BLOCK BRAWL

The roster

Seven fighters, each with a full moveset: a jab chain, three tilts, a dash attack, three charged smash attacks, five aerials, a grab with four throws and four specials. They're all animated live, and none of it is stock: Bully bounces in a boxer's guard, Pidge head-bobs, Pops leans on his cane, Coco leans back.

The bull of the blockBULLY

Boxes with his fists, ends it with his horns. Heavy, hits like a truck.

• RAGE PUNCH (hold to charge)
• BULL CHARGE
• ROCKET UPPERCUT
• STAMPEDE STOMP

& H.O.S.E.COCO

On vacation. The pack is not. Lazy slaps, belly bumps and a lot of water.

• H.O.S.E. STREAM (hold)
• BELLY SLIDE
• HOVER NOZZLE
• CANNONBALL

The bird of the blockPIDGE

Small, loud, fast, four jumps. Death by a thousand pecks.

• BREAD TOSS
• DIVE BOMB
• FLAP OFF
• COO-NTER

Old schoolPOPS

Been on that stoop since '71. The cane is not for walking.

• BACK IN MY DAY (a lecture that hurts)
• RAM (hold)
• CANE VAULT
• NAP TIME (counter)

La chanclaABUELO

Ninety years old and harder than his shell. Heaviest of the regular-sized.

• CHANCLA! (boomerang)
• SHELL ROCKET
• TURBO SHELL
• SIESTA (armour + reflect)

HarbourmasterCAPITAN PICO

Tall, floaty, three jumps and the longest reach in the game.

• FISH SPIT
• BILL SNAP
• SKY SAILOR (flap + glide)
• POUCH CATCH (reflect)

The goop bossSLUDGE DADDY

SOAKED's boss, shrunk to (barely) fighter size. Slow, enormous, and he'll eat you. Literally.

• GOOP GLOB
• BELLY ROLL
• GEYSER
• BELLY FLOP

Three stages

Every stage is built in Blender from code, lit by a real sun (or moon) with soft shadows, and has its own synthesized theme.

PUERTO CHILLO

The fishing dock off Isla Chillo (SOAKED's island sits on the horizon), with the fish stand awning, a lookout made of crates and the sign gantry up top. Gulls overhead, a sailboat bobbing past, a calypso fight theme.

THE BLOCK

A brownstone roof at 2 AM: the water tower deck, the billboard catwalk under the Bully Productions sign, and a window-washer's scaffold that rides up and down the side of the building all match long. Neon flickers across the street.

PINK DUSK VOID

The secret from SOAKED's lighthouse. A tiled island floating in pink dusk with three blocks that drift up, down and sideways, so the platforms are never where you left them.

How the fight works

It plays by the rules of the series it's paying tribute to. Damage percent goes up, and the higher it is, the further you fly. Knock someone past the edge of the screen and they lose a stock.

• Real knockback maths. Knockback grows with your percent and the hit's damage and shrinks with your weight, the same formula the series uses, with launch speed that decays over time and hitstun that scales with it.
• Hitlag and screen shake freeze both fighters for a few frames on contact, longer for bigger hits. The camera shakes in proportion.
• Shields, rolls, spot dodges and air dodges. Shields shrink as you hold them and break if they run dry. Grabs beat shields.
• Ledges. Grab them, then climb, roll, jump or attack off them. Up specials recover; after one you're helpless until you land or grab a ledge.
• Directional influence and techs. Hold the stick to bend your launch angle; press shield as you hit the floor to tech instead of getting knocked down.
• CPUs that actually fight. Levels 1-9: they recover to the ledge, shield and punish, edge-guard, throw toward the blast zone at kill percent and pick moves that actually reach you.

How to play

Plug in up to four gamepads, or put two players on one keyboard. Press A (or Enter) on the select screen to join.

• Tilt vs smash. Hold a direction and press attack for a tilt; tap the direction and attack together (or use the right stick) for a smash attack. Hold to charge it.
• Specials. Special alone, or with up, sideways or down: four per fighter. Up special is your recovery.

The whole package

Title screen over a live CPU fight, a main menu (Versus, Training, Options, How To Play), a select screen where every player drives their own cursor, sets CPU levels and picks colour alts while their fighter idles in 3D, a stage select, stock or timed rules, pause, and a results screen with the winner posing while everyone else claps.

How it's made

• Unity 6, URP, GameCube look. Rendered at 1920x1080 inside a 960x540 frame and filtered down, real-time sun and soft shadows, glossy highlights, rim light in each player's colour, bloom.
• The five new fighters are modelled and rigged in Blender from code. Each body is fused from soft masses into one surface, painted with vertex colour, skinned automatically and given baked ambient occlusion. Bully and Coco come from BAD BLOCK and SOAKED.
• The stages are Blender code too: the dock, the brownstone block with its fire escape and lit windows, the floating void. The pier stage has SOAKED's whole island behind it.
• Everything you hear is synthesized in-game: six music tracks, the hit sounds (bigger hits get a lower boom and a ring), crowd reactions and a formant-synth announcer.
• Tested by robots. Automated tests play full four-CPU matches on every stage to a winner, drive every menu with a virtual controller, and recorded the trailer above.