The Super Nail Bros. series has seen its off-white share of clones throughout the years, all attempting to replicate the gameplay of the beloved crossover franchise. The gameplay is simple enough to exist practical to nigh any cast of characters simply complex enough to create entirely unique experiences.

Arguably the most pop of the Smash clones is the indie gameRivals of Aether, created by Dan Fornace and released in early on 2017. While we await the much predictable Nintendo Switch port, what aspects of both series can we look at to determine which does them ameliorate?

10 RIVALS: Grapheme Customization

While we now have the power to play Sans, Cuphead, Morgana, and Knuckles in an all-out complimentary-for-all, the seventy+ master characters in Smash Ultimate are simply limited to their 8 unique color options for eight-player Boom. Rivals of Aether also has distinct color options, except this time they lie in the hundreds.

Alongside the bones preset colors for each graphic symbol, there are also two slots for completely customizable colors for each part of the characters' bodies. This allows players to craft their own personal color palettes, or brand characters like Falco over Wrastor. Looking at the modding customs for Super Blast Bros., information technology isn't out of the question to come across something similar appear in the future to fill our customizable needs.

9 Smash: Items

In terms of pure, chaotic, casual fun, Smash's items add together a wide assortment of insanity into the fray. Ever since the original N64 title, items have been a cardinal characteristic in every game since, adding an chemical element of unpredictability not usually seen in fighting games.

These are turned off for competitive play, of grade, and Rivals of Aether being the more competitively centered game doesn't feature them at all. However, to bring more than of a casual aspect, stage hazards were added and can exist toggled on and off similarly to Smash Ultimate.

eight RIVALS: Graphic symbol Creation

Starting time in Smash for Wii U and 3DS, and proposed during the development of Ball, the Mii Fighters were a perfect fashion to brand graphic symbol customization accessible, fun, and diverse. Though, at the end of the day, there are only and so many variations of Hank Hill to create before it starts to go stale.

Rivals of Aether utilizes the Steam Workshop to permit fans the luxury of creating their own fully customized character in terms of graphics, moves, frame data, sounds, and just about annihilation one can imagine. Browsing the extensive workshop listing shows completely original fighters, tons of characters from various game franchises, and a plethora of meme characters similar Ronald McDonald. They exercise require cognition of spriting and coding, but the terminate issue is much more in-depth and way more hilarious.

7 SMASH: Game Modes

I of the biggest reasons that Smash makes for both an amazing casual and competitive experience is the sheer amount of ways to play the game. There's normal Smash, teams, Squad Strike, Smashdown, Special Smash, and customizable rulesets to play in the silliest ways possible.

Rivals of Aether actually only has one master mode, beingness versus style, albeit with a few tweaks to change it up. Rivals does what it was intended for extremely well, but Smash's sheer amount of options to increase replayability definitely keeps players coming dorsum for more.

6 RIVALS: Unlockables & Currency

Not counting characters, as comparing Ultimate'south massive corporeality of unlockable characters to Rivals would be a bit unfair, Rivals has some really unique unlockables to spend your difficult-earned coins on. Buddies are possibly the coolest introduction, actualization next to your character during gameplay to prove off just how cute they are.

In Ultimate, money is obtained from Earth of Light and normal play fizzles out in usefulness quite quickly, every bit items in the shop essentially become free with the sheer amount of coins players end up with. Rival s' coins can besides exist used for money-matches to show your friends who the meliorate player really is.

5 Blast: Single-Player

Super Smash Bros. has always had a huge emphasis on making certain every player has something upward their alley, fifty-fifty those who prefer riding solo. Suspension the Targets, Classic Mode, Habitation-Run Contest, Story Modes, Challenges, the listing goes on.

Rivals of Aether does take a story mode, but information technology pales in comparison to the length of modes similar Subspace Emissary and Globe of Calorie-free. Rivals would also be a great game to add together single-role player mini-games, and they could even make their manner onto the online mode.

4 RIVALS: Better Tutorials

Without Smash community members to exam and lab various subconscious game mechanics that, for the well-nigh part, were never brought up in the actual games for years, we'd be left in the dark about all the mechanics the game has to offer. Besides the brusk videos on the title screen, Blast has a serious lack of tutorials.

Rivals, on the other hand, provides an amazing tutorial way that covers every unmarried aspect of gameplay. From beginner to advanced lessons, a player with zero experience in either game tin learn the ins-and-outs in a brusk amount of time. In that location are fifty-fifty graphic symbol-specific guides for your favorite fighters, and by the time you're done with all of them, you lot'll have a keen grasp on competitive Rivals.

three SMASH: Character Costumes

To brand up for the limited color selections in Ultimate, Nintendo had the astonishing idea to give some characters their own unique costumes instead. While not every character has these, they add a whole new layer of personality to these fighters.

Mario, Link, Shulk, and Hero are all keen examples, containing entirely new outfits, or in Shulk's case, the lack of i. Rivals of Aether has far fewer characters in its roster, and information technology would exist amazing to see each 1 of them get at least one alternate costume.

2 RIVALS: Online Mode

Compared to other companies, Nintendo is still a fleck behind in terms of implementing online play into their games, even with the improvements on the Nintendo Switch. In Blast Ultimate, there is the option for single-actor or co-op, and Elite Smash takes the place of a sort of "ranked-way".

Rivals of Aether, on the other hand, has a true ranked manner alongside rooms for friends and apparently casual matches. The ranked way is particularly well done, with ranks placed on each individual graphic symbol. The online mode shows both users' ping and connection strength, enables simple chatting, and the selection for money-matches and rematching with grapheme switching.

1 Blast: Stage Architect

Stage Builder has been a artistic way for players to make their own battlegrounds of ballsy proportions always since Brawl, such as one long platform filled with aught merely death-inducing canons or making your favorite anime character.

Rivals does take the ability to utilize custom stages through the Steam Workshop, but calculation an in-engine stage builder would be a great style to include those who are intimidated by the learning curve of modding the game.

Next: The Top 10 Terminal Smashes In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate