Recent reviews by Jada Pinkett Smith

overwatch sfm is literally free




also pls take a shower this week i can smell you guys through my computer

evil brawlhalla be like



"i'm a good game that listens to the community"


9/10 update: oh my god this game isn't as bad as brawlhalla but it has so many red flags we conveniently ignored until now oh god I can't go through this again please I can't brawlhalla broke me

12/20 update: 2 (and 1 mini) battlepasses and still no ranked gamemode + any real skill-based rewards to incentivize playing the game? brawlhalla activities fr, i'lll just stick to queuing against 594330 mordex mains a day again at least it's what i'm used to

participating in mass genocides is extremely fun, although it gets annoying when you have to pay to do it

Just like the real thing, but without the muscle soreness and pineapples!

attempted murder has never been so much fun

i love having my feels put in a blender and sat on by lizzo, thank you very much



legit spoiler warning:

i should have hit on emma when i had the chance rippppp ;(

0/10, why can't they just use facetime or skype lol

But on the real side, I see the appeal, but 30 minutes in and I've been bored out of my mind. Even though the purpose of the game is not to, part of me hopes I'll get left on read so something intresting might happen. So far the game has served to attempt to reinforce the idea that many find quarantine lonely, boring, are hopelessly trying to maintain relationships, etc but it's so far been needlessly redundant/boresome; we all know that millions of people are mentally struggling in this new environment: the game doesn't need to exist for the sole purpose of validating those feelings by making us reenact our day-to-day struggles in more a boring manner (since we're not actually talking to a loved one.)

Also the controls are a leetle wonky. I don't think we're allowed to press space and a direction simultaneously as one would expect and instead have to press space first. A tad annoying, but it's only led to one accidental dialogue choice so far.

Will update if anything changes, cuz the aesthetic is cool and clearly others seem to be enjoying it.

Update: Just finished the game, would've finished it sooner but I kept pausing it to watch paint dry instead.

they always call me the impostor cuz i'm black

this game is proof that there is no god and if there was they dont love us.

Likely the most unique fighting game you will ever play but suffers from fundamental flaws and a developer that lacks a comprehensive understanding of its own creation.

SUPER TLDR: Is the game good? Well yes, but actually no.

REASON FOR REVIEW: Brawlhalla has been my most-played game for about two years now and I have even dedicated a YouTube channel to making Brawlhalla content (kdoty). However, despite my obvious love for the game, I have found that I have had the same basic grievances with the game throughout the years that remain unfixed. These grievances never properly being addressed, paired with the ever-present “meta” I will discuss later, have led me to feel that this game has been a massive mis-investment of time that could have better spent elsewhere.

WHY GET BRAWLHALLA? (THE GOOD)
-The core concept of Brawlhalla are incredible.
I daresay there is no other fighting game in the world that is so liberating in the sense of the freedom it allows players. Like Smash, it is a platform fighter but, although I do lack a complex understanding of Smash, I feel that is where the similarities end. In Brawlhalla a player has three jumps, can have one or two recoveries, and an air/ground dodge with its own specific cooldowns allowing for virtually complete freedom in how you wish to engage your opponent. These incredible movement options also allow for extensive in-air and off-stage play, which both play a tremendous role in the game and the latter often being extremely fun and exciting to both watch and play. Tactics, creativity, and the ability to “read” your opponent should be staples of any fighting game and the core concept of Brawlhalla excels in all three categories.
-The Visuals
The art style may take some getting used to, but I find it quite clean-looking and modern, and the artists consistently do a terrific job with the animations of attacks and in making every legend feel like a unique character.
-The Massive Roster
The freedom to choose from 50+ legends to find one that fits your playstyle and/or aesthetic preferences (I started playing my most played legend Ada in the first place simply because I thought she looked cool and had the most intriguing “lore”) is phenomenal.
-Complete Crossplay
One can play Brawlhalla on virtually any modern gaming device against one another. Although some definitely present better experiences than others and I feel the game is still best suited for the PC, this is an incredible aspect of Brawlhalla.
-The “Promise” of Brawlhalla
Brawlhalla presents a unique promise I feel few other games offer: you can download the game, play/work to get better at it, and be rewarded for being one of its top players all for free. In terms of the game itself, there is technically nothing stopping you aside from your own abilities and work ethic from becoming the best Brawlhalla player in the world. It’s an extremely cool concept and is brought about by a fairly healthy Brawlhalla e-sports community of professionals playing for significant cash prizes.


WHY I DON’T RECOMMEND BRAWLHALLA
These glaring flaws were completely preventable and remain completely fixable, but it has become abundantly clear that they will not be anytime soon. These are flaws that totally disrupt the ability to physically play the game and/or enjoy the gameplay.
-Lag on 4-Bars/“Green” Connection
The game’s indicator of connection strength does not perform its proper function. Regardless of internet quality and/or clearly visible lag, the indicator will show a green “good” connection unless it is an extreme situation such as playing on a different region/server or a complete Wi-Fi drop. The indicator’s inaccuracy and leniency ranges from not reporting slight lag that is not noticeable to causal players but having a profound impact on gameplay for higher skill levels to players accidentally running off the stage and killing themselves because they cannot accurately see what is occurring on-screen despite having 4 bars/a green connection.
-Terrible Servers
Unless your internet is phenomenal, be wary that playing when lots of players are on can spell disaster in terms of your own connection to the game. Even so, the game inevitably will suffer from lag-spikes or lag for a few crucial seconds purely due to the poor servers. I have never had this experience of connection/server-based lag in any other game I have played be it console, mobile, or PC. This is absurd considering that in Brawlhalla playing between regions, even sometimes between US-W and US-E, is unideal and the game is not graphics-intensive.
-A Whole Stat is Near-Meaningless
One of the four stats that define a legend, “Dexterity”, is often meaningless and balance of the game’s roster completely falls apart as a result. In theory, this stat makes attacks have more recovery time on miss, allowing for opponents to better punish attacks from low-dex legends. However, for reasons I fail to understand, legends with low-dex are often purposefully given signature attacks with an extremely low amount of recovery frames. This means that the “weakness” of these legends does not truly exist, and that the legend simply has more stats in meaningful categories than their peers. Even when dexterity functions properly, it often results in a few frames gained or lost in recovery animations, something even pros have claimed is virtually imperceptible to the human brain on most weapons. To add insult to injury, there has yet to be a definitive stance from developers on whether true (undodgeable) combos granted by extra dexterity should exist, as there is a trend upon removing them once pros bring them to light. This all leads to dexterity completely uprooting the balance of Brawlhalla, with low dex legends being more favorable to play than high dex ones and low-dex legends lacking the flaws necessary to keep them fair and balanced.
-Poorly Construed Metas
Brawlhalla is heavily dictated by a meta driven by its balance changes and new additions effecting the professionals’ play and the main playerbase being affected by both. This should be completely fine and acceptable, however there are often game-altering weapon changes that are simply moronic and absurd, with such stupidity being easily identifiable and recognized by pro players players or even the causal above-average player. (I.e. cannon being able to 0-to-death off a single dodge read, blasters sair-dlight-slight-nair being a true combo, accidentally making spear double dlight jumpable without a dodge when trying to buff it, etc.) These mistakes heavily deteriorate the state of the game and thus one’s ability enjoy the game if it does not occur in their favor, but such mistakes continue to happen without logic or reason, while other balance-related issues remain unfixed.
-Passive Play Is Inherently Advantageous
Playing passively, or refusing to attack first/aggress, is an overpowered strategy against virtually any weapon due to the tremendous freedom of movement in Brawlhalla. When allowing your opponent to attack first, there is a chance your opponent will put themselves into a disadvantageous state upon whiff where an extremely safe punish option can be used. Due to it being frowned upon and easy to identify, extreme passiveness usually does not manifest in pro play. However, there is theoretically nothing stopping an average player to simply evade their opponent for the entire duration of a match’s (needlessly long) match timer limit aside that the community recognizes it as a toxic behavior. This gives the victim of this behavior two options: be the aggressor, putting themselves in a constant potentially disadvantageous state causing them to lose the match, or simply wait out the timer and remain vigilant for sudden timers. Neither is fun nor should be expected from by players. However, I believe this to be the only glaring flaw that nothing can be done about and is simply a consequence of Brawlhalla’s freedom of movement.
*CON'TD IN COMMENTS*