Brawlhalla

Brawlhalla is – as might be guessed by the name! – a 2D fighting game involving 54 playable characters, each with their own unique abilities. Each hero has various levels of four qualities: Strength, Dexterity, Defence and Speed, which vary in every hero to create unique strengths and weaknesses. With more than 50 million regular players, the game must be doing something right!

About the Game

Brawlhalla is a joyous bash-’em game, in which players must try to boot their opponents out of the playing arena by ‘damaging’ them with repeated strikes. The playing area is a rectangle that occupies much of your screen during game play. Damage inflicted can be seen around the edges of the playing area, starting at white for no damage, and moving to red for notice of damage taken, and black for maximum damage, by which point it will nearly be game over!

Obviously, getting knocked off the stage results in your losing a life. If there is no clear winner such as the last man standing, the player with the most points when time is up is declared the winner of that bout.

Players can partner up with a friend to fight other duos, or you can rise through the ranks as a solo player. There is a clan system on the PC version of the game in which wins benefit all clan members, boosting experience points for everyone. You can join friends in a clan or duo, or get together with strangers, climbing through the clan ranks for plentiful extra awards and benefits.

The Nitty Gritty

The controls are simple and easy to master, which is good as you have to think fast and move rapidly in response to your opponent’s moves. As well as moving about, you will have attack moves, special attacks, the ability to pick up and/ or throw weapons, and the ability to dodge.

During a match, gadgets and weapons drop randomly from the sky – this feature can be toggled on or off as you prefer. There are 13 weapons in total, and each hero can use two of them at a time, with three signature moves per weapon (so you will enjoy a total of six special moves per hero).

Crossplay is available for the various platforms on which the game is available. Anti-cheating measures are in place and are continually being updated. If your opponent happens to duck out during a match – or loses signal, perhaps – a pretty well-matched AI opponent steps into the breach, so you can finish your match and earn your points and upgrades.

The graphics are great: bright cartoony characters, and the pace of the game is well supported by the beat-heavy music tracks that play constantly in the background, whether you are brawling, exploring the menus or simply chilling while you think about what to do next!

Casual Play Modes

There are several casual game modes to try out:

Free for All: four players go up against each other to get the most points

1v1 Strikeout: the player chooses three characters which they play for one stock each

Experimental 1v1: allows players to test out upcoming features against one another, with a different featured mode each week