Brawlhalla!
A brawler game that stands on it’s own feet
by Jamil Marshall
Brawlhalla ($free with IAP that aren’t all that bad. The Founder’s Pack is $20) by Blue Mammoth Games by Ubisoft. Runs on Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch consoles, PC, and on mobile (IOS and Android); ESRB Rating Everyone. I have not been paid for this review. I have over 400 hours playing this game.
Ready for a brawl? Keep reading.
This king of the hill style fighting game (otherwise known as a platform brawler) is completely free-to-play, yet is filled with enjoyable content as well as fun and somewhat technical combat mechanics.
While being similar to the beloved classic brawler Super Smash Brothers., Brawlhalla brings its own twists to the platform fighter genre through unexpected collaboration DLCs and various game modes.
What is there to do in this game? Brawlhalla includes multiple game modes such as “Experimental,” “Ranked,” “Free-for-All,” mini-games, and the new addition of monthly battle passes. Before going into the various battle modes, the player must choose their character and is allowed to customize their stats; a feature adding more complexity to the fight. “Experimental” and “Ranked” are very similar however in the ranked gameplay, players are granted rank points for every game they win or lose points when they’re defeated while Experimental gameplay allows more for honing your skills. Moving forward, the “Free-for-All” mode as well as the minigames are on the more light-hearted side. The free-for-all game mode throws four players into a special map, allowing them to fight in a battle royale like manner; going all out. The minigames vary from week to week but these games usually add special themes and styles of gameplay to the matches; bringing life and new player experiences to the game. Finally “Battle Pass” is something new that has been added to the game. Each month the battle pass adds many new things to the game, such as skins, taunts, and many more unique cosmetics.
So… is Brawlhalla worth your time and hard earned money?
Brawlhalla is known as a “free-to-play game,” however there are many in-game purchases waiting to tempt you.
One that I purchased was the $20 “Founders Pack;” this purchase grants the player all current as well future characters in the game for twenty dollars. While this is an extremely great deal, each character in the game can be purchased with in-game coins earned through matches and daily quest; truly making this game a free-to-play game, you just have to grind. Other in-game purchases include the seemingly endless amounts cosmetics such as skins, taunts, sidekicks, crossovers (such as Street Fighter, WWE, Adventure Time, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and the battle pass mentioned earlier for $10. In conclusion, Brawlhalla is totally free-to-play but if you want to spend some change to look like a “pro,” go right ahead!
WEAKNESSES
Brawlhalla doesn’t have many major weaknesses but a glaring one is that the gameplay can become extremely repetitive after a while. Despite there being various game modes to keep the player occupied, overtime they begin to feel stale and monotonous. From personal experience (I have been playing this game for three years), now I can only handle about two to four hours of this game a week. You may find yourself playing and ask “What am I even playing for right now?” At a certain point, one may begin to find themselves losing interest in not only the game but the lack of variety of things to do besides the various game modes and simply grinding for the sake of grinding. While the addition of the Battle Pass has somewhat filled that lacking gap, I personally still feel the same way regardless of that. If anything the Battle Pass just makes the grind more enticing as opposed to actually more fun; as the more you play, the more exclusive cosmetics you can unlock.
STRENGTHS
Brawlhalla has many strengths, from a simple but engaging user interface to the almost never-ending cosmetics and crossovers. These only scratch the surface of what Brawlhalla brings to the table. Some major strengths are its strong community, super engaging developers, and it’s complex but easy to pick up controls. The Brawlhalla community is like no other when it comes to video game communities. The community is not just extremely supportive of its players but is tightly-knit, spanning from twitch streamers, youtubers, and various discord communities. With this being said, the developers over at Blue Mammoth Games are very engaged within the community, listening to their players and giving them what they want including possible crossovers, changes on certain characters, controls, and etc. Overall these strengths have given Brawlhalla a great foundation as a unique platform fighter that will last generations.
CONCLUSION:
Brawlhalla has many other competitors in the fighting genre but the major one that everybody compares it to is that classic platform brawler known as Super Smash Brothers. While both of these games are very similar to sharing the same genre, they have very different attributes. These include graphics, Brawlhalla being 2D and SSB being 3D, controls and combos, both being somewhat complex but allows for casual play, and finally the community. These games have very different communities, Brawlhalla being very friendly and supportive while SSB can be hard to get into, depending on the skill and temperance of the person. It is also free compared to the fairly high price of sixty dollars of SSB.
To sum everything up, I feel that this game is one that anyone can pick up and have fun! After many years of playing and seeing it evolve over time I can safely say that Brawlhalla is a pleasant experience for zero cost and provides a community like no other in the gaming industry. Despite the game possibly becoming repetitive after a while, I definitely think it is worth a try if you’re into the platform brawler genre.
Jamil Marshall is a student at The College of New Jersey, majoring in Design and Creative Technologies. Within DCT, Jamil specializes in illustration, digital media design, and video editing.
