Test Flash Party, the long-awaited mobile Smash Bros.

We meet again for the test of Flash party, a free fighting game on Android and iOS available in soft launch via TapTap since recently. This is a technically very successful title that brings the Super Smash Bros. experience to mobile, a competitive title with deep gameplay that I invite you to discover with me. You'll see, my review on Flash Party is more than positive, because it's a title that's worth a visit!

Introducing Flash Party: characters game modes and balancing

A huge hit at the beginning of the year, Flash Party is a very promising fighting game that will surely take its place at the top of the best fighting games list soon. When you say versus fighting, you of course mean fighters.

Test characters and custom builds

In Flash Party, you can choose between 14 heroes with unique abilities and styles. I must confess that I'm not a big fan of the style of all the characters, but they have the merit of being original. Among these characters, you will find heroes suitable for all play styles: some fragile but extremely fast, others slower but with heavy attacks and others using ranged attacks, weapons or magic.

You'll be able to upgrade your heroes to increase their damage and defence and even unlock skill modifications to create your own build.

It should be noted that the customisation of skills remains rather light. Finally, you will find a complete guide to each character' s skills and combos in order to unlock their full potential. If you think that the game is simplistic in its gameplay, go and have a look at it to understand how deep the gameplay is.

The different Flash Party game modes

To continue with my review of Flash Party, let's explore the available content. In terms of maps, I'm not sure how many there are. It's relatively difficult to determine as they rotate regularly and are quite varied. However, don't worry about getting bored with the same landscape. The colourful and imaginative settings will not disappoint.

In terms of game modes, there is plenty to do:

• A comprehensive training mode to prepare for combat
• A 1v1 and 2v2 mode allowing you to win stars (kind of trophies like Brawl Stars unlocking rewards)
• A Battle Royale which is actually a 4 player every man for himself mode (i.e. 1v1v1v1)
• A party record that I believe is a variable mode currently in fairly anecdotal football mode
• And of course the arena mode, a competitive mode in 1v1 or, rarely, in 2v2.

The arena mode allows you to climb the global rankings and acquire valuable rewards. It works as follows: in 1v1, each player chooses three heroes to play as and, when one player has defeated all of his opponent's heroes, he wins the match. In 2v2, each team has 6 lives and to win you must therefore make 6 eliminations.

Character balancing needs to be fine-tuned

At the moment, the only big negative I find with this title is the balancing of certain characters. This is partly detrimental to my opinion of Flash Party.

Miko the Yeti is just abused because of his much too strong skill set and requires to be much better than him to counter, which is clearly not normal in a game with clear competitive ambitions. A weaker player is not supposed to win.

Sophia is also a problem. She has far too much range combined with a high attack speed, which makes her unfortunately too powerful a character to spam with.

At higher levels, you don't feel the impact of these characters as much, but countering them will require you to have complete control of your character, even against an average player. This was discussed with a member of the studio and they came up with some nerf tracks that wouldn't destroy these characters and they were very open to it. I'm waiting to see now if this will come to fruition or not, but it's a necessary step for Flash Party to get close to perfection.

My review on Flash Party and its business model

Let's take a look at the business model in this test Flash Party. The shop allows you to buy cosmetic items, boosts and chests to improve your characters. Nothing too excessive unless you put a lot of money into the game.

However, no matter what you buy, individual skill will always make a difference and the game is basically quite generous. However, I would advise you to test the characters well and only upgrade your favourite and a second one to avoid running out of free resources too quickly.

A real Super Smash Bros. mobile gameplay

Now we come to the heart of the game: the gameplay. And you're clearly not ready. The title brings Super Smash Bros. gameplay to mobile and does it particularly well. Attacks and combos flow with a fluidity that I don't remember seeing on smartphones before. You have two attacks, a jump and a shield to counter your opponents' assaults and send them off the map in order to eliminate them, but behind these two attack keys are hidden fearsome combos and special attacks that you trigger by associating a direction at the right time using the joystick. In my opinion, Flash Party does the best job of transferring the natural feel of console combat to the smartphone screen.

This deep gameplay creates a huge skill cap between a novice player and an experienced opponent, providing a real challenge for hardcore try-harders. Underneath its colourful appearance, Flash Party is really technical and offers a huge learning curve. I have already played some very technical matches against very good players... and what a pleasure to feel this feeling of mastery as the matches go by.

In addition to attacks, the title will require you to learn how to master the shield to regain control against an overly aggressive opponent by countering him at the right moment. This only reinforces my positive opinion of Flash Party after several sessions at test. The complexity and the simple yet effective handling make for a very pleasant combination.

The sense of timing will be one of your best allies in-game. Also, managing the recovery, i.e. the return to the platform after being ejected, is very important and requires a lot of control so as not to be punished by your opponent or, on the contrary, to know when to attack to prevent him from coming back. At the beginning, you will often suffer from players who spam an attack to win, but rest assured that once you master the placement, your character and know the attacks of all the heroes, you will only make a bite out of the spammers.

A little tip: if you have trouble attacking, go to the settings. You will be able to switch attacks to swipe mode and swipe in the desired direction rather than using the left joystick. This is just my opinion, but the reason Flash Party offers this setting is to allow everyone to get the hang of it quickly.

A visually stunning game

Graphically, the title is also very successful. Flash Party succeeds in offering a sublimely detailed and extremely fluid game on a smartphone. The effects (VFX) as well as the character animations and their attacks are worthy of a Nintendo Switch. It's impressive both on mobile and on tablet.

I didn't experience any slowdown even with 4 players, it's simply amazing. Whether or not you like the colourful art direction or the particular style of the characters, you can't help but notice the visual finesse that Flash Party benefits from.

It's really promising for the hack'n slash Torchlight Infinite which will arrive this year and which is developed by the same studio.

To conclude my review, Flash Party is a sort of next-gen move to mobile. It completely outdoes the current reference in terms of mobile Super Smash-like which is Brawlhalla. Its extremely nervous gameplay, sublimated by a perfect realisation, makes this title the best fighting game on mobile at the moment, and I think it will remain so for a long time.

However, I regret some balancing issues that spoil some matches and I hope that the developers will react quickly in order not to miss the success they deserve. If you like fighting games and in particular Super Smash Bros. Melee or Smash Legends, go and discover Flash Paarty after this test. And don't forget in this type of competitive game, the pleasure comes from mastery so don't give up.

Positive points

• Sublime graphics
• Smooth, pleasant animations
• Numerous game modes
• Gameplay

Negative points

• Pay-to-fast business model
• Character balancing to be fine-tuned