Brawlhalla

Brawlhalla is a multiplayer online fighting game that supports up to eight players in battles. It features over 50 characters to choose from, each with unique skill sets. Players need to familiarize themselves with the terrain of dozens of maps and utilize skillful movement and character abilities to achieve victory, climb the rankings, and compete against players worldwide. In addition to the PVP mode, the game also offers diverse modes such as Capture the Flag, Bomb Ball, and Bullfight, along with constantly updated events and new characters, bringing players more freshness and anticipation.

Gameplay of Brawlhalla:

In most of Brawlhalla's game modes, the goal is to knock one's opponent into one of four areas outside of the visual boundaries of the map referred to as blastzones, similar to Super Smash Bros. This can be done either by forcing them into one of the blastzones with an attack, or by preventing them from returning to stage and allowing gravity to force them into the bottom blastzone. Damage can be seen on the color display around each player's character icon, which darkens progressively from white to red to black as the character continues to get hit. The darker the color is, the farther the character will be knocked back when hit until a hit forces them into a blastzone. Entering a blastzone will result in the player losing a stock and their character respawning on stage. Either the last player with at least one stock or the player with the most points wins the match, depending on the game mode.

The game supports both local and online play. Competitive players can compete in 1-on-1 to climb through the rankings. They can also find a partner to play against other duos to increase their collaborative rank in either the standard stock game mode queue or a rotating queue that features a different game mode each season. Brawlhalla also has several casual modes: Free-For-All, 1v1 Strikeout, Experimental 1v1, and a different featured mode every week. Free-For-All is a chaotic mode where 4 players knock each other out to gain points. In 1v1 Strikeout, players pick 3 characters which they play for 1 stock each. Experimental 1v1 allows players to test out upcoming features against each other. Custom games can be hosted online and locally, and they support up to 8 players per match, experimental maps, and region changing. You may join groups of your friends to create a clan, with multiple ranks within the clans. Clans are only available on PC. Clans gain experience from all members.

Brawlhalla features simple controls and one-button special moves. This allows new players to pick up the game quickly. Controls include movement keys and buttons for attacking, performing special moves, picking up or throwing weapons, and dodging. Keys can be rebound for the keyboard and a large variety of controllers.

Players can move by running left and right and jumping. Players can perform quick dashes sideways on the ground and dodges in the air or on the ground, either sideways or vertically. It is also possible to dodge right after an attack to keep pressure on the opponent. Once in the air, the player has the option to perform any combination of three jumps, a directional air-dodge, a grounded move in the air by using a "gravity-cancel", and "fast-falling". It is also possible to hold on to the sides of stages, similar to the style in Mega Man X.

During a match, gadgets (which can be switched off in the ranked game modes) and weapon drops fall from the sky semi-randomly and can be picked up by the players. Although the weapon drop sprite has the appearance of a sword it turns into a corresponding weapon for the legend that picks it up. All of Brawlhalla's characters can use 2 weapons out of 15 to fight each other. Weapons include blasters, katars, rocket lance, sword, spear, cannon, axe, gauntlets, hammer, bow, scythe, orb, greatsword, battle boots, and chakram. Blasters, rocket lances, bows, and spears perform well at a distance from the opponent, while katars and gauntlets are more effective up close. Rocket lance allows for quick traversal of the stage. Cannon, greatsword, and hammer all do large amounts of damage. Sword, orb, katars and battle boots are fast and low damaging. As chakram also does well at a distance, unlike others, it can split into two if the user holds down and attacks. All characters have unarmed attacks, should they be disarmed. Gadgets like bombs, mines, and spike balls are also used. Weapons can also be thrown to interrupt the enemy's moves or to make it difficult for them to get back to the stage. Each character has 3 special or "signature" moves per weapon, for a total of 6 per character.

Four stats are assigned to each character: Strength, Dexterity, Defense, and Speed, each with a rating up to 10 (maximum 22). The combination of these stats determines the strengths and weaknesses of a character and affects how they're played, and can be slightly modified using stances- which move a point from one stat to another.

Features of Brawlhalla:

Full cross play with a massive community: Brawlhalla supports full cross play across mobile, console, and PC, so you can match with friends on different platforms without friction. Because the community has over 100 million players, the game finds opponents quickly and keeps queues moving. Cross play also helps casual groups and competitive players stay connected, which makes forming lobbies and rematches straightforward.

Modes for solo, duos, and groups: You can jump into 1v1, 2v2, free for all, or set up custom rooms for your crew. Online or local play supports up to eight players in a single match, which fits quick sessions and longer gatherings. Custom rooms include spectator slots for more than thirty friends, so matches can be watched and organized without leaving the lobby.

Legends and licensed crossovers: Brawlhalla offers over fifty playable Legends with distinct weapons and move sets. Licensed crossover fighters like John Cena, Rayman, Po, Ryu, Aang, Master Chief, and Ben 10 add familiar faces with tailored animations and effects. Because each Legend has clear strengths and tools, you can find a style that fits your timing, spacing, and reads.

Ranked ladders, Training Room, and esports: Players who want competitive play can enter Ranked 1v1 and 2v2 ladders with visible progression. The Training Room supports combo practice and shows detailed data to help you refine inputs and confirm follow ups. Beyond the client, the esports scene runs tournaments, power rankings, and regular broadcasts with Twitch Drops, so you can watch, learn, and earn cosmetic rewards while viewing.

Free to play model with clear unlocks: Brawlhalla is free to play and uses a weekly rotation of nine Legends for tryouts. You can earn gold through play to unlock more characters permanently at your own pace. An optional All Legends Pack grants current and future Legends, while licensed crossovers are not included in that pack. Seasonal events and a Battle Pass add cosmetic goals and challenges, and frequent patches keep balance and content updated.

Strategies of Brawlhalla:

Combat Is All About Taking Control: Players fond of fighting games know that the character who makes the best combos and counters wins a match. However, excellent fighting gamers know that combat is all about exchanging control, one where a fighter tries to land an attack, and the other fighter responds. Therefore, it's taking control of the combat that decides the victor. In Brawlhalla, this much remains the same and especially more so given the fast-paced, chaotic nature of battles.Players need to keep an eye on how to dictate the terms of combat as often as possible. Enemies should be reacting to them, and not the other way. Players can do this by assuming control, breaking the enemy's combos, stopping their flow with throws, dodging their attacks, and catching them off-guard.

Try To Focus On Only A Couple Of Characters To Start: There are a lot of interesting and entertaining characters available for players to use in Brawlhalla, with developers constantly adding more in updates. While it might be tempting to throw down with as many characters as possible, it's definitely a better idea to pick a couple and stick with them for a bit. Players that learn the ins-and-outs of their favorite Champions will be able to perform better combos, and should have a much easier time maneuvering the battlefield.Once players learn a specific Champ, they should branch out to other Champs that share similar traits. It's a much better idea to ease into Brawlhalla than try to learn all of the mechanics of every single character as quickly as possible.

Become At Home With The Platform: As a platformer brawler, Brawlhalla relies on pitting players in huge sets of platforms that punish them for getting thrown out. Thing is, Legends can't exactly stay still either, as enemies will see them as free targets. As such, Legends need to move around to hit foes and avoid getting hit at the same time.However, players shouldn't panic and just move willy-nilly. Rather, players should try to learn Brawlhalla's stage mechanics with their favorite Legends in mind. Players should learn how to make precise moves depending on how their Legends run, dash, jump, and climb around the stage. Remember, adapting to fast-paced movement can help Legends land hits more accurately.

Optimize A Legend's Light Attacks: Anyone who's touched a fighting game knows that combos define a character. This leads to the Scorpion's Spears (Mortal Kombat) and Ken' Shoryukens (Street Fighter), after all. However, experts in fighting games know that simple movement and attack patterns alone can determine a character's playstyle. In Brawlhalla, mastering Light Attacks can make a Legend just as lethal — even if they don't use their Signature Moves (Sigs).Granted, Light Attacks don't deal as much damage as Signature Attacks. However, Light Attacks happen much faster and string well into combos. As with Sigs, Light Attacks come in the form of Neutral (standing), Side (forward), and Down (downward) Light Attacks - all of which can weave into remarkable combos. A Legend who knows their Light Attacks well can punish enemies who miss their Signatures or defeat them fast enough they can't use them at all.

Make Weapon Combos A Second Nature: Each Legend in Brawlhalla can use two Weapon types, each with separate combos and Legend-unique Signature Moves. While Sigs are powerful, they tend to require a build-up, meaning they're at risk of being interruptible and can spell danger to players.Aside from knowing how to perform the Sigs, players need to familiarize themselves with the Weapon combos of Legends they love to use. These combos will become the bread and butter of each Legend's playstyle and overall theme. For instance, the samurai Jiro can use a Sword and a Bow, making him ideal for short-range and long-range incursions.Since a match alternates the appearance of Weapons, players can't play favorites and adjust to the playstyle of whatever weapon they have.

Player Comments of Brawlhalla:

Overall, Brawlhalla has changed drastically since the release of this review. A lot of the information here is no longer correct and there are new gameplay features, dash being the most important. I certainly still feel that it is far too easy to avoid and/or delay interaction between yourself and the opponent, but it would be disingenuous of me to pretend the specifics of this review are still accurate.

Although I am giving this game a positive review, I must say that it comes with a massive disclaimer. If you just play Brawlhalla with your friends and never take it seriously, you will likely enjoy yourself. However, if you ever get good at this game and play at a decently high level, Brawlhalla's glaring failures as a fighting game will become so unignorable that your desire to play it will steadily decline till you're on the subreddit crying about the passive float meta like everyone else. All of the reviews - including the negative ones - are ignoring the real problems with this game, and it's something I have thought about for a long time. So, I'll try to explain my reasoning as best as I can and briefly include the reasons why I still consider it worth downloading despite its enormous flaws.

On the surface, Brawlhalla is an entertaining party game, provided you have some friends to play it with. So, if the only thing you're looking for is a simple game to kill some time (read: 1500 hours) with, download it. It is very easy to play and you are practically guaranteed to pick it up quickly regardless of your fighting game experience. Aside from being easy to play, it is also free to play and only cosmetic items cost money, so it is easy to get into as well. There are a good number of modes for you to play with your friends to prevent it from getting stale. You can level up your characters and unlock new colors for each few levels, so there is some degree of progression and playing a lot of one character can feel slightly rewarding. It also helps that a potato could likely run this game.

While I do consider this game's positives enough to make it worth downloading, that’s just about all the positivity I have to share. As someone who has played and seen this game played at a very high level for many hours, I can confidently say that Brawlhalla is a fundamentally flawed mess. I'm not going to complain about the toxic community, or the netcode, or matchmaking, or any of the stuff you see other reviews complaining about. I'm only going to talk about the game's core mechanics and why it fails competitively.

Brawlhalla has a dodge mechanic that grants virtually instant invincibility and makes you unhittable for nearly half a second. Dodging has very low risk because it has only 0.97 seconds of downtime and it is difficult to punish unless your opponent can predict exactly where you will dodge. You can dodge in 8 directions at any given time, and if you are running you can dodge twice in succession. When the iframes from the dodge end, you are able to jump or attack almost immediately, which is one of the main reasons why it’s so ridiculously safe. You can also jump in any direction 3 times, and once you're in the air you can quickly fall to the ground to get all your jumps back and continue hopping around. This combination of instant invincibility on a 1 second cooldown and an insane amount of aerial freedom results in a passive, floaty meta where playing optimally means avoiding making any approaches. Usually, making the first attack means risking being punished, whereas dodging or floating away is safe and can potentially put you in a position to punish a whiffed attack. Because of this, it often feels like you’re chasing your opponent rather than fighting them. Seriously, playing this game feels like you're in space with how effortlessly you can float around and avoid your opponent. Constantly approaching will get you killed faster than a lone cripple in a collapsing, burning building. Sometimes, salty players will run away from you in ranked just to troll you and you will have a very hard time catching them. Yes, this is a problem with the community, but it shouldn’t be possible in the first place. A key reason this happens is because dodging is a stupidly easy way to escape pressure. Any time you get hit you can just dodge in one of eight directions and reset the match to the neutral phase. Brawlhalla’s neutral phase is reminiscent of two kids hopping around on a jungle gym endlessly until one kid falls and hurts themselves (in this case, hurting yourself would be equivalent to approaching).

Another issue that ties into dodging and movement is wall camping. It’s possible to wall camp almost endlessly and force your opponent into a disadvantage if they want to approach. Players have won tournament matches by abusing this. A mechanic was introduced that stops you from getting your jumps back after touching the wall too many times, but it's rather forgiving and you only need to touch the stage for a few frames before you can resume wall camping. Once you get comfortable with movement in this game, it’s incredibly easy to dance around on the wall for as long as you want.

If you’re reading this and you don’t play Brawlhalla, you might be thinking that all the problems I’ve listed thus far could be addressed by nerfing dodge in some capacity. Unfortunately, the entirety of Brawlhalla has already been crafted and balanced around this awful mechanic. Certain weapons are better at punishing dodges than others, with some weapons capable of dealing massive damage on a precise dodge read. A considerable dodge nerf would mean that these weapons would benefit immensely and quickly become meta. The only way I can imagine this game’s passivity problem being fixed would be a colossal rework of dodging, jumping, and probably every weapon in the game as well. Understandably, the developers don’t know what that rework should be and how to conduct it. They’re trying to fix the game’s passive float meta by applying band aid fixes that ultimately do very little to address the huge, overarching passivity problem Brawlhalla has always had.

Conclusion:

Brawlhalla will bring players to islands built floating in the clouds and participate in exciting battles. Players will use the navigation keys on the left side of the screen to control their character to move up and down. At the same time, you can change weapons flexibly with the weapon keys available in the right corner of the screen. If you are a new player, getting used to this new control system will take a while. Your task is to use your skills, such as attacks, weapons, or other support skills, to push your opponent into the abyss and gain points for your team.