Brawlout Review: Nintendo Switch
Thirsty for your Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo Switch. Well this game could potentially quench your watery mouth or dry it up even more. Brawlout is your typical side scrolling smash 'em up fighter that takes a lot from it's predecessor and feels more like a true indie. But what it doesn't shine at it does get the modern day gaming of grinding for progression and unlocks right. Let's get into the review.
In a world dominated by Super Smash Bros. How can another fighter likes it succeed? Well Brawlout gets close when it comes to feel. The game's mechanics feel as if someone took this fighting genre and modded it to near perfection. There is a smashing feature to help power your opponent off the stage and it feels good when your opponents fly off the screen as quickly as he came. There is a rage meter below you life percent that will fill as you deal damage and take damage. Once half way you can push L+R and block others. This didn't feel as good as a assume it suppose to. "Quite useless." Once the gauge fills completely and you push L+R your knock off power increases and it becomes easier to take other players lives. This makes it easier to win games. There is no blocking in this game so you have to rely on dashing while fending off the onslaught of others attack. This makes for a ton of action and a lot more offence then defense. This does not bother so much. I don't usually block in games like his one anyways.
Each character gets a unique special move set and they all different in strategy. This helps with finding a character that best suits your play style. With two important characters from the indie gaming community making an appearance, it really helps the roster out. With them there is 6 starter characters to play with. There is more characters to unlock once you have collected 1 of 2 currencies offered in the game. Once you acquire an incredibly grind heavy blue currency you can unlock a random new fighter. These fighter are all enhanced costumed fighters of your standard 6 you already have, with a different move set. If you grind enough gold you can unlock different outfits for these characters at random as well. By the time you have enough blue currency you will most likely have a random costume or two for him or her which is nice. What's not so great it doesn't feel rewarding as you get these random costumes for these characters that take a long time to obtain. Each character can level up to 5 while unlocking something along the way is a must have for this game. Pinatas at level two and blue currency should be flipped in my opinion to help unlock additional characters but it is what it is. It does't take to long to level up early on but perhaps this could be tuned down see the grind as you further your progression. Each player can earn experience for there brawler as you play. So it helps to have some friends to play along with. Each extra brawler can also be obtained by collecting their own tokens within the game in the various modes and leveling them up.
Multiplayer is a highlight in this game like others similar to it. I had 3 players "brawling" each other up at once and it was a lot of fun for all of us. The maps were big enough to knock each other off while giving yourself comfort room to wait while the others fight each other. With 3 maps to start off and the ability to unlock more once your characters reach level 5. It is a decent reason to come back and have more friends fight. Brawlout offers three modes, Stock, Timed battle and Stock Timed battle, which fuses both options. I had an issue with Stock battle as it only allows you to have 5 lives max. It doesn't seem enough as matches don't last that long. As long as your friend and yourself don't get bored from the only game options there is you'll be having fun for hours. Online is a misstep only allowing you fight 1v1. The option to find local users isn't present either, usually paring me with others halfway around the world causing the game to be super slow and unplayable.
Single players out there who want a challenge in the game get to play Arcade style. This places you in a Mortal Kombat style ladder where you fight a brawler in 1v1 or 2v1 or 3v1 depending on your ladder you choose. The more difficult you choose the better the rewards. (not that much better) As the battle starts you get some minor story dialogue which doesn't feel as great as it should. The lore shines each character in a unique way but falls short as I didn't feel the consequences of my actions. Maybe the end of the battle could have highlighted my victory in another dialogue scenario. Oh well, once you beat all your opponents and get the the top, a boss battle ensues where you fight 3v1 against a copy of the main enemy with only 1 life each. "Unimaginative to say the very least."
Daily achievements are present but a laughable when you find out you have to play online and time consuming to actually obtain. Why the developers decided online only rewards was a little short sighted seeing that 1v1 is the only option you have. Unless all your friends online have bought that game, your not going to get too much out of this feature. Which is a huge downfall to the game. Rewards need to be attainable with both online and offline modes. The game also has a daily login reward, which seems bugged because I have only ever received the first day reward each time I play. The game has a micro transaction user interface that feels good. Only you can't use money to unlock those features and must play the grind to earn both currencies. Even though the game has a ton of unlockables including Taunts, Avatars, and effects for when you knock off brawlers in all modes. There s lot of different items to unlock to keep you interested.
Overall, this game feels good. There is a lot of content to keep me invested enough to have me log in each day. Personally love the level progression in the game that keeps me invested in a single brawler at a time. Multiplayer is always a great time with other players on the couch while online is unplayable for me. The game feels very rewarding as long as you play and grind enough. With that being said I gave the game 5*/10*.
