button combos unique to the Legends are your bread and butter, and you have a set amount of lives. You will do damage to the enemy players until eventually they fall to their death or you knock them out. Certain power moves will allow you to launch enemies into the nether, and unless they time their triple jumps just right, they will fall and lose a life. Last man standing wins. There are several game modes, including 1v1, 2v2 and some experimental and rotating modes. The network functionality works great, it was easy to queue up for a match and get going. There are only a few Legends available to start, I assume there is some sort of in-game currency that you can earn to open up new ones, and I’m sure there’s RMT to support the devs and speed up this process. Each Legend has a unique set of weapons available to them, and some differing moves, but overall they control similarly. Basically there is a light attack and a heavy attack button, and if you press a direction simultaneously you will perform that move. So up + light attack does one thing, while down + light attack will perform something else. Items will periodically drop from the sky allowing you to get a sword or some guns and changing up your moves. That’s really all there is to it, but there is some depth in the simplicity that veterans will pick up over time.

I recorded my first game against live people, a 2v2 match where I was playing the Legend called “Cross.” He looks like a Roaring 20’s Gangster, and he performed well enough for me. We won the round and I got a good feel for the game:

For a free to play title I rather enjoy it. I’m not sure if the RMT is fair, but I’m sure the game is fun to play without spending any money. If it ends up being something I play on the regular then I’ll probably throw the devs a few bucks. If anyone wants to get a round in, look me up on PSN: Built4Sin82.