I still remember the day Brawlout was released on the Nintendo Switch, I was at home waiting for it to drop on the Eshop and when it finally did I could only play a couple of matches before heading out to work. After that, I might’ve played it for a couple more weeks and then I stopped playing but with the recent updates, I think it’s time to see what is new in Brawlout!
NEW CHARACTERS AND MODES?
The first thing that I noticed was how larger the roster was. I knew that Yooka-Laylee and Dead Cells had been added but I didn’t know that more Variants (clones) were added as well making the roster grow to 25 characters! Yooka-Laylee and Dead Cells, my favorites, are unlocked from the start but the Variants aren’t however, unlocking them is so much easier now!
Before, you had to grind the Arcade Mode and the Online Mode to collect Gems that would then be used to unlock a Variant and for a casual player like myself it would take a week to unlock just one Variant! Luckily, this has been changed. Now all you have to do is raise a character to level 5 and you’ll have their respective Variants unlocked along the way, which is much easier. In a single day of grind, you can easily get all characters!
Then we have a brand new singleplayer mode called Party Mode! In it, you can challenge your friends or CPU for matches of several rounds with special rules such as the Bomber Blast, Golden Belt, Plague, Coin Mania, and Sudden Death.
BOMBER BLAST
In this mode, every player will drop a bomb that it will explode eventually. And the best part is that even if you’re out of stocks you can still walk around the stage in a ghost form and keep dropping bombs!
GOLDEN BELT
At the beginning of each match, a Golden Belt will appear and you must catch it by standing on it. While wearing it you’ll gain possession points and you win once you get 100. However, it only takes one hit for you to lose the belt!
PLAGUE
A random player will get infected by a plague and start taking percent damage over time. To pass the plague all you have to do is hit an opponent and the one that has more kills by the time limit wins the match.
COIN MANIA
Coins are scattered throughout the stage and it’s your duty to catch as many as you can! Also, don’t be afraid to hit your opponent and steal their coins as well, all it matters is that you reach the end of the match with the most coins!
SUDDEN DEATH
This one is the most frenetic since everyone starts with 300% and half-meter! If anyone touches you consider your self dead so make sure to dodge! After a minute of play, the one that has the most kills wins!
ARE YOU READY FOR THE TRIAL?
The Party Mode is fun but only if you have a friend or two with you that’s why, when you’re alone, you should take on the Trial. In this mode, you’ll be going through a series of battles in which most of the time you’ll be at a disadvantage since you’ll face more than one opponent at once.
The further you progress you’ll find bonus stages that upon completion will reward you special perks that can be consumed before a fight to boost either your attack, speed, defense, and any other aspect. Managing these perks seems to be the key to success since you’ll encounter though bosses along the way that will make your life a living hell!
But what do you gain at the end? I have no idea since I’m still trying to beat this mode, it can be frustrating at times but I have more fun playing it than the latter.
THAT’S ALL?
So, what is new in Brawlout? New characters with their respective stages, new singleplayer modes and some good quality of life changes like the new process of unlocking characters. But do you know what isn’t new in Brawlout? The lack of people playing online and unfortunately that’s what kills the game for me. I left my game on for more than 40 minutes to see if I could find a match and nothing!
It’s great that devs keep adding more and more to it and I’ll keep checking the updates out but I’m doubtful that this game will ever have a healthy online mode. For now, I’ll just play it for fun with my friends when they come over!
