Heatwave

After following the dev of this game on social media for a while, I'm so excited to see this game finally get a full release! While I haven't gotten to the story mode quite yet, I've already spent multiple hours just trying the characters in training mode; even one time when I was supposed to be going to sleep and found myself labbing a combo an hour later ahaha. Despite the simple appearance, Heatwave is as fun to control and free to experiment in as any anime fighter, with an impressively sized cast to boot. I look forward to getting around to the story mode when I have more time, and despite the lack of online I can see myself playing quite a lot of this game with friends, even over parsec if needed. Definitely recommend! (Also, let's hear it for TRANS RIGHTS! <3)

Ultra fun fighter with high mobility options. Intriguing characters and extensive story mode. I also have a hard time pulling myself away from the fishing minigame.

No online versus. No plans for online versus. I thought that these were the only problems, so I wasn't going to leave a negative review, but after actually getting the chance to play against someone in person, I realized the lack of easy multiplayer was serving to mask the underlying issues Heatwave actually has a fighting game. If you truly do not want to engage in any kind of multiplayer and just want to get the single player experience stuff, you're a fundamentally different gamer than I am, but Heatwave seems fine. If your fighting game experience requires other people, Heatwave will not make that easy, and it will be disappointing when you do manage.

This game is charming as hell, combos are fluid, flashy, and feel awesome to pull off, and has a solid story mode from what i can tell so far!

Has a playable goose.

Very cool game, an indie fighting gem. The gameplay is incredibly fluid and fun, with the complexity to back it up. Takes a while to get used to. Story's great. Characters are cool. Queer fighting game lovers will like it a lot. I like it a lot. Few problems, though. Characters play very similarly. They all feel like rushdown characters with different hitboxes and only a few different tools, lacking that fighting game language in design. No real grappler, no real puppet, no real dedicated zoners, etc. The character design is also not great. Many have way too similar body types and details that could be included in their portraits at least, which is a lost opportunity. Hot characters are cool and all, but tell me what they're about at least. Visuals matter. Still is very good, though. Would recommend for queer fighting gamers, Last Blade fans, and Under Night in Birth fans, cause it has that defensive D button thing going with the aggression of an anime fighter.

Chunky. Pixel. Airdasher. Ive been playing Heatwave since its early beta stage. It was worth your time then, and 4 years later its an even better package with more refined combat and a wealth of characters