Here's Your First Look At Rivals Of Aether Running On Switch

I'm curious if the upgraded sprites will be for all versions? You can clearly see how much more on-model Zetterburn is from the screenshot to the video.

Eh, this game looks nice but didn't care for it when it was on PC. I got Smash Ultimate for Switch for my fighting game itch.

Although this title seems to look decent from what I have seen, not having played it personally, Brawhalla will likely remain as my go-to for a fun Smash alternative. I found myself enjoying that game a lot more than I initially thought I would.

"Great Aether!"
-Ike

Pretty much one of the few good Smash-like games. A lot of the smash clones end up being awful like Brawlhalla or Icons Combat Arena or good and unique like this one, Slap City, and id even count Lethal League. Wonder why this port took so long though.

@Ardisan I disagree on brawlhalla. It's not awful, just really limited to what you can consume in each match and the characters are fun to experiment with for their movesets. A better word for it is "Fun in quick bursts, boring after awhile." Brawlout was truly bad tho.

I don't know why, but compared to Smash, this game's static camera and pixel graphics makes the hits seem less...impactful? maybe.

On surface level, this looks less exciting to play than Smash, but I'm sure it's great if you get into it.

I'll be looking forward to when Slap City potentially reaches Switch in the future. That's the only Smash clone that ever properly caught my attention.

I loved his “game boy” smash so I’ve had my eye on this. But if it’s too expensive I’ll pass.

@EarthboundBenjy It definitely doesn't pack as much punch aesthetically but it is considerably more acutely designed with competitive play in mind than any Smash title barring Project M. It might be the least party-friendly platform fighter out right now. Every character in the game frequently shows up at the highest tournament level due to insanely tight balancing. Of all the non-Smash platform fighters out there, this one's got the most replay value for people looking to REALLY get good at a platform fighter.

And, well, the combos are so long and intricate that the relative lack of visual and auditory overload is largely compensated for when you manage to carry your opponent from one side of the stage to the other and back before launching them into the fiery depths below without them touching the ground once. Would definitely recommend watching a RoA tournament set if you want to see how crazy this game gets!

(Slap City does slap tho, also eagerly awaiting a port of that one!)

@Shade_Koopa personally I'm still interested in it. If anything I regret more biting Brawlout on a whim before Smash was released.

Honestly despite 2D graphics I feel what I see of this one gets more of the experience that makes Smash interesting than Brawlout did and i'm actually interested to try this out because there's characters with fighting styles that feel very unique in ways i'm not sure I could even find in Smash.

I'm definitely curious about trying out that smoke cloud- generating fire hyena.

@Dakotastomp I regret getting Brawlout so much.

Like I guess I'd even add that I felt you could see the devs really had trouble creating original characters of their own when only the guest characters(who actually came from now iconic games of their own) actually felt rendered in a way that felt interesting at all in terms of both move and visuals.

And researching Brawlout further after getting it and seeing the devs focused sp much in "invisibility frames, hitboxes, etc" and not on stuff like "friction during character movement" or even more "more unique/obvious characters moves visuals to better communicate what an attack is meant to do and how strong it is, etc" shows they got from Smash only the technical competitive stuff but were literally blind to everything that made the game great such as the different levels of friction and inertia of characters that lets you instantly feel them as you play and all the effects that cleverly communicate a lot of what you need to know about an attack and how you can expect it to affect an opponent/etc.

Rivals of Aether interests me because though it's 2D, it seems to get a lot of these lessons right(and double them with characters that looks like they all feel unique and distinctive to play with move styles that feel like they would be unique even in Smash unlike Brawlout seemingly trying to copy-paste "ye generic street fighter attacks" for a lot of skills and not understand why that doesn't feel right in a platform fighter game).

Like even the lack of voice acting sound effects feel more at place in a 2D game like Rivals that features a lot of other sound effects to communicate stuff than something like Brawlout where it feels like a gross oversight considering how it felt like it kept struggling at communicating so many other stuff already especially with the lack of inertia and friction of it's characters while playing... a thing that might have it's place in traditional fight games about chaining combos like Street Fighter but which just doesn't work out in a platform fighter where being able to feel tactilely the momentum of your character and the enemy is paramount to the experience as you maneuver around maps.

@EarthboundBenjy the static camera is sadly a thing but looking closely at just how unique(yet apparently balanced) ...the moves of every characters feels like and seeing how they move around the maps in ways so unique to each others with inertia and momentum of their own makes me feel this is nonetheless one of the games, particularly in the competitive-driven subset of "Smash clones", that gets -why- Smash feel so great to play even without items or the more unique maps.

Like I can see just from looks alone that something like Brawlout(which I actually played, and was - heavily- marketed at competitive Smash player) has nothing on this... especially in regard to character movement and a lot of the communication done through visuals effects in both Smash and what I've seen of Rivals that was just.... sorely lacking in Brawlout(I don't know how many moves I whiffed just because Brawlout struggled so much at the time at communicating -visually- a moves' hitbox or what to expect of a character's weight class so much the lack of friction and momentum made everyone feel the same in a bad way... pages long bits about hitbox and attack/invisibility frames or launch power means nothing if you can't even communicate the concepts through sounds and visuals for the player to know what to expect... and those 3D graphics means nothing if a 2D sprites-based fighter can manage that at just a glance and Brawlout can't with said 3D graphics).

Like I'd end up paying the guest fighter Drifter all the time purely because at least the visuals of his sword better communicated at least the idea of the reach of his attack than any of the "homemade fighters" of Brawlout X_X

Looks alright but my desire for another Smash game is nonexistent right now.

Is Rivals the one game where some indie characters were playable?
Cause I remember a game where people said that Smash was a good place for really well known characters, and there was this other smash-like game were people said that it would be am amazing opportunity to include indie characters. Hopefully I'm not sounding too crazy.
Anyways, Rivals seems fun! I did play it a bit on PC and liked it, I'll be on the look out for this one.

@Ludovsky I was mainly just pinpointing how the game looks and plays like a college student's final project and the way the characters move and fight is beyond stiff at times, and how most fights are won when you have a character with actual range of movement and attack aka Don't choose the frog, but that's just my personal experience. Overall, the quality of it was the thing that really kills it.

Enjoyed it on PC, tho from what I remember, no ledge grabs

Be interesting to see how it shapes up on Switch, considering we have Smash Ultimate

@Ttimer5 Yup! I know for a fact Shovel Knight and Ori are in Rivals of Aether at least.

@Ludovsky if the gameplay implications of the character designs even remotely interest you, I implore you to give Rivals a try! The roster variety is insane when you consider how few characters have any move overlap (Ultimate has move overlap with: swordie aerials, shoryuken up specials, 3-hit jab combos, tilts all largely being subtle variations of the same handful of ideas, down special counters, etc), with some straight-up bending common notions of platform fighter mechanics (Wrastor, for example, can only perform a smash attack while airborne, Orcane can create teleport locations to allow for impossible recoveries, etc).

I feel the characters have a stronger sense of identity than large swabs of the Smash roster, and I can't really think of a single Rivals character who plays remotely similarly to any given Smash character, barring surface level visual design similarities (Fox/Zetterburn, Wrastor/Falco, etc). None of this is to say Ultimate is lacking, rather just some reasoning as to why I feel more people should really give Rivals a go! Kinda feels complimentary to Smash in the same way an ArcSys title like Guilty Gear feels to Street Fighter.

Got it years ago in a Steam sale. played it once. Totally unimpressed.

@Ludovsky It felt clunky. The graphics were nice but the movement just isn't there. Glad I was able to refund the game.

Amazing game. Great for competition, and also has a surprisingly fun single player and co-op mode. Can't wait to play it again.

@Dakotastomp I play smash 80% of basically all of my gaming time.
But for Brawlhalla I feel intimidated by the freemium UI, I always feel like I am stumbling through menus. Also the cast seems to have the same moveset, is that true? If you can tell i didn't play it long

@Chunkboi79 No. It's only similar if you only fight without items. I'm saying that the movesets for each character is different when they have their weapons equipped. Those glowing sword pick-ups in the game are what give each fighter their unique weapons and give them different moves to attack. Ada can use these pistols and rapid fire any opponents in front of her(Side special), Fait can pick up a scythe and warp dash past or to her opponent to attack when you input down + special, and so on and so forth. It's more about the timing of your special attack and a focus on agility than who's special is the strongest of the fighters/how fast can I avoid attacks with this character.

Also, I don't consider freemium as a turn off simply because they aren't forcing me to pay for stuff and I can simply keep playing to build up in-game currency to buy new characters instead. But that's just me.

@Dakotastomp Ahh that makes sense. Nah it's not the fact it's freemium that turns me off. I did get kind of bored with it. However, I just wish that the menus in all freemium games were a little more simplified.

@Shade_Koopa @Shade_Koopa Rivals or Brawlout?

@Ludovsky Sorry, Rivals of Aether. I never tried out Brawlout due to the mixed reviews on that game.

@Shade_Koopa Yeah im sorry, but its obvious youve either never played Rivals of Aether or your pc is just bad. The movement in the game is superior compared to ultimates.
The game is like melee but easier since there is no need to L-cancel or do perfect wavedashes/wavelands

@Zeriitas That it is your opinion. On both to Rivals of Aether and Melee. I'll stick with mine. Thank You very much.

Also, my gaming rig is over the recommended system specs. The movement felt clunky and I'm sticking by that. Just cause I don't like a game that everyone else seems to like, you want to attack for me it? Yeah, okay. Whatever.

@Shade_Koopa Its not an opinion. Its a fact, stop. Ultimate has more input buffer frames for no reason and RoA doesnt.
RoA is superior movement wise. Also the roa movement is made easier compared to melee. If anything is clunky it is ultimate.

I play Ultimate more than the other 2 aswelll but theres definitely clunky movement and slower response in ultimate.

@Shade_Koopa and im not attacking you, im sorry if it sounded harsh but Ultimates input buffer is just terrible

@Zeriitas I don't think I mentioned anything about Ultimates input. All I said was that Rival of Aethers is clunky. And that I prefer ultimate instead. Both are my opinions from playing both games.