Rivals of Aether is an old-school brawler along the lines of the earlier versions of Super Smash Bros. on Nintendo platforms. It features great pixelated characters and levels, and for an Xbox Game Preview title, it’s incredibly polished despite having not that many characters currently. I spent most of my time with solo and co-op play because not many people were available to play online due to the nature of getting it a week before the Xbox Game Preview launch date.
Now, the first question all of you might have is why is it called Rivals of Aether. Well, let me tell you. Many ancient practices and philosophies use a set of archetypal classical elements to explain patterns in nature. They are Air, Fire, Water, Earth and Aether or Spirit. They go back to the days when people thought they were the components behind nature and to this day many religious groups like the Wicca believe in them. It’s an interesting choice but a clear one that distinguishes the powers of each group when it comes to a fighting game.
Well, in Rivals of Aether, you can play one of many characters where warring civilizations summon the power of Fire, Water, Air and Earth to vanquish their foes. The story mode and other features are locked in the Xbox Game Preview version but I can imagine that the story will play a major role in explaining the mythology behind the concept. I can’t wait to see the developer’s take on it.
The controls are incredibly responsive even though some of the buttons are mapped to nontraditional schemes. For example, instead of using A to jump, you use Y. It took me awhile to get used to them but once I did it was smooth sailing from there. The performance is perfect and locked at a stable sixty frames per second.
The gameplay plays out exactly like you would expect. It’s basically Super Smash Bros. on Xbox One. It’s a lot of fun and once you master the controls it gets very hectic and competitive. I ended up playing the game with my friend and tried to make her lose though numerous unsuccessful attempts at distraction by making loud startling noises.
Overall, Rivals of Aether is a great start and I can’t wait to play the additional modes when they’re available. The gorgeous and varied levels which range from forests to dirigibles are a sight to behold. Hopefully the game will graduate from the Xbox Preview program and become a proper release soon. If you’re looking for your fix of nostalgia, be sure to pick this one up because even now it’s an excellent experience on multiple levels. Just remember to play the tutorial because without it you’ll be lost.
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.