I like fighting games so when I heard an indie fighting game called Steel Rivals was coming to Wii U I got excited. But did the game actually live up to those expectations? Not really and that’s a shame because the game clearly had some good potential.
Steel Rivals is a weapons based fighter similar to Soul Calibur but lacking that game’s refinement. The characters are all balanced but nothing really exciting happens. There is multiplayer options that work okay but the fighting itself feels unrefined and, dare I say boring? I guess my disappointment is that the game had great potential but just falls short. Its not that its bad, its that it feels unpolished and unfinished at times.
The audio is poor in every aspect which is horrible for a fighting game since the sound in fighting games really is what gets many people into them. The visuals are poor and while that can be excused as this being an indie game, this really does have the look of an older game that only just now got a digital release. With some polish it could look even better than it does now but as it stands, the visuals are particularly dull.
I mentioned that the fighting was unrefined before and to explain myself I will go into more detail. The gameplay feels clunky no matter what I use to control the characters and occasionally the controls do not respond in time. This is especially jarring given how slow pace the game is, so there really is no excuse for that.
If you are looking for a fighting game on Wii U, there are others worth your time. If this gets patched, then maybe I will give it a second look. As it stands now though? I would just keep on moving past this for now.