Despite Nintendo’s own Super Smash Bros. Ultimate being just on the horizon, Angry Mob Games has been hard at work refining and updating party platform fighter Brawlout. Today, the team has released patch notes for their upcoming 1.5 update, estimated to release on all platforms on November 7, 2018.
One of the most anticipated additions to the roster for Switch owners is none other than Yooka-Laylee, who has been playable on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 since August 21. We heard a few months back that Yooka-Laylee would not make it to the Switch version until later in the year, but it finally seems like it’ll be happening soon. A new stage from the duo’s titular game, Tribalstack Tropics, is also set to come to Brawlout.
In addition to Yooka-Laylee joining the whimsical cast of fighters, Angry Mob Games has outlined a massive update to the game, including revamped progression and unlocks as well as character balancing. A list of the full changes slated for patch 1.5 includes:
- Yooka-Laylee joins the fight!
- New stage: Tribalstack Tropics
- New character variants
- Gancho Puncho (Paco)
- Sting’ra (Sephi’ra)
- Ripjack (Vandal)
- Funkmaster (King Apu)
- Party game modes
- Golden Belt
- Plague
- Sudden Death
- Coin Mania
- Bomber Blast
- Improved loading times
- New unlock system
- All character variants now unlock by leveling the main characters, with all variants for that character unlocked by level 5
- All stages unlocked from the start
- Gems have been removed; all items are not purchasable with a single currency
- New cosmetic items
- Fluffy Pinata to replace Brawler Pinata
- Universal gameplay changes
- Charge Attacks
- Players now have a dedicated button mapped for doing Charge attacks
- Players can now set their right control stick to perform Charge attacks
- Players can now toggle activating Charge attacks by tapping the left stick and pressing attack on or off
- The knockback formula for charge attacks has been modified
- Certain Charge attacks now start at the strength of the attacks corresponding hit
- Ledge grabs and ledge hanging tweaks
- The ledge has been changed based on player feedback to make it a bit more interesting and to give players more options when playing around it. Maneuvers such as ledgedashes are now possible
- All characters can now hang from the ledge for 4 seconds before automatically doing a neutral get up
- Players can now act almost immediately after letting go of the ledge
- There is now a 0.5 second ledge regrab timer that is active when attacking from ledge to make aerial attacks more reliable from ledge
- Fastfalling
- Players can now fastfall during most aerial attacks. Previously fastfalling had to be started prior to attacking
- Attacks that stop or alter your momentum such as Sephi’ra’s forward air part 1 or divekick cannot be fastfalled
- Players can now fastfall immediately after wavedashing off of a platform
- Spike canceling
- If your character is hit by an attack that sends them within 35 degrees of straight down, you can now cancel your knockback and hitstun by either jumping or using your recovery move 17 frames after being hit
- We’ve increased the knockback of most of the game’s weaker spikes to compensate
- Attempting to jump too early will impose a 40-frame lockout, essentially taking the opportunity to spike cancel away from you
- There is no lockout penalty for attempting to use your recovery move too early
- UI and presentation
- “Random” has been added to the Stage Select Screen
- Stormy City is now removed from the Stage Select Screen in Competitive Mode
- Fixed a bug with Directional Influence that allowed players with certain control setups to change their trajectory more than intended
- Brand new music on the Character Select Screen
- Miscellaneous
- Jumping now has a 8 frame buffer, making jumping out of an action easier
- AI difficulty tweaks based on community feedback
- Automatic input lag in matchmaking and private lobbies has been adjusted and will now typically use one extra frame of delay compared to the last update. This should make online play a little smoother overall
- Character balancing
- Olaf Tyson
- Olaf has a new forward Charge attack
- Acolyte
- Acolyte has a new forward Charge attack
- Dr. Tysonstein
- Tysonstein’s Charge attacks no longer deliver the electrical attack debuff on their own
- His neutral special has been replaced with a new move called “Dynamo”. Rather than a straight attack, it’s now a buff that can be charged up to temporarily add the electrical attack bonus to his normal attacks
- His recovery move has been replaced with a similar move called “Thunder Plate”. This version of the attack summons a metal plate beneath Tysonstein, and can no longer be used to wall of sections of the stage or attack players
- Natu’ra
- Knockback on Natu’ra’s dash attack has been reduced by ~28%
- Upair now has landing lag
- Sephi’ra
- Upair now has landing lag
- Nightma’ra
- Nightma’ra’s flutter has been adjusted to match Yooka-Laylee’s flutter mechanic
- Upair now has landing lag
- Juan
- Juan now regains his Rooster Uppercut and Dashing Derpderp after grabbing the ledge
- Vandal
- Vandal now regains his Vandal Ball after grabbing the ledge
- Condor X
- Condor’s mine now does a bit less damage (10% -> 8%) and does less knockback
- King Apu
- Reduced hitbox size on Chain Grab
- Apunaut
- Reduced hitbox size on Chain Grab
Phew! That’s quite the list of changes. Much of this seems to address issues we had in our review of Brawlout (we gave it an 8.0), so it’s great to see games continuously updating and improving.
