After a… “unique” launch several months ago, Disposable Media has recently discovered that Blue Mammoth Games’ free-to-play fighter Brawlhalla is now available on PS4 in free-to-play form. You might remember me covering Brawlhalla on PS4 when news broke of the release date and the eventual appearance on the PlayStation Store. I was disappointed that the release date had been so fluid, I was pleased that it was finally coming out, and I was intrigued by the pricing. Rather than launching as free-to-play, Brawlhalla on PS4 was originally released for £15.99 as a “Founder’s Pack” edition that included all of the characters. At the time my gaming schedule was already kind of busy (I was probably in-between FFXII and the Undertale/Sonic Mania combo at the time) so I couldn’t really justify spending money on even more games when I still had things to get around to. However, I’ll definitely take a look at Brawlhalla on PS4 for all of the reasons I mentioned before.

Brawlhalla on PS4 – accessible fun

As for the game itself? I haven’t downloaded it on PS4 yet, but we’ll soon find out if there are any earth-shattering flaws in the PS4 release (I’m not expecting “Other Ocean Street Fighter IV” levels of wonkiness.) As I may have mentioned before, I don’t really go for arena brawlers such as the Smash Bros. games because I feel like picking up a new type of fighting game and learning all of the technicalities would require the kind of investment that I can’t easily make at the moment. However, Brawlhalla is very accessible and easy to understand – movesets abd attack strings are clear, it uses the classic “more damage = more knockback” format that everyone can figure out after a few rounds, and the presentation is charming and accessible. Maybe if the PS4 release turns out to be something special I’ll publish a more detailed piece in the future, but for now just head to the PlayStation Store and enjoy.

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.