Part of the reason why Lethal League Blaze is so much fun is because its aesthetics really enforce its mechanics. This culminates with a player taking a mach speed ball to the face, losing a life, and starting this roller coaster of tension all over again. They stop jumping around as much and start backing into corners, protecting themselves and desperately throwing out safe moves. However, as the ball starts to ramp up in speed to the point where it’s hard to even see, players become defensive. It’s an offensive ballet that rivals any of the best platform fighters. In the early game, players attempt to chip away at each other’s health with trick shots and sneaky maneuvering.
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The result is a fantastic back and forth that slowly builds tension. Otherwise you can only interrupt its momentum temporarily with bunts and other special moves. The ball’s momentum only resets if someone dies. If you get hit by the ball you take damage in proportion to how fast the ball is moving. Now, characters have a more traditional health bar as well as a set of lives. However, that resulted in a lot of quick and unsatisfying matches, so the system has been tweaked for Blaze. Originally the game took a minimalist sort of approach, making every hit a one-touch kill. You even have supers that allow you to perform tricks with the ball, like send it curving through the air or teleporting through portals. You have moves that make it go faster, moves that catch it, moves that suddenly stop its momentum, and moves that change its trajectory. Your assorted fighting games moves are all about manipulating the ball. If you get hit by a ball of any color but your own, you take damage. Doing so imbues the ball with your color of energy, meaning it can’t hurt you, but can hurt anyone else. Your goal is to maneuver around a stage to hit a floating ball at the opponent. The result of this formula is a sort of high speed death pong. In Lethal League’s case, it was hitting around a ball.
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but you would use them for something else. What if you had a fighting game where you couldn’t directly attack the opponent? You would have the same variety of moves and strikes that you’d find in a game like Smash Bros. The concept behind Lethal League Blaze is surprisingly simple. If you are looking for a rags to riches story, Lethal League Blaze fits the description perfectly.
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Now, six years later, Team Reptile has overhauled the game, replacing the simple flash based sprite graphics with full 3D models, and working with absolute behemoths of game design and composing. It actually started as a flash game that started making the rounds at fighting game tournaments back in 2012, but it was so popular with the fighting game crowd that it’s developers, Team Reptile, eventually came together to create a full release. You’d be forgiven if you missed the original release of Lethal League back in 2014. Ain’t nothing like a funky beat! Tangentially, ain’t nothing like a long awaited sequel to a truly innovative indie fighting game.