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Platform Fighters
10 months ago
General
I really like them and I don't care who knows it. How about you?
With Rivals 2 going on and Multiversus ending I've been digging into more of them and I wanted to share my disorganized thoughts.
- Brawl was the first competitive game that I took seriously ever. Which is funny in hindsight because it was so uncompetitive by design. My college BFF mained G-dorf, the worst character in the game, and trashed me every time until I eventually got good (I was a Ness/ Dedede at the time). I got a taste for improving :3
- There's a pervasive cynicism surrounding the genre that bugs me. Platform fighters tend to not be taken seriously at all or are seen as flash in the pan. Except for Smash, obviously. There's this air of "How is any platform fighter supposed to exist alongside Smash?" Y'know? Plat fighters are universally labelled "Smash clones" and when one comes out it seems like the second or third thought people have is "How long until it dies?" Is this how non-Street Fighter fighting game players felt back in the day? Sure Smash created the genre, but it's rapidly spinning off into its own beast. Or it would be if people had more faith in it. Idk, am I crazy?
- I have a great appreciation for Fighting Games, I've dug into a few, but they're not really my jam. They always feel too restrictive to me movement-wise, input-wise. So much of high-level play is tip-toeing back and forth for footsies. And call me weak, but my old man ligaments can't handle being twisted into knots doing fg inputs for long. I prefer the movement and 'simplicity' in plats.
Specific Game Thoughts
Rivals of Aether 2 - I'm really happy with it so far, but it was clearly released ~ 6 months too early. Out of necessity I guess because the team needed to start recouping funds. I was in Rivals 1 pretty early so I have faith that the final form of 2 will be amazing, but it needs time. The gameplay is like 94% there, but there are a lot of peripheral bugs and hangups that drag it down for now (some icons aren't anti-aliased somehow, the map screen keeps freezing for a second on me, Sylvanos and Absa aren't in it yet) Some people are pouty about the strength of crouch-cancelling/ floorhugging, but it doesn't really bother me. I'm mostly giving it a break until they iron out the texture bug myself and others have been getting. (Main: Loxodont > Wrastor (until my grass pupper returns))
Nickelodeon All Stars Brawl 2 - The only bad thing about this game so far is the nine-syllable title. It's so good! The Slime meter and giving everybody aerial strongs were great changes. Everybody is Wrastor. The Slime meter lets you power up your specials and strongs, do finishers, and even cancel your knockback at a cost. I'm not too deep in yet, but I can imagine some crazy scenarios. Especially since anyone can kill in the air multiple ways now. Only downside here is the price, I guess. But it doesn't feel like it's not worth it. Lots of characters, items, stages, pretty good polish. Get it on sale if you want, but it's really solid. I'm definitely going to dig in more. And I guess some of the characters are a little too Smash-like. Like Granny has Captain Falcon's knee, uptilt, and bair basically verbatim. Some characters are pretty wild and new, but Rivals does better with originality in characters. (Main: So far Angry Beavers > Patrick > Garfield)
Multiverse - It's really a shame WB nickel and dimed the hell out of this game because when you're actually playing it it's pretty cool. Yes it's floaty as hell, but after a few hours you learn to lean into Tokyo drifting around and you can do some wacky things like basically grounded aerials. It also allows lots of hanging around off-stage since you can wall cling like Megaman X. Really fantastic animations and characterization. My favorite is how Tom (& Jerry) doesn't even look at the opponent. All of his moves involve attacking Jerry and coincidentally hitting the opponent. Reminds me of B.B Hood. Such a great touch. But again WB really screwed the pooch by making the monetization basically inescapable. Feels like every screen in the game has some currency or "Buy this now" button on it. It just feels bad to be in. Not to mention making you unlock characters in a set order via grinding (unless you want to pay now of course). It'll really be a shame for it to go down because when you're in the vibe it feels really fun. (Main: Bugs > Tom and Jerry)
Smash Ultimate - I loved it when it first came out, a lot, but once I cottoned onto the lag and how bad it felt in general to control I drifted back into the embrace of Rivals of Aether which is as tight as D.D's pants. I mean no one can compare to this scale, that's for damn sure, and it's kind of a marvel to play in that way. Not to mention the fan-service and presentation. But yeah the weird buffering input/ lag/ online issues really turned me off it. I do terribly miss suplexing fools at the ledge as Incineroar though. My slow, throw bb. Hoping La Reina in Rivals can fill that void for me. (Main: Incelroar > Bowser > Wolf)
With Rivals 2 going on and Multiversus ending I've been digging into more of them and I wanted to share my disorganized thoughts.
- Brawl was the first competitive game that I took seriously ever. Which is funny in hindsight because it was so uncompetitive by design. My college BFF mained G-dorf, the worst character in the game, and trashed me every time until I eventually got good (I was a Ness/ Dedede at the time). I got a taste for improving :3
- There's a pervasive cynicism surrounding the genre that bugs me. Platform fighters tend to not be taken seriously at all or are seen as flash in the pan. Except for Smash, obviously. There's this air of "How is any platform fighter supposed to exist alongside Smash?" Y'know? Plat fighters are universally labelled "Smash clones" and when one comes out it seems like the second or third thought people have is "How long until it dies?" Is this how non-Street Fighter fighting game players felt back in the day? Sure Smash created the genre, but it's rapidly spinning off into its own beast. Or it would be if people had more faith in it. Idk, am I crazy?
- I have a great appreciation for Fighting Games, I've dug into a few, but they're not really my jam. They always feel too restrictive to me movement-wise, input-wise. So much of high-level play is tip-toeing back and forth for footsies. And call me weak, but my old man ligaments can't handle being twisted into knots doing fg inputs for long. I prefer the movement and 'simplicity' in plats.
Specific Game Thoughts
Rivals of Aether 2 - I'm really happy with it so far, but it was clearly released ~ 6 months too early. Out of necessity I guess because the team needed to start recouping funds. I was in Rivals 1 pretty early so I have faith that the final form of 2 will be amazing, but it needs time. The gameplay is like 94% there, but there are a lot of peripheral bugs and hangups that drag it down for now (some icons aren't anti-aliased somehow, the map screen keeps freezing for a second on me, Sylvanos and Absa aren't in it yet) Some people are pouty about the strength of crouch-cancelling/ floorhugging, but it doesn't really bother me. I'm mostly giving it a break until they iron out the texture bug myself and others have been getting. (Main: Loxodont > Wrastor (until my grass pupper returns))
Nickelodeon All Stars Brawl 2 - The only bad thing about this game so far is the nine-syllable title. It's so good! The Slime meter and giving everybody aerial strongs were great changes. Everybody is Wrastor. The Slime meter lets you power up your specials and strongs, do finishers, and even cancel your knockback at a cost. I'm not too deep in yet, but I can imagine some crazy scenarios. Especially since anyone can kill in the air multiple ways now. Only downside here is the price, I guess. But it doesn't feel like it's not worth it. Lots of characters, items, stages, pretty good polish. Get it on sale if you want, but it's really solid. I'm definitely going to dig in more. And I guess some of the characters are a little too Smash-like. Like Granny has Captain Falcon's knee, uptilt, and bair basically verbatim. Some characters are pretty wild and new, but Rivals does better with originality in characters. (Main: So far Angry Beavers > Patrick > Garfield)
Multiverse - It's really a shame WB nickel and dimed the hell out of this game because when you're actually playing it it's pretty cool. Yes it's floaty as hell, but after a few hours you learn to lean into Tokyo drifting around and you can do some wacky things like basically grounded aerials. It also allows lots of hanging around off-stage since you can wall cling like Megaman X. Really fantastic animations and characterization. My favorite is how Tom (& Jerry) doesn't even look at the opponent. All of his moves involve attacking Jerry and coincidentally hitting the opponent. Reminds me of B.B Hood. Such a great touch. But again WB really screwed the pooch by making the monetization basically inescapable. Feels like every screen in the game has some currency or "Buy this now" button on it. It just feels bad to be in. Not to mention making you unlock characters in a set order via grinding (unless you want to pay now of course). It'll really be a shame for it to go down because when you're in the vibe it feels really fun. (Main: Bugs > Tom and Jerry)
Smash Ultimate - I loved it when it first came out, a lot, but once I cottoned onto the lag and how bad it felt in general to control I drifted back into the embrace of Rivals of Aether which is as tight as D.D's pants. I mean no one can compare to this scale, that's for damn sure, and it's kind of a marvel to play in that way. Not to mention the fan-service and presentation. But yeah the weird buffering input/ lag/ online issues really turned me off it. I do terribly miss suplexing fools at the ledge as Incineroar though. My slow, throw bb. Hoping La Reina in Rivals can fill that void for me. (Main: Incelroar > Bowser > Wolf)
I have seen at least of the AvA characters modded into RoA; Yellow and The Chosen One.
From the footage I've seen on Animation Versus, it does have the pixel art style from RoA. I'm not sure if they're going to make Yellow exactly like in RoA, considering they use a Minecraft staff - copyright.
Also! Not playable or anything yet, but have you heard of Combo Devils? It looks super promising, I hope it does well for itself when it finally drops!
Combo Devils definitely looks promising!
The problems you mentioned I 100% agree with, and in addition the legit biggest issue I even have with platform fighters now is that they're still so stuck in the past on trying to make everything be like Melee and I think it really costs them sometimes. Even worse because the biggest heads of the platform figther communicty are basically all melee pros lol, so they'll legit talk down on anything that doesn't have enough melee-like qualities to it and potentially kill or at least damage every single platform fighter that comes out.
Like I remember when Multiversus re-released after the first version ended, Hungrybox (tho I love the guy) was absolutely VICIOUS towards it before even PLAYING it just cuz it wasn't giga fast melee speed lol, he had a whole video absolutely dunking on where he talked nonstop about it not being his ideal speed like it was an objective flaw and that compounded into an argument everyone would parrot over n over again just propagating on and on into every conversation. Like I dig the more steady pace cuz its more concise in how you have to play as opposed to getting in and out of stuff just cuz the two players move so fast, I believe the Multiversus pace was even described by Void as being "more deliberate" which I agree with. And I wish more platform fighters would go for it really, but as long as the main heads of the community are melee worshippers basically every platform fighter is gonna be forced to be as close to melee as possible, hell even Rivals moved away from some of its old stuff to get closer to melee now haha.
Regardless that isn't why Multiversus failed, though the 'this isn't fast like melee' mentality was certainly a major contributor in shaping impressions and opinions of the game, it's wacko monetization was absolutely insane. I didn't have much of a problem cuz I played the beta and so got to keep the chars I unlocked, but from what I understand if you weren't in that boat then getting even just the characters was a real grind, and thats not even talking about other monetization practices they were going in on.
But ok tangential rambling and figured I share thoughts cuz why not, either way yea 'platform fighter awesome good' is my final take here lol.
How hard was it just to release a one time purchase platform fighter akin to Smash Ultimate/Rivals Of Aether, have all characters avalible, and just have optional skins.
It's one of the largest fumbles I've seen of a great idea.