Brawlhalla Review (TK Overhead)
1990s Flash game graphics meets platform fighter that takes the fun out of platform fighters.
Characters aren't really that unique as it is all about weapons. A "character" is a combination of weapons shared across a ton of the cast, and diff stats, and some "signature moves" which are abused by lower rank players and higher rank players use them rarely. The characters lack personality or flair, and seem to just be references to something that already exists or skinned as a crossover and seems very lazy.
No blocking/shielding of any kind so gameplay turns into lots just pressing buttons, but don't worry, it's hard to punish it most the time so it's just how the game is played, in fact if you can bait people to try to punish you it's your advantage.
The game has nothing to reward fighting, so you just move around trying to bait each other into a something predictable. Prediction and just trying stuff are the main aspects of this game, which make it flat and uninteresting compared to the pre-emptive, reactive and hitting waiting/unreactive 3 structure of traditional fighting games.
Jumps are super floaty. Dodge is the ONE defensive mechanic of the game and there's constant RPS is built around "dodge or not".
Constant shoe ins to whatever crossover they can get. So you can't even tell what character you're playing against by visuals half the time.
Keeps some of the annoying aspects of platform fighters like edge guarding which if you're not a fan of that, then it also has weapon guarding just in case you didn't get enough guarding.
Fun if you like to just chill and swing at people I guess. For me though, playing it I feel my soul leaving my body looking for something else to do.
I would have eliminated it from my list of games to ever play on the lazy art direction alone but got roped into trying it for almost 18 hours due to other people wanting me to try it. I'm not sure how a game surviving off selling cosmetics has worked so long for them with a game this ugly. I can't even tell if something is a leg, foot, or part of someones armor at times. Where is their waist? Do they have knees or ankles? The world may never know. The animations are jank too, and look done by SPINE or something else low budget.