It’s ‘Smash Bros,’ Jim, But Not As We Know It

  If you have fond nostalgiatastic memories of the N64 like I do, you probably spent a fair amount of time with Super Smash Bros. Back in the nineties, before this fancy-ass ‘online play’ thing, couch co-op and local multiplayer was where it was at. The two kings of this? Mario Kart and Smash.  

Smash Bros popularized the party/fighter/general four player shitstorm genre. Seeing Mario punch Bowser in his big ol’ lizard plums was a revolution back in the day, and it’s just as much fun today as ever. The series has always been just about the most popular thing on every Nintendo console it’s hit. It’s even a big enough deal to be taken (kinda) seriously at big fighting game tournaments like EVO.

As with Mario Kart, there were all kinds of imitators. Remember the recent PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale? It was a bit ass, wasn’t it? Yes, yes it was. These sorts of clones often are, with the shadow of the original hanging over them like Godzilla over Gimli. Now here’s another: Angry Mob Games’ Brawlout.

It’s bringing back competitive platform fighting, the reveal trailer promises, because that’s always totally been a genre. I can already hear the FGC pros bitching about the lack of legit combos and such, and the characters look a little generic and half-assed, but this is only a first ogle. The game's slated for an early 2017 release on current gen consoles and Steam. Take a look.