Rivals of Aether 2 is a wonderful refuge for Smash Bros and Mutliversus Refugees, and it’s got a Steam Next Fest demo now

Come hither ye refugees from Smash Bros and Multiversus, a new platform fighter has arrived in the Steam October Next Fest. Rivals of Aether 2 is finally playable, after years of waiting. A good platform fighter can be hard to find these days, and I’m happy to decladre here that this one is an absolute banger.

You can feel the love pouring off of the game developed by Aether studios, the team which made somewhat of a name for itself with the original Rivals of Aether thanks to some solid balance and a welcoming business model. I, among others, have lost many hours to the first game. Hopping into this sequel via the free demo, any and all excitement I had has only expanded. I’ve already lost a full evening to it, it’s unbelievably morish.

But what exactly is so good about it? It feels tight, hella tight. Playing any of the available fighters offers a punchy, responsive experience that demands experimentation. You don’t need to be some age old melee player to dive right into this, such is one of the main qualities of the genre. After a brief 15 minute session with the game I felt the urge to dive right into some versus matches. A bar was set, given the quality of the first game, and seeing this game match it handedly was the first of many lovely affirmations for my pre-release hype.

It’s also damn colourful. It glows out of your screen. It’s hard to compete with games like Smash and Brawlhalla and their the star-studded casts, but this original suite of characters manages to appeal to the child in me. Just look at Kragg, the brusier rock beetle, and tell me you aren’t keen on it. Sure, animalorphised fighters aren’t for everyone, but love and care oozes of the characters in Rivels 2. It’s far easier to care about a game when you can tell at a glance how much its devs did.

With the full game coming out later this year, a benefit to this demo is that it feels compete. It’s a fleshed out experience. This, essentially, is an early release. As such, the community is electric, diving in to figure out how everything works and to get their hands on the cast. I can’t stress enough how intoxicating the energy around a fighting game launch is. Being able to quickly find whole communities of likeminded players at your skill level, looking for matches is a wonderful thing.

Some will look at this and assume it’s a Smash clone, which I get. But there are some new twists aside from the look that set the game apart from its biggest competition. Pummel Specials, Get Up Specials, and Ledge Specials might not sound like much, but they add a new layer of complexity to a game that rewards mastery. There’s a real joy to picking up a fighter and figuring stuff out, learning what your main’s best attacks are, how each character navigates eachother’s movesets.

At a time where platform fighters appear to be a hard sell for larger publishers (rest in piece Riot’s cancelled platform fighter), Rivals of Aether 2 is a neat package made by a team dedicated to the genre and who clearly know what makes them good. I’m not going to sit here and ask that you throw your entire week into it, but download the demo and just hop in. Dip a toe into the multiplayer, and get a friend or two keen. It’s a game with serious charm that could very well capture your heart. It did mine! Even as I write this I’m eager to jump back into it, which is about as true a sign of a video gem as there ever is.