rolled a bad stardew so i think imma kill myself now

still better than hypixel skyblock

EDIT: it's actually usable i live another day

Some people are really just hating on peak just because it's made in RPGmaker. Sorry that this doesn't have a deep message, or an amazing art style; it's HEAT and surprisingly deep -- it's like DemonCrawl in that it forces combat onto you to ensure that you're engaging with the puzzle aspect of it, but without the complete overload of items that DemonCrawl has. Completed the main game, looking to complete Confuse (god damn the puzzles are hard) and ready to embark on the trek to an 100% with the relics in the basement.

Just because you have an unhealthy relationship with video games doesn't mean you have to take it out on this one. You complaining about someone sig-spamming is the equivalent of your 8 year old cousin complaining that your arthritis-ridden great-aunt won't stop using Down B on Kirby.

Anyway, I figured it was time to give a proper review to Brawlhalla, which is, ashamedly, the game I have the third highest amount of hours in on Steam. (Well, fourth, if you count tModLoader as a separate game from Terraria.) Let's start with a couple metrics:

1) Gameplay: Initially, the game feels floaty and slow, but one look at any kind of tournament game will easily rebut that argument. Most, if not all, of the problems with Brawlhalla are revealed to be non-issues upon pressing the dodge button. Seriously, the offensive capabilities of a dash are crazy, allowing for you to rush down opponents instead of slowly walking, allowing "gravity-cancelled" moves when used along with a grounded move in the air, chase dodging to recover back onto stage or to go even further off-stage, and dash-jumping, which, when combined with fast-falling, allows for great, fast, movement and quick aerials as approach options. While it's true that the new player experience is a bit chaotic given that free-for-all is the "recommended" gamemode, the movement always feels tight and responsive, to the point where, after playing this game for so long, other platform fighters just feel sluggish.

2) Graphics: This is the point where I can ding the most points from Brawlhalla, but it's really not that big of a deal. The game maintains a pretty consistent artstyle throughout its diverse cast of characters, having flashy signature attacks that are actually pretty well telegraphed and have some serious flair. I'd say a couple of the taunts are... above-average levels of toxic, but, hey, that's what taunts are for, what can you do?

3) P2W: I see a strangely high amount of people complaining about how P2W this game is, and, like... no? The Brawl of the Week gives a nice amount of gold (same as the daily missions), not to mention the amount of gold you get from the matches themselves. I could probably name 30 F2P games with more egregious monetization than this one, and I could definitely name at least 1 F2P fighting game with worse monetization (hint: it rhymes with "Cultiversus"). On top of that, I see people say that the "meta" picks change often and that it takes a lot of grinding to keep up with that. This is blatantly false; if the weapons in Brawlhalla were characters on Smash Ultimate's tier list, it wouldn't be from Steve to Little Mac, it'd be more like... R.O.B. to Mario. Not only that, but because of how the game is designed, the variance between the "potential" (however you want to measure that) of legends is miniscule compared to a game like Smash. (and, you know. fighters pass 2 costs money. and two of those characters happen to be number one and number two in this game. curious)

So, yeah, don't believe the... anti-hype? Hate train? It's really not as bad as any other platform fighter out there (oh, how the term "Smash Clone" has ruined any discussions about the genre) and I'd say that the fact that it's lasted this long and your favorite platform fighter probably averages 20 players 3 months after launch is a testament to how well designed, easy to pick up, and fun Brawlhalla is.