Review: Brawlout (Nintendo Switch)

Why should humans have all the fun beating each other?

Platform fighting games have exploded in popularity, thanks to the success of leading juggernaut Super Smash Bros. innovating the fighting game scene almost twenty years ago. While major companies have tried to capitalize on the trend, none have been able to come close to the success Nintendo's garnered. Now smaller studios are taking it upon themselves to create their desired platform fighters, so how does Angry Mobs Games’ Brawlout stack up?
 

2 for 1 sale on rapid fire kicks.

Brawlout is a multiplayer platform fighter solely focusing on competitive combat with very minor environmental obstacles. Fisticuffs come first doing away with the randomness and game-changing elements that come with items, weapons, etc. usually found in these types of games.
 

At least the skins are creative for the clone characters

There are 9 characters, 6 original and 3 guest characters: Juan from Gacuamelee, Hyper Light Drifter’s well…Drifter and Yooka-Laylee from the series sharing the namesake.  The 6 original characters are of the anthropomorphic variety and serve as the template for the remaining who are clones inflating the roster to 20+ characters (including the guest characters). The clone fighters play relatively similar to their original counterparts with slight property variation on movements and attacks. The base characters are a blast to play with and many of them reflect the tried and true tropes of fighting games; Olaf Tyson is the heavy bruiser, Paco favors close-range, Seprria’s speed and rapid attacks, for example. Personally, I enjoy playing as Chief Feathers.

If you’ve played any platform fighters in the recent years you’ll feel right at home, the name of the game is to increase your opponent’s health percentage by beating them down with a bevy of normal attacks, special attacks and aerial maneuvers until they're weak enough to be knocked off the stage. For the more skilled, you can outwit and outplay your opponents to their demise. Each fall earns the victor a point.
 

Although Brawlout features gameplay for 2-4 players, I get the sense the developers were more focused on the “mano-a-mano” aspect, catering to a scene growing in popularity with these fighters. The fighting engine is tight and the original fighters each make use of their unique move sets. To keep everything fast and furious, the universal defense is evading, there is no blocking. There’s a manual rage system that all fighters have and when maxed allows them to unleash more powerful attacks, they become more difficult to launch (depending their current health level of course) and helps breakout those caught in vicious combo situations.
 

Many options all for one reason: to brawl 

Presentation wise, Brawlout is as average as it comes. Nothing is particularly bad but nothing outstanding either. Music is there but quite frankly it doesn’t leave much of an impression. Graphics fare a bit better though with character designs allowing each fighter to have district shapes, sizes and colors helping them standout in the battlefield. Speaking of, there are currently 13 stages, some with very light environmental obstacles usually consisting of floating or moving platforms but half of them are just slightly reworked from the existing ones. A sameness permeates from most of these stages, best thing I can say is they each have a diverse color palette.

 

What bugs me the most about Brawlout? The load times between matches. Probably the longest I’ve seen in a while and it’s bad. The AI is also inconsistent and in some cases just downright awful. Even when set on the highest difficulty, too many times I find the AI self-destructing despite the opportunity to return safely. Very weird to say the least. Hopefully the developers can remedy this through a future update. Arcade mode offers three difficulty levels starting with easy but for higher difficulty levels instead of increasing AI difficulty, the game simply increases the number of enemy fighters creating a possibility of a 3-on-1 on the hardest difficulty depending on how fast you can defeat your adversaries before a new one enters the arena. It comes off feeling cheap than challenging and isn’t as fun as having a battle of skills from playing another person. Thankfully there is online play.

I saw this message more often than I liked.

My experience online has been shaky, I’ve had just as many matches with good connections as I’ve had bad. And sadly, there were even times when no one was playing the game. Your mileage may vary with online gameplay but if you decide to take the fight online the game does good by giving you rewards for logging in, winning matches and completing daily challenges. You can use this in-game currency to purchase skins, stages, characters (clone variations), effects and icons. I’m not a big fan of the loot box-like system but doesn't take away from the game, I personally like old-school methods of unlocking desired content. I must note, I played the online matches before Nintendo Switch Online went live.

Online play really helps the games replay value.

Brawlout is an average but fun platform fighter. Finding decent competition definitely enhances the experience though I don't foresee too many playing it for it's 4-player multiplayer or as a pick up and play title; The 1v1 fighting is the strong suit and around $20 is a good deal for the offering and worth a try if you’re curious.
 

I played Brawlout on the Nintendo Switch but it’s also available for Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC.