Rivals of Aether II

This isn't a negative review because I think that the game is fundamentally bad(I'm not the biggest fan of some visual designs, but generally the characters are all pretty interesting to play and the game promises to never lock characters or stages behind DLCs, so that's nice), but at the moment there's no real singleplayer content(unless you enjoy beating the same dumb AIs over and over) and so the main focus goes obviously to the online modes which are mostly empty besides for ranked and unranked. Now, playing unranked is a terrible idea for any new player since it's ideal for you to face opponents of your level to avoid getting stomped constantly and that's why you should usually rely on ranked mode, except for the fact that the game has a really low playercount(according to SteamDB stats, keep in mind this game is only available on PC at the moment, so that's basically the only metric you need), this combined with the fact that this game is mainly marketed towards competitive players(especially coming from Smash Melee) means you're gonna find yourself surrounded by tryhards and sweaties even in the lowest of the ranks, all of which love to tea-bag you and emote for every single stock they take from you. What also doesn't help is the fact that, because the playercount is so low, you're often gonna get matched with people with a decently higher elo... It's essentially a pain to play ranked(the main thing you're probably gonna do) because of the playerbase, I'd advise people to only buy it on discount(as I did) and possibly wait for it to be actually finished and released on other platforms so that you may find appropriate matches to enjoy the game without the need to suffer through hours and hours of online matches to get good, since as I've said before you really can't get any good by only fighting the AIs. All of this said it's probably gonna be a good game for you if you're already *very* familiar with platform fighters(especially Smash Melee) or if you like grinding a lot. I'll probably gonna be playing the game with only my friends from now on. Edit: I forgot to add that all of this was during one of the peaks in player numbers(during the Gouie update), so it's gonna get much worse in just a few days.

GOOD GAME WITH GOOD CHARECTER (SRY BOUT CAPS LOCK)

Keeps everything that was fun from Melee but includes modern sensibilities and the best set of character kits I've ever seen in a platform fighter. It also has a pretty solid tutorial. They've done a good job at making the basic interactions digestible, and smoothing over the more esoteric edges. Almost every important mechanic has clear visual feedback and an in-game explanation (I will never forgive Melee for l-canceling). It's a competitive platform fighter, so there is an inherent complexity here, but I've never played one that felt as accessible or rewarding. Each character has real depth and swagger. tl;dr: there's finally a platform fighter on PC that's actually good

makes me mad, but good game

One of the funnest games I have ever played. Highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys fighting games. The devs have done a phenomenal job with game. It feels smooth as butter and highly skill testing. I would argue it is best in genre

This game

good game!