Rivals 2

About Rivals 2

Rivals 2 is a single player and multiplayer casual platformer game with a fantasy theme. It was developed by Aether Studios and was released on October 23, 2024. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Rivals 2 is the sequel to the hit indie fighting game, Rivals of Aether. Play as both new and returning elemental fighters in the next generation of platform fighters.

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Reviews

80%Audience ScoreBased on 8,628 reviews

gameplay570 positive mentions

story32 negative mentions

Smooth, fast-paced, and mechanically deep platform fighter with unique and well-balanced characters.
Excellent netcode with frequent free content updates, including free DLC characters, and generous monetization.
Active and responsive developers with a passionate community, continuously improving the game and adding new features.

Steep learning curve and poor new player onboarding, making it difficult for beginners to enjoy or improve easily.
Frustrating mechanics like floorhugging and crouch cancelling that reduce gameplay fun and reward defensive play excessively.
Limited single-player and casual content; matchmaking often leads to uneven matches and long queue times due to a small playerbase.

gameplay
1,996 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29% positive mentions, 65% neutral mentions, 6% negative mentions
Rivals of Aether 2 delivers fast, smooth, and mechanically deep platform fighter gameplay that expertly blends elements from Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate with its own unique character mechanics and new additions like grabs, shields, and ledges. While highly praised for its balance, responsive controls, and competitive depth, the game faces criticism for an overwhelming learning curve, unintuitive defensive mechanics such as floorhugging and crouch cancelling, limited in-game tutorials, and a lack of casual-friendly content. Overall, it stands out as one of the best platform fighters available, especially for players seeking a challenging, skill-based experience, but it may be daunting or frustrating for newcomers without external resources.
- “Great mechanics, buttery smooth movement, constant free updates, casual modes, workshop support (in beta at time of writing), fun characters.”
- “The gameplay is crisp af, the community is lovely and the dev team is dedicated to make the best competitive platform fighter that has ever existed.”
- “Rivals of aether ii is an impressive sequel that builds upon the foundations of its predecessor, elevating the platform fighting genre with a deeper gameplay experience, refined mechanics, and a more expansive roster of characters.”
- “The game is awful online is awful and laggy even when I'm wired; it rolls back all the time and makes me do things I never did or just kills me. Floor hugging is a horrible mechanic where you can hardly play the game at low percent, and all the cool different characters don't matter when it's just a fish for grab simulator. Hitting your opponent doesn't matter when they can just punish you on hit.”
- “Floorhugging is the worst gameplay mechanic in a platform fighter, even more so than tripping in Brawl. It centralizes neutral interactions in a way that heavily benefits certain characters over others and creates unfun gameplay cycles unless you tailor your play around them.”
- “The absolute worst mechanic in a platform fighter I've experienced in any game ever. You can throw out moves to your heart's content, all the while option-selecting the down input to cover yourself. For most people trying to improve, this is not fun to do, and top players and balancing updates have only doubled down on this mechanic, which punishes players who don't engage in floorhugging.”
graphics
294 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
45% positive mentions, 52% neutral mentions, 3% negative mentions
The game's graphics have evolved from charming 2D pixel art in the first installment to a vibrant, colorful 3D cel-shaded style in the sequel, offering polished animations and distinct character models that enhance visual clarity and appeal. While many praise the fresh, competitive-friendly aesthetic and smooth animations, some longtime fans miss the original's pixel art charm and find the new style less unique or occasionally inconsistent. Performance-wise, the game runs well on various setups including the Steam Deck, though occasional frame drops and optimization issues have been reported.
- “Visually, the game shines with crisp animation and a delightful art style.”
- “Rivals 2 has an amazing OST, pleasing visuals and beautifully crafted characters and stages; at no point am I confused as to what is going on due to the coherent and well-defined animations; attacks feel meaty, strong attacks feel strong; no complaints on the visual department.”
- “The graphics and sound design are great, the gameplay is super smooth, and there is good rollback netcode for online play.”
- “Majority of the characters are heavies and the charming art style from the first game has been compromised entirely for a much uglier, less inspired 3D style.”
- “How to ruin a good platform fighter, trash its charming art style, take away everything that made it unique, and overcharge for an unfinished beta with fewer characters than the first game.”
- “The graphics are choppy and stuttery at frequent times despite being able to play other much more graphically demanding games on high+ settings with no problems.”
monetization
240 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
18% positive mentions, 66% neutral mentions, 16% negative mentions
Monetization in the game is predominantly cosmetic with all future characters and major content offered for free, earning praise for being transparent, consumer-friendly, and non-predatory. While many appreciate the fair pricing and the ability to grind for premium currency rather than pay outright, some players criticize the presence of microtransactions in a paid game, describing it as aggressive or excessive, especially given the relatively slow grind and limited initial content. Overall, the model is seen as a balanced approach to funding ongoing development without compromising gameplay integrity, despite divided opinions on cosmetic pricing and grind requirements.
- “The dev team is very active in the community, and actually supports tournaments unlike a certain other platform fighter developer, and the game has to my knowledge the best monetization of any fighting game that is currently being developed, with all future characters being free and everything that you can spend money on being easily attainable by just playing online for a reasonable amount of time.”
- “The monetization is very fair and purely cosmetic.”
- “The monetization model is fair and most cosmetics are unlockable through playing.”
- “Genuine cash grab.”
- “Pathetic cash grab, insulting to see an entire genre of fighting game being completely drowned out in greedy garbage.”
- “The gameplay is beyond frustrating thanks to floor-hugging, the single-player content is abysmal, and this game has one of the most predatory monetizations I've ever seen in a video game.”
story
235 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
7% positive mentions, 79% neutral mentions, 14% negative mentions
Rivals 2 currently lacks a story mode, which has been a significant point of disappointment compared to its predecessor that included a robust story and single-player content. While the gameplay is solid and competitive, casual players and fans of narrative-driven modes feel underserved, though developers have promised a multi-chapter story mode and additional single-player features in future free updates. The game's single-player experience is presently limited to an arcade mode without story elements, with substantial content like tutorials, workshop support, and story mode expected to roll out over the coming years.
- “It features a comprehensive story mode with engaging narrative elements that flesh out the lore of the game’s universe, along with challenging AI that can test players' skills across different difficulty levels.”
- “Genuinely the best platform fighter atm, beautiful art and animations, deep movesets for all characters, no FOMO, buttery smooth buffer system, solid online, items and stage hazards, frequent monthly updates and to top it all off: workshop and story mode are on the way.”
- “The fact that these developers plan on adding a bunch more characters, as well as fleshing out the single player content with story mode and improved arcade/training modes (all for free), is indicative that this already very excellent and polished game will only get even better.”
- “There is no story mode, no abyss mode, and the arcade mode isn't worth playing more than once or twice.”
- “A single player story mode was promised in the Kickstarter, but that has been delayed until 2027 — three years after launch.”
- “Despite the intro sequence's inference that there is story to be had, there is none.”
music
162 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
56% positive mentions, 40% neutral mentions, 4% negative mentions
The music in the game is widely praised for its high quality, memorable tracks, and strong connection to previous installments, often described as energetic and fitting seamlessly with gameplay. While some users feel the new soundtrack isn’t quite as impactful as the original, overall it is regarded as excellent and a standout feature that enhances the game’s atmosphere and player engagement. A few minor critiques include a desire for more variety, added classic tracks, and occasional sound design gaps in certain modes.
- “The soundtrack complements the fast-paced battles perfectly, featuring energetic tunes that keep players engaged and add to the overall excitement of matches.”
- “The music is a particular highlight, each stage has multiple unique tracks that serve not only as great battle music, but also as character themes.”
- “The existing music is excellent — the work from resoforce, flashygoodness, and others elevates every match and trailer — and it deserves even more space to shine.”
- “Right out of the gate, the character models and new tracks don't hit as hard as the sprites and music of the original Rivals, and any game with a battle pass immediately raises an eyebrow with me.”
- “The arcade mode has obviously been rushed out, the UI for arcade mode doesn't scale, the target test doesn't have music.”
- “Not only does this art style change hurt the motion of the characters - but it hurts the music and its impact as well.”
character development
131 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
56% positive mentions, 39% neutral mentions, 5% negative mentions
The character development in this game is widely praised for its unique, creative, and top-tier designs that offer distinct personalities and playstyles, enhancing both visual appeal and gameplay depth. While some critiques mention occasional gimmickry or uniformity, the overall consensus is that the thoughtful character design significantly contributes to the game’s charm, balance, and competitive edge. This aspect, combined with polished art and animations, makes the characters memorable and engaging across casual and competitive play.
- “Character design - easily the best aspect of the game after gameplay itself; not just in their design, but each character exhibits different facial expressions when attacking, emoting, or taking damage, giving them unique charm.”
- “The art style is fantastic, the character designs are unique, and every character feels incredibly special and different from the others.”
- “The character designs place quality over quantity, with movement that has depth while being insanely accessible.”
- “I know there is a casual patch coming up today of all days, but I feel it won't fix the big issue I have with the game: the character design philosophy.”
- “Player base sucks and character designs are not fun to counterplay.”
- “Most downright terrible character design I've ever seen in a game.”
optimization
108 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
14% positive mentions, 67% neutral mentions, 19% negative mentions
Optimization for this game is a major concern among users, with frequent reports of poor performance, stuttering, long loading times, and instability—especially on lower-end PCs and Steam Decks. While some progress has been made through patches, many still find the game poorly optimized compared to other UE5 titles, with performance issues impacting both offline and online play. Users urge the developers to prioritize optimization over cosmetic updates to improve frame rates, reduce lag, and enhance stability for competitive and casual play alike.
- “Performance is very good... offline, and online on 1v1s.”
- “It's the first great platform fighter with high quality graphics, animations, performance, and control.”
- “It is a competitive masterpiece with excellent core game-play and controls, a well-balanced cast of characters with satisfying move-sets, and a bunch of online modes with outstanding performance (it feels like I'm playing locally).”
- “The game is less optimized than before, runs poorly on some devices (luckily not mine, but some of my friends weren't so lucky), and latency has gotten worse over time to the point the game feels sluggish and mushy no matter how high your fps is.”
- “For $30, you are getting extremely light single player and casual content, pretty unreliable server based rollback netcode, only 12 playable characters (soon to be 13!), and an extremely unoptimized experience from the menus to the various performance issues on some stages.”
- “I'm keeping it for practice sake but this is probably the single worst optimized game I've ever played.”
humor
84 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The game’s humor is widely praised for its funny animal characters, playful animations, and amusing in-game moments, providing a lighthearted and enjoyable experience. Many players appreciate the comedic charm of characters like the elephant, bear, and rock-themed fighters, as well as the entertaining community banter. However, some find certain aspects, such as overpriced cosmetic skins and a lack of diverse content, detract slightly from the overall comedic appeal.
- “Like, the recent Valentine's Day trailer is hilarious and clearly they had a lot of fun with it.”
- “The ice bear is hilarious.”
- “Looking forward to another 10 years of going "haha rock funny :)" after every interaction, win or lose.”
grinding
73 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 4% neutral mentions, 96% negative mentions
Grinding in the game is notably time-consuming and can feel tedious, especially for unlocking cosmetics, leveling characters, and progressing through events or battle passes. While microtransactions exist, most cosmetic items can be earned through grinding, though this often requires excessive hours, making the experience less rewarding for casual players. However, some players find the grind enjoyable, especially when playing with friends or immersing in competitive ranked modes.
- “The leveling up system is too grindy; the amount of rewards for the levels aren't even worth it. It's impossible to do hard arcade for XP without spending hours fighting CPU, and the online seems like nobody plays the game, yet grinding is still required. I just want a skin and can't constantly spend money on them.”
- “If you wanted that 50,000 coin skin, you're looking at grinding nonstop for 16.6 hours.”
- “Also, it should be noted that this $30 game still has microtransactions and they make sure you spend money because if you want to grind as a non-microtransaction user, it'll take forever. Even after 14-15 hours grinding, I wasn't near the coin and aether buck requirements for anything beyond a player icon.”
stability
70 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
7% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 93% negative mentions
Rivals of Aether 2 suffers from significant stability issues, including frequent crashes, buggy menus, and problematic online servers causing lag, rollbacks, and matchmaking glitches. Users report unresponsive UI, game freezes, and inconsistent performance across platforms, with many bugs remaining unfixed long after release. While gameplay is generally solid, the pervasive technical problems and lack of polish hinder the overall experience.
- “The game runs great online and offline. The issues I personally encounter are likely hardware-related since I play on Steam Deck, but there have been several bugs recently, such as certain palettes on skins breaking matches and causing a force quit.”
- “So far, there's been a lot of bugs that take a very long time to fix or don't get fixed at all, with radio silence from the developers. Specifically in the menus, UI, and online; the gameplay itself is fairly bug-free besides performance.”
- “It runs great, it's fun, it's good.”
- “It would constantly crash on startup and the workshop is very buggy.”
- “Still a horrible game released in a buggy unfinished state and never got fixed.”
- “The UI is a buggy, inconsistent mess that borders on unusable sometimes.”
replayability
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20% positive mentions, 60% neutral mentions, 20% negative mentions
Replayability is mixed, with many praising the free new characters, game modes, and strong online 2v2 play that add longevity and fresh content over time. However, the single-player content is often described as limited, lacking depth and replay value, making offline play less engaging. Connectivity issues further impact online enjoyment for some players, though ongoing updates and additional features may improve the experience in the future.
- “Skins are premium but new characters and game modes are free, so even if you just want to try out the abilities and keep an eye out for new content, there's a lot of replayability here.”
- “Relatively cheap, a lot of replayability, had the game since launch decided to go ahead and drop a review since it's been a year.”
- “Actually the best feeling platform fighter on the market right now with an insane amount of replayability and longevity built into the game, with more content continually being pumped out from S+ tier devs. Support this game!”
- “The amount of solo content offered to the player could be cleared in an afternoon and has little to no replay value.”
- “Paired with the fact that there is no reason to play offline since there's nothing to do, there is practically no replay value.”
- “These missing features are supposed to come out later in the lifecycle, but with little to no singleplayer replayability or even basic singleplayer playability at all, it's a major step back from Rivals 1, and I can't recommend it for that either.”
emotional
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
Users describe the game as an emotionally intense experience, combining deep satisfaction from skill mastery with significant frustration and emotional distress during learning and competition. While praising its challenge and community, many warn of the painful grind and mixed feelings about its monetization and online environment. Overall, it elicits strong, often conflicting emotions ranging from joy to despair.
- “The withdrawals are horrific. I am so desperate and in dire straits. 10/10 incredible experience; I would agonizingly endure the physical and emotional trauma again. Thank you, Dan Fornace.”
- “If you appreciate a challenge, want to feel true satisfaction when outplaying your opponent, and are seeking a game that you can pour thousands of hours into and still just be touching the surface of the mechanical depth and skill expression it has to offer, then this game is for you.”
- “Fun if you can stomach learning through pain and suffering, and have a high tolerance for emotional distress.”
atmosphere
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 75% negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is praised for its solid sound design, engaging chiptune music, and charming background details, contributing to a lively and sometimes enthralling experience. However, the competitive online environment may feel off-putting to those seeking a more casual vibe. Additional features like an opening cinematic, in-game announcer, and more stages could further enhance the overall atmosphere.
- “From the sound design, to the atmosphere in the backgrounds and the wonderfully blended chiptune in the music, the game is solid.”
- “Unless you desire the competitive atmosphere, you will not enjoy playing online against try-hard randoms.”
- “One of my favorite things from the first rivals game was the silly but sometimes enthralling atmosphere, something enhanced by the inclusion of a little campaign for each character, tetherball mode, and most importantly - the workshop.”
- “Aesthetic details like an opening cinematic, an in-game announcer, more stages, and new music would go a long way in strengthening the game’s atmosphere.”