Royalty Free-For-All

this game has 3 dogs in it that's like 2 dogs more than many games

Ran this at a Mystery tourney at the Smash local and spent a couple hours playing casual matches with others afterward and everyone had a great time. Already got my money's worth out of it from that, pretty confident it's not the last time we'll run sets in this. If you got friends/family around to play with, it's worth the asking price for even one afternoon/evening of fun.

Y'all I LOVE the art and music in this game. I'm obsessed with the fox and wolf especially. But the gameplay's just lacking too much. It seems like it almost exclusively wants to be a party game that isn't taken at all seriously but wouldn't require much complex thought at all. Lacking directionals in a Smash-like is the biggest problem imo but some of the move choices just don't make sense for the character. Why is the fox's only ranged attack usable when he's in the air? It doesn't feel good. Maybe with some updates the game will be a lot more desirable?

Seems like an okay game, but the controller customization options appear to be broken. I'm using a GameCube controller through the PC mode of a Mayflash adapter, and while most of my custom binds work when I select the profile I made, pressing X to jump causes me to do an attack instead. This is really frustrating because I jump exclusively with X in platform fighters. Other than that, I'm a little put off by the simplification of the gameplay, but I want to give the game a chance against an actual human opponent before I definitively judge one way or the other. Will update this review as issues get resolved.

This game is more similar to Smash 64 than anything else, but it takes that template to an extreme simplicity. This allows for movement to really shine and the characters to be really unique. It's truly the first good platform fighter released in far too long Also doubles go crazy

There has been no shortage of so-called "platform fighters" in recent years. Each seeks to provide their spin own on the formula nigh-perfected by Super Smash Bros. Royalty Free-For-All is the first of these that I feel offers a compelling alternative to Nintendo's inonic crossover games. Royalty Free-For-All does away with the much of the complexity found in other platform fighters, and as such it lowers the barrier of entry greatly. Movesets are simple, putting an emphasis on mastery and movement. Time will tell if the formula holds up once I get better at the game. The character designs and animations on offer here are incredibly charming, and the developers seem to have a good understanding of how to animate characters to make them *feel* good to control; something that is surprisingly uncommon in the genre. The variety of classic characters on offer as well as the way they're interpreted here really nails the crossover vibe the genre is known for, and never feels like the low-effort cross-promotion type crossovers seen in many of the popular games today. That's not to say it's all perfect. Certain characters, such as Quick Brown Fox and Sakura, feel a bit more stiff and less responsive than the rest of the cast, in no small part due to less expressive animation work. Characters such as Dorothy, Piglet and Big Bad Wolf serve up excellent animation work and all feel wonderful to play. I'm sure the developers have learned a lot during development and I'd love for them to get the chance to revisit these characters post-launch; something I find more important, and more interesting than the additional characters planned for development. Similiarly I find that many of the stages could use some love. More layers, more parallax scrolling and improved contrast for the parts of the stage that matter mechanically. On a broader note regarding presentation, transitions out of matches (or the lack thereof) are quite jarring. Arcade matches are introduced with scaled up blurry images of the fighters, which only hurts the presentation. I suppose it's a reasonable compromise, but it would be nice to see these screens use higher resolution artwork. On the topic of consistency, the game offers film grain and cel shadows which greatly enhance the presentation when applied in moderation. Having these effects apply in menus as well would be a nice improvement. Promotional imagery such as the logo and various Steam assets certainly give off a vibe, almost like the box of old cartoons on VHS tapes, but I feel like they don't quite do the presentation justice. Same goes with the splash screen when bootikg up the game. Is it a big deal? No, but first impressions matter. The hero shot with Dorothy is great, though. I appreciate that there's a native Linux version, though on my Steam Machine I was unable to set a resolution within the game. It seemed to default to 720p. Once I switched to the Windows version running through Proton, the resolution was set to my output resolution and worked without issue. I would not mind helping out with troubleshooting on the Steam Machine if it is of any interest to the team. To finish off: I love this game, and any criticism comes from a genuine wish that it can be made better. I'm really looking forward to any additions and improvements the developers implement in the future, and am looking forward to trying the game out with various friend constellations.

Coming from Brawlhalla here, I've only put in 70 minutes and I can already see the level of charm put into this game. Especially with the hand drawn art looking beautiful, the OST going super hard, and while the online connectivity can be a bit laggy at times, similar to Super Smash Brothers Ultimate's connectivity, it actually feels like you have control over your character. Of course it's only the first day of this game being out too, so I can't criticize the network lag too harshly. The attacks took me a little bit to get used to, since I'm so used to the traditional set of having light attacks, heavy attacks, and specials that change depending on what direction you're facing. It was definitely off putting, noticing that most characters only have two types of attacks on a given button - the grounded version, and the aerial version. This isn't to say all characters are like this of course, it just took some getting used to. Already I'm getting some good chain hits in, and even a few true combos. Each character has the same set of attacks, but gimmicks that make them different. Mother Goose, for example. Does NOT have a recovery move. But she does have four jumps, making for an interesting pick for sure. Another example is Nessie, being able to use bubbles to completely trap your foe. And going back to the point last paragraph, Sakura can attack in different directions in the air if she likes, not just in one direction like most characters. It's just her gimmick! Of course each character's moves vary in a lot of ways. It'd be a while if I were listing all their gimmicks, so just trust that you'll find one suiting to you. There's competitive stages, casual stages, items if you so please, a "classic" mode like SSBB, where you fight hordes of enemies and also take on "Target Test" and "Platform Run" (which you can do separately). Side content that won't take too long to get through, but is fun nonetheless. I hope they continue to update this game with little content updates, for 33% off it's quite a steal. Big round of applause to the developers!

Perhaps I was spoiled by other platform fighters, but I still found Royalty Free-for-All quite good, even with its small roster and basic character movesets, Can't wait for what's in store for this game! No, really. I might spontaneously combust. Dah, just pulling your leg! I think if I were less experienced in fighting games, I'd have a hoot with it!

I think the game is worth a buy on sale (despite my "do not recommend" rating), but only if you're looking to get a few hours of party game fighting out of it. Even then, the games still has a bit of problems. If of course came in expecting a more casual experience, and it was that. But when I wanted to get better, it just felt like I couldn't. Which confused me even more when I saw that there was somewhat of a competitive scene This game feels like it wants to be simple yet serious. But it's succeeds in only being mind numbingly simple. A combination of aerial and grounded movesets being 2 separate things and a lot of moves just sucking leads the the weak characters being incredibly weak, and the strong characters beyond spammy. With characters having so little moves the game just feels spammy in general Also the game tends to be pretty laggy for seemingly no reason at all So in the end, pick this up if you want to have a fun party game night with your friends after drinking and let it rot in your library after. If you're looking to get into if competitively, don't