Pass the Controller | Latest news, reviews and reviews in video games
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Community
  • About
    • Contact
    • Meet the Team
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Community
  • About
    • Contact
    • Meet the Team
>

Rivals of Aether | Xbox Game Preview

13/10/2016

 
Picture

Developer Dan Fornace is the mind behind Super Smash Land, a fan-made Super Smash Bros. demake, who also served as Lead Developer on the excellent Killer Instinct reboot that launched alongside the Xbox One. Dan’s background is precisely why his new independent venture, Rivals of Aether, should grab your attention. It’s an amalgamation of the knowledge he’s accrued, as well as another passionate love letter to one of his favourite games.

Picture

by Sam
​Sant

Picture

@SlamShotSam


Picture
Developer: Dan Fornace
Publisher: Dan Fornace
Platforms: Xbox One,
PC

Players: 1 - 4
The 2D, retro-styled brawler is available now via the Xbox Game Preview programme, its current build focusing upon the fundamentals - tutorials, practice, local and online play - whilst omitting story and other additional modes for now. Their absence might come as a blow to some, but the decision is ultimately geared towards improving the final product, which benefits everybody.

Jumping into the action, you’ll need to select a character from Rivals’ colourful cast of eight elemental warriors. They obviously lack the iconography of the mascots from the game that inspired them, but they’re no less varied in both their aesthetic and play styles. Zetterburn is a flaming lion with familiar mechanics for beginners, Orcane is a Pokémon-looking hybrid of, presumably, an orca whale and a canine that excels at zoning, whilst our favourite, Kragg, is a hulking beetle that uses his strength and environment to his advantage. The rest are similarly outlandish and universally appealing due to their considered, anthropomorphic designs.

Each of these combatants has a personal tutorial, a feature many games in the genre sorely lack, so whilst you’ll inevitably pick favourites, there’s no excuse not to diversify. You’re tasked with completing feats of incrementally more difficult stature, as ever, but you shouldn’t struggle getting through them all this time around, due to the game’s intuitively simple control scheme. There are no complex inputs to remember here - not even a quarter circle in sight - every offensive and defensive manoeuvre is simple to execute, placing a greater focus on timing, situational awareness and positioning. As a result, Rivals is accessible fun for the casual player, but demands an absolute precision at higher levels that has already seen it affectionately adopted by the fighting game community (FGC).
Picture
Picture
Once you’re good and ready for competition, you’ll need to carefully select a stage to put your new skills to use on. There’s a mixture of symmetrical and asymmetrical layouts, as well as compositions that allow for more or less verticality, centred around both grounded and fantastical geography. Each possesses a fitting retro soundtrack that’ll really put the wind in your sails, as well as unique hazards and pick-ups that change the way you play. It’s worth noting that these modifiers can be turned off should you want an unimpeded fight experience, perhaps to settle a dispute with a level-playing-field grudge match.

A further glut of customisation options are available for the matches themselves, namely edits to the time limit and number of lives, number of participants, whether the battle is free-for-all or team-based, and each individual fighter’s competence. Everyone can find their sweet spot as a result.

Whatever settings you opt for, matches are enjoyably frenetic, especially if you opt for a full roster of four. The streamlined controls earn their stay here, not getting lost amongst the crazy cavalcade of busy visual effects as conventionally complex inputs likely would.

​
As you dish out beatings the recipient’s damage percentage increases, and the higher it gets the easier it is to knock them from the stage and deplete their stock of lives by one. Once they run out, they’re eliminated, and you win by being the last animorph standing. It’s incredibly Smash, but it’s regardless a raucous good time that brings the experience to an audience Smash largely doesn’t reach.
Picture
It’s incredibly Smash, but it’s regardless a raucous good time that brings the experience to an audience Smash largely doesn’t reach.
For an early access game, technical performance is mostly rock solid thanks to responsive controls and no hitching during even the most frenzied of encounters. When we ventured online, some issues did unfortunately apparate in the finicky invite system and occasional bout of lag.

The online multiplayer issues don’t quite end there, however, as the breadth of choice available to solo users gives way to quite a rigid structure. Whilst it’s understandable that ranked matches would disable stage modifiers and bots, there’s no reason to enforce the same strict ruling on friendly matches. To the same point, team-based battles should also be available. Rivals of Aether is predictably at its absolute best when shared with friends, but unless they’re available for local play, the options are disappointingly limiting.

Despite that, if you’ve been craving a nostalgic shot of Smash Bros. but have long since left Nintendo behind, were burned by PlayStation All-Stars, or are just looking to inject some variety into your repertoire of bog-standard fighters, Rivals of Aether is for you. Whether you choose to invest now or wait for the final release depends where your interests lie; whilst you’re (at least eventually) in for a treat either way, we’d advise erring on the side of caution and waiting to see if the online options are expanded upon first.

​
Pros

  • Super Smash Bros.-alike on your Xbox
  • Varied cast of fighters, each enjoyable in their own right
  • Simple, accessible controls taught through extensive and clear tutorials
  • Wide range of options available in local versus play
  • Pleasing retro sound and aesthetic

Cons

  • Online multiplayer lacks options
  • Connectivity issues with online multiplayer
  • Currently lacking in modes, though more are on the way
​

Pick it up in preview
Wait for final release
Avoid it either way​


​​
Note: To reiterate, Rivals of Aether is currently in preview phase and this review reflects the state of the game at the time of publishing. Things can and will change, likely only for the better.


A brief second opinion:

Picture

​by James
Michael 
​Parry

Picture

@James_Parry


Unlike Sam my history with fighting games in general is extremely limited, so to hear of a title with Smash as such a strong influence was intriguing - as it's the only brawl-’em-up I've ever even slightly got to grips with.

While there's no denying the controls are simple on paper, there's certainly a knack to them, and hitting the move you want when you need it requires some patience and time put in getting to know your preferred character, though the tutorials alone do go a long way.
With that in mind, the preview build definitely offers a strong beginning that we can expect to reach its full potential as the game is updated to reach release state.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.



    READ MORE

    News
    Features
    Videos

    Comment Here

    Categories

    All
    Action Adventure
    Adventure
    Air Combat
    Arcade
    Family
    Fighter
    Hardware
    Horror
    Indie
    Narrative
    Open World
    Platformer
    Puzzler
    Racing
    Role Playing
    RPG
    Shmup
    Shooter
    Sim
    Sports
    Stealth
    Strategy
    Survival
    Virtual Reality


    Archives

    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015


    RSS Feed

Pass the Controller

News
Reviews
Features
​
Videos
Forum
About

The Forums

Gaming Discussion
Xbox
PlayStation
PC Gaming
Nintendo
Off Topic
​Achievements and Trophies

What is PTC

About Us
​Meet the Team
​
Contact Us
OpenCritic
Find our reviews on OpenCritic
vrgamecritic
Find our reviews on vrgamecritic
© COPYRIGHT 2014-2019 PTC / JMP.
​ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.