Coliseum

In their third devlog for their as-yet untitled platform fighter, Wavedash Games’ Creative Director Jason Rice has finally revealed some concept art for their first character. Designed by recently employed Character Designer Adam “Strong Bad” Oliver, this new character is called Ashani, a speedy brawler who runs fast and hits hard, very similar to a character like Captain Falcon in Super Smash Bros.

This comparison is quite apt as along with showing concept art, Jason showed off a very early model of Ashani which showed her idle animation as well as her performing a punch which looked remarkably similar to that of the famous bird-themed racing driver. Her costume seems to indicate she is some kind of technologically augmented soldier, with heavy gauntlets and a chestpiece similar to Iron Man’s Arc Reactor. Her concept art shows sparks of lighting flying off her fists so you could expect some attacks to deal massive electrical damage, similar to Captain Falcon’s knee in Melee.

Based on this short glimpse of the in-game model and concept art, I’m not instantly taken with the artstyle. It seems fairly generic sci-fi and lacks that splash of color or hint of character personality which hooks people into playing a certain character in a fighting game. Again, it’s still early days at the moment but I hope Wavedash Games are able to jazz up the characters enough so their visual design matches the mechanical inventiveness that they are promising with the full product.

Source: Wavedash Games