This isn’t the first article I’ve written about Brawlhalla coming to PS4. I was a bit late to the party and only discovered the game on PC earlier this year, so news of Brawlhalla coming to PS4 was more than welcome. I had drafted up a bunch of text about the game and when we should expect to see it, but it never surfaced and instead the release date slipped and shifted. I wasn’t counting on seeing more news on the game’s PS4 release so soon, but earlier today an article appeared on the PlayStation Europe blog claiming that we’d see Brawlhalla coming to PS4 on Tuesday 1st August.
Brawlhalla coming to PS4 – why you should care
For those who don’t know why they should be interested in news of Brawlhalla coming to PS4, allow me to elaborate. Brawlhalla is a free-to-play 2D arena fighting game that’s similar to the likes of Super Smash Bros. Four players enter the arena and deal damage with various attacks. Rather than draining the health of an opponent, damage makes an opponent get knocked back further with each hit, so a player who has taken a lot of damage is more likely to be punted offscreen and lose a life. The winner is the last player remaining. It’s a simple enough premise, but the four-player nature of the game means that players are always waiting to sweep in on a damaged opponent and claim the KO, or fighting to get to the various power-ups that are littered around the stage. When I played on PC I pretty much played in public games, but the action is so fast that there’s barely any time for keyboard-based trash talking. Consequently, the community is competitive but not really that toxic – the most conversation you’re likely to see is a “GG!” at the end of each match.
Brawlhalla coming to PS4 – if you have the money
Unfortunately, if you were looking forward to a fun freebie that could kill idle evenings with its arena-based fighting, you might be out of luck for the time being – right now, the only way to get hold of Brawlhalla on PS4 is to purchase the paid bundle or “founders pack”. Charging money for the console version of a game that has had a free-to-play option available forever is an interesting move, especially when the PlayStation Europe blog article I linked to previously refers to it as a “high-energy 2D platform fighter that is 100% free to Play.” Whether this price tag and bundle is here to stay remains to be seen – certainly, if a free-to-play version was released that was as enjoyable as the PC version, it would see plenty of downloads.
Brawlhalla coming to PS4 – making the move
Of course, I could just continue playing on PC with a DualShock 4 controller plugged in (thanks Steam), but I’m interested to see where my online friends go – will they move to PSN and fork out the money, or stay on Steam? Me, I might stay where I am. I was wondering if I should write a review of a port of a game that’s quite old, but with the price tag I might not even get that far. In any case, if your only option is to play on PS4 then you can think of this as an early recommendation. If you’re like me and have turned to Street Fighter V’s drip-feed of content for all of your fighting game needs, this might be a good opportunity to cleanse the palate and try something new. Similarly, if you enjoyed Super Smash Bros. style games back in the day but have since lost interest (or maybe made the move to PS4 where there wasn’t really an equivalent outside of PlayStation All-Stars), this might be the game to pull you back in. Oh, and if you’re a PC player and happen to see me online, I apologise in advance for all of my newbie errors.
Brawlhalla will be available on PS4 for £15.99. If you’ve read this article about Brawlhalla coming to PS4 but you don’t own a PS4, you can still download and play the game right now on Steam.
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