If you read anything about Angry Mob Games’ newish title Brawlout, you will notice there are a plethora of comparisons to the wildly successful Super Smash Bros. franchise. If it were a drinking game where you had to take a shot each time the games were compared, you’d most likely be dead by the end of each discussion. Well, I’m not here to reinvent the wheel. It is impossible to talk about Brawlout without comparing it to the game it was obviously inspired by, so in this review, be prepared for plenty of references to Super Smash Brothers. Bottoms up!
Gameplay
If you’ve played a Super Smash Bros. game (drink), you understand the core mechanics of Brawlout. The point is ultimately to knock your opponent off the platform or completely out of the stage. The more you damage your opponent, the easier this becomes. So far so familiar, right? There are some slight differences, however. For example, blocking is virtually non-existent in Brawlout. Instead, players must rely on dodging to avoid taking damage from their opponents. There is also something called a Rage Meter which fills up as you give and receive damage. When the Rage Meter is roughly half full, you can use your built up rage to escape certain attacks from your opponents. When it’s completely full, you can unleash a devastating attack that knocks opponents further off of the platform. Connecting with one of these attacks is very satisfying, and winning a match using one of these attacks is scientifically proven to make you more attractive to the opposite sex.
Going through the list of playable characters is eerily similar to walking through the cereal aisle at one of those grocery stores where everything is really cheap and generic. It’s like thinking you’ve spotted Cocoa Puffs out of the corner of your eye, but when you look over, you realize you actually saw its generic equivalent Choco Puffs. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some originality in the roster. Who doesn’t love giant frogs and Mexican wrestlers? As a whole, though, you’re going to feel like you’re staring at cereals such as Fortunate Charms, Fruit Hoops, and Commander Crunch when you’re picking your character.
If you’re the kind of person who has friends, you’re a goddamn weirdo you and those friends can sit at the same console and enjoy a four person offline battle that could add a little bit of fun to any get together. The online multiplayer, however, leaves a lot to be desired. When matchmaking with other players, you’re only given the option to battle 1v1. Matchmaking also tends to be quite slow, and once you are in a match, the connection is usually riddled with lag. In one game in particular, I assumed that my opponent had some sort of teleportation/time freezing ability that was extremely overpowered. Turns out it was just a connection issue. With that said, I would have to say the ideal setting for Brawlout multiplayer is in your living room with a few friends so long as neither you nor any of your friends own a copy of any of the previous Super Smash Bros. games and their corresponding consoles.
Visuals and Audio
One of the strengths of Brawlout is that it’s actually a pretty good looking game. Obviously if you’re a stickler for realism, you’re not going to find it here, but I would ask why you were playing an arena brawler to begin with. The stage designs are aesthetically pleasing to be sure; however, there aren’t really a lot to choose from when you first begin the game. If variety is the spice of life, Brawlout’s level design is decent but unseasoned.
When it comes to the sound in Brawlout, there is nothing overly offensive about the music or the character voices/noises in the game. Much like the rest of the game, however, there really isn’t a lot of variety in this department. This isn’t much of a complaint, however, as I seriously doubt too many people are adding the Brawlout soundtrack to their Spotify playlist, but it would be nice to get a little more here. This is something that could be easily overcome if this were a more well-rounded game.
Verdict
One of the primary reasons for the success of the Super Smash Bros. series, and some might say Nintendo games as a whole, is nostalgia. Sure, there are plenty of people who simply enjoy the arena brawler and will play any of them on the market, but much of the charm of SSB is fighting as one of the beloved characters you grew up playing as. People want to see Yoshi get his revenge on Mario for all the times Mario sacrificed him to ge to a secret area. People want to see Link go toe to… whatever the fuck is on the bottom of Kirby’s body with Kirby. Without these things in Brawl-out, you’re taking away most of the charm associated with the obvious king of the genre and the reason behind most of its success. It’s a little like taking people who play NFL fantasy football and asking them to play it using only players from the Canadian Football League.
Brawlout is not completely without merit, though. There are three kinds of people that this game is absolutely made for. The first is Playstation 4 and Xbox One owners who don’t own any of the Nintendo consoles that previous installments of the Super Smash Bros. series are available for. The second is people who have played the previous Super Smash Bros. games to death and need a new but similar game to tide them over until the next installment is released. Fans of the Dark Souls and Bloodborne series may call this the “Nioh role”. The third is people who have had loved ones bludgeoned to death by a Super Smash Bros game case and now want nothing to do with the game but still have an itch for arena brawler games that needs to be scratched. You know who you are.
