Lethal League Blaze

When Divekick came out, I had a lot of fun with it. It was easy to play so I could show my non-fgc friends, had some fun fgc jokes, and had enough depth that it was fun from time to time. Tragically it ended up being too much on the simple side, had some shitty balance issues (possibly intentional), and overall was missing a lot of lasting appeal.

Thankfully Lethal League took it up a notch, added a bit more depth, had some great aesthetics, and was four players. Again, it followed similar issues to Divekick (to a lesser degree). You could also add Nidhogg to this conversation.

What Lethal League Blaze has brought to the table is the perfect balance between an easy to pick up system, but with an insane amount of depth. The addition of multiple movement options, throws, counter-hits, and so on has brought this game to the next level. The soundtrack blasts while you smack balls back and forth, the stages go crazy, the characters are some of the most charming I've ever seen in any game, and every little detail is accounted for. The new life-bar system is extremely well designed (and is thinking outside the box compared to its counterparts). It's bonus modes are fun to mess around with although the volleyball mode is somewhat lacking.

Even for a fighting game, the story mode is somewhat decent and while the story itself is mediocre, it's made up for by having a pretty cool world. This is the best of the pick up and play fighting game the genre has to offer. Grab 1-3 friends and have a jawbreaker.