Pulling their powers from four elements вЂ“ earth, air, fire and water вЂ“ your protagonists all work with the same base move-set of light combo attacks and chargeable strong attacks, all of which have variations depending on the direction youвЂ™re holding, alongside rolls, dodges, parries and a double jump.ДЄdd to this each characterвЂ™s unique abilities and thereвЂ™s a surprising amount to get to grips with in order to master any one of them. There may not be a roster of several thousand instantly recognisable characters to choose from, then, but the fourteen furries on offer here are a well-designed and diverse bunch, each with their own unique elemental attacks and specials which can be used not only to punish opponents, but also to cleverly affect the arenas in which they are fighting. That six-strong cast has also now been expanded to a total of fourteen pugilists, twelve from across the land of Aether itself as well as two delightful cameos in the form of Ori and the legend that is Shovel Knight. Taking place over six stages вЂ“ and one hidden final battle вЂ“ which introduce the original core characters that were available to players back when the game first released in 2017, the story mode here is a short and simple affair which nevertheless does a decent job of setting the scene and providing a little background to the castвЂ™s motivations for kicking each otherвЂ™s pans in. The land of Aether, in which Dan FornaceвЂ™s game is set, is divided into warring civilizations of animal fighters whoвЂ™ve been tricked into facing off against each other by a shadowy Lovecraftian fiend. Here is a carefully crafted, deep and addictive 16-bit platform fighter that takes the base influence of NintendoвЂ™s brawling behemoth and runs off in its own direction, resulting in a brawler that cuts away a lot of faff and theatre and gets down to some surprisingly hardcore and competitive business. However, Rivals of Aether is an experience thatвЂ™s just about as far removed from that mess as is perhaps possible within (or without) the confines of a genre. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)ДЄfter diving into the unmitigated disaster that is Bounty Battle just recently, we canвЂ™t say we were particularly enamoured with the idea of slogging our way through yet another Smash Bros.-esque indie fighting effort quite so soon.

Rivals of aether roster