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Brawlout for Nintendo Switch review

July 7, 2018

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Brawlout

Brawlout is now available at retail on the Nintendo Switch

The former Nintendo eShop only fighting game Brawlout, has made its way to retail on the Nintendo Switch. If you have yet to play this party fighting game, and are a fan of the Super Smash Bros. series—you are in for a treat. Brawlout is a party fighting game, designed for local play against your friends and family, online matches and competitive tournaments.

You goal is to knock your opponents off the screen, without the use of blocking, grabbing and edge-grabbing. Instead, Brawlout introduces a whole new type of gameplay experience with streamlined combat. The combat system is based on combos, powerful special attacks and more to give you lightning-fast action.

Game Details

Platform: Nintendo Switch
Developer: Angry Mob Games
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Fighting
Modes: Single-player, multiplayer
ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10+)

Brawlout

Streamlined attack-oriented combat

It’s no doubt that Brawlout is heavily influenced by Nintendo’s Smash Bros. fighting games in many ways. However, it differentiates itself by forgoing slow-paced defensive battles, which sometimes can get overly technical. In its place, they implemented an aggressive fighting style that makes it easy for everyone to land those multi-hit combos and impress.

This means, that in Brawlout, you must always be on the offense. With two to four players on the screen at once, you can fight on the ground, and in the air with all kinds of acrobatics. While it did seem a bit strange at first, I quickly adapted to this new style of gameplay and I found it fun and entertaining.

You can, push your opponents back and give yourself some breathing room with a Rage Burst. Each character has a Rage Meter that you slowly build up as you battle against your opponents. Interestingly enough, this meter fills as you both dish out and receive damage. I think it was a great idea to add the Rage Meter to the game and it helps keep the action going at a lighting pace.

Brawlout

Colourful characters with vastly different combat styles

Brawlout features more than 19 characters, including variants, to choose from and unlock. They range from Paco, a four armed frog to recent indie stars such as Juan Aguacate from the legendary Guacamelee! Each character has their own set of abilities, skills and fighting styles.

I really liked how the developers give you incentive to level up your characters via master rewards. These rewards are obtained as you battle with your character and range from in game currency to things that can be used during battle.

Given that Angry Mob Games is an indie developer and Brawlout is value priced, I feel they did a great job a diversifying the character base. Each character comes complete with their own lore and backstory to fully flesh them out. Even since launching on the Nintendo eShop late last year, we have already seen additional characters added to the roster and I hope to see more added as time goes on.

Brawlout

Colorful graphics with a silky smooth 60 frames-per-second

Brawlout’s graphics are very colorful and the characters are superbly animated. Combat stages range from fighting in the jungle, to battling in the desert, to laying the smack down on your opponent in the forest. While the combat stages serve their purpose, they are not really that memorable and leave a little to be desired.

The game runs at 1080p while docked and 720p while undocked. Most importantly, in both modes, Brawlout runs at a silky smooth 60 frames-per-second.This makes it even easier to pull off impressive combos.

Brawlout

Single and multiplayer game modes

Like any good fighting game, Brawlout offers both single player and multiplayer modes. The single-player mode is perfect for training and learning each of the character’s skills. You can fight alone against AI controlled opponents, or team up with friends to try out and perfect combos.

Brawlout offers several different multiplayer modes where you can play locally against your friends, and online with people from around the world in 1v1 and ranked matches. Battle modes include timed, stock and team matches. Match making is quick and easy, and when a match is found it will display the connection quality and give you the opportunity to accept or reject it.

The game also features a mode called Brawlout TV. In this mode, you can watch live matches in real-time from battles going on online. I found this to be a really neat feature, as it allowed me to watch others play and see what types of techniques they used in battle.

Brawlout

Final Thoughts

Brawlout is a solid entry into the fighting genre of games. The game never gets overly complicated and makes it easy for those that don’t usually play fighting games to do so. It’s great to see that new characters and features are being added to the game and what looks to be a regular basis.

If you are a fan of the Super Smash Bros. games, you should definitely give Brawlout a try. I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised. I’m excited to see what else Angry Mob Games has in store in the future for Brawlout.

+ Great value for the price
+ Easy to pickup and play
+ Unique and diverse cast of characters
+ Fun to play with family and friends
+ New features and characters being added on a regular basis

– Some characters are the same just with different skins
– Some combat stage designs are uninspiring