Posted in: Games, Review, Video Games | Tagged: Angry Mob Games, Brawlout, Early Access, game review

Getting In Some Early Access Action With 'Brawlout'

Published Wed, 26 Apr 2017 12:45:12 -0500

For almost two decades now, game developers have been making knockoffs of Super Smash Bros. Nothing against the companies or what they're trying to do, but when you see someone create a winner, you do your best to cater to people who love that style but hate Nintendo. Today we try out one of the latest multiplayer competitive brawlers and see how well it stacks up as Angry Mob Games releases Brawlout into Early Access.

Brawlout allows you to fight as one of six fighters online, all of whom are based on animals. You have Sephi'ra (a lizard), King Apu (a gorilla), Chief Feathers (a hawk), Paco (a frog), Volt (a hyena), and Olaf & Tyson (a walrus with a penguin). There are some other fighters that are hidden, but it's early access and you have to keep some things a mystery. Each fighter comes with their own unique abilities and powers that help you out in battle and gives you some edge on everyone. An example is that Chief Feathers has a lot of quick attacks that can be done from above while Paco has a lot of ground-and-pound maneuvers that force people into close combat.

The arenas are colorful and fit each character they belong to well. Each stage has its own perils that you'll have to deal with as part of the fight, like an extra-slippery floor as you fight on ice in the antarctic, or rockfaces that collapse and fall off the edge making the stage smaller and the ability to save yourself from falling off harder. Some stages have platforms for added attack vantage points while others are simply the flat area you're on, leaving you to adapt your style to that area.

The two big things that Brawlout has going against it is originality and the learning curve. Let's start with the latter as there's definitely a long road ahead to learning how each of these characters works and how best to utilize them. Unlike other brawlers, there's no move set to be found, so a lot of your gameplay is trial-and-error. When I pulled off a special move from someone I was shocked and unaware of how to duplicate it. That's an across the board kind of issue as each character plays differently, so the same move-set won't necessarily work for each person.

The other issue is the originality. I get it, it's a fighting beat'em up, I understand the influences from Smash and Mortal Kombat and even a little bit of Street Fighter thrown in here. But when you make any kind of game, you need to make it your own, and attaching a new layer of skins on an old design is not appealing. Not even having a six-player brawl online was enough to sway me from the notion that I was playing a clone of someone else's work. If they had changes up the platform system, or the damage percentage gauge, or eve just the basic concept of saving yourself from falling off the edge, I'd be happy. Sadly, I can't be happy with this.

The game is in early access, so for all we know a lot could change between now and then. But for now, Brawlout is just a lesser version of better-established titles. Maybe that'll change in a few months before they release the game, but right now it's not enough to sell me on getting a copy for any system. It plays fine as a brawler, and for those who love the genre, you may enjoy this change of pace. But something needs to change for this game to be anything more than a shadow of other titles.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!