Games Like Super Smash Bros: The Best Platform Fighters Worth Your Time

Super Smash Bros Ultimate is the biggest crossover fighting game ever made. 89 characters, guest appearances from basically every major gaming franchise, a roster that includes Mario, Snake, Sonic, Cloud, Joker, and Sephiroth. It's also locked to Nintendo hardware, built around chaotic party rules that most fighting game fans side-eye, and has a learning curve that gets vertical when you try to play competitively.

Which means "games like Super Smash Bros" has to answer a few different questions: do you want the party chaos, the competitive platform fighter mechanics, or the crossover cast? The answer changes the recommendation.

What are the best competitive platform fighters like Smash Bros?

The best competitive platform fighters on PC are Rivals of Aether II, the original Rivals of Aether, and Slap City. Rivals of Aether II leads the pack with rollback netcode, solid matchmaking, and mechanics built by former Melee competitors. All three are available on Steam and offer serious competitive depth outside Nintendo hardware.

If you want Smash's mechanics, the edge-guarding, the recovery mixups, the neutral game built around stage positioning, without Nintendo's specific game:

Rivals of Aether II is the current king of non-Nintendo platform fighters. It's made by people who played Melee competitively and wanted the genre to keep evolving. 3D graphics but 2D gameplay, a clean roster of original characters, matchmaking that actually works, rollback netcode. If you bounced off Smash because Nintendo's online is painful, Rivals of Aether II solves that problem and then some.

Rivals of Aether (the original) is still active and still great. 2D pixel art instead of 3D models. The workshop is a goldmine of community-made characters, including working versions of Smash characters that are arguably better-designed than their Ultimate counterparts. If you want a Steam version of Melee with a workshop, this is it.

Slap City from Ludosity is a platform fighter where every character comes from other Ludosity games. It plays like a love letter to Smash Bros with its own specific identity. Competitive community is smaller than the above but extremely dedicated.

What are the best party brawlers like Super Smash Bros?

The best party brawlers for Smash fans are Brawlhalla (free-to-play, huge roster, active esports scene), MultiVersus (Warner Bros crossover characters, 2v2 focus), and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 (SpongeBob, TMNT, Avatar). Brawlhalla is the easiest starting point since it costs nothing to play.

Smash isn't really a fighting game in the traditional sense. It's a party game that happens to be competitive at the top. If you're just trying to play with friends and laugh at chaos:

MultiVersus is Warner Bros' answer to Smash, using WB-owned IPs. Batman, Shaggy, LeBron, Steven Universe, Jason Voorhees. The roster is chaos. It launched, died, re-launched, and is currently in its third wind. The 2v2 focus is different from Smash's free-for-alls and the monetization has been rough, but when it's clicking, it's a legitimate Smash-adjacent party game.

Brawlhalla is the free-to-play platform fighter that's been quietly excellent for years. Different character design philosophy (every character uses two weapons rather than unique movesets), huge esports scene, crossovers with basically every franchise under the sun. If you want to play a platform fighter right now for zero dollars, start here.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 improved enormously on the first game. SpongeBob, Ninja Turtles, Avatar characters. It's trying harder to feel like a Smash successor than most competitors and mostly succeeding.

What games have crossover characters like Super Smash Bros?

Games that capture Smash's crossover energy outside the platform fighter genre include Fortnite, Fall Guys, Street Fighter 6, and Tekken 8. Fortnite is the closest modern equivalent, pulling in characters from Master Chief to Goku. Fall Guys delivers chaotic crossover skins in a party game format.

The specific thing Smash does, getting characters from different franchises to fight, lives in a few other places outside the platform fighter genre.

Fall Guys does the crossover energy in a different format. Skins from Sonic, Street Fighter, Halo, Among Us, everyone. The chaotic competitive party game feel translates even without fighting mechanics.

Fortnite is probably the closest modern equivalent to "video game characters from different franchises fighting in the same space." The roster includes Master Chief, Goku, John Wick, and characters from pretty much every major series. The games like Fortnite post gets into the BR side of things, but culturally Fortnite has absorbed a lot of what made Smash feel uniquely chaotic.

Street Fighter 6 isn't a platform fighter but the guest-character tradition in fighting games keeps growing. Terry Bogard in Smash is just Street Fighter's "we put other companies' characters in our game" formula reversed. If you want tight fighting game mechanics with crossover energy, SF6 and Tekken 8 both deliver in different ways.

Which classic Smash Bros alternatives are still worth playing?

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is the most notable classic Smash alternative. Sony's platform fighter died early but was kept alive by fan-run netcode mods. Its super-move kill mechanic gave it a unique identity. Fan-made spiritual successors continue to pop up for players deep in the platform fighter community.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale was Sony's answer to Smash and died too fast. The fan community kept it alive through netcode mods. The mechanics were weirder than Smash's, win conditions were different (you need super moves to kill), but it had genuine identity.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale 2-style projects, fan games and independent projects keep trying to recreate that specific Sony-vs-everyone-else energy. Some are playable, most aren't. Worth browsing if you're deep in the platform fighter scene.

What fighting games have competitive depth like Smash Bros?

Guilty Gear Strive and Skullgirls 2nd Encore are the top picks for players who love Smash's competitive mind games and character mastery but want even deeper mechanics. Both are traditional 2D fighters rather than platform fighters, offering years of skill ceiling and dedicated competitive communities on Steam.

Guilty Gear Strive is one of the best fighting games ever made and it runs at a different level of mechanical depth than Smash. Not a platform fighter at all (it's a 2D anime fighter), but if what you love about Smash is specifically the competitive mind games and character mastery, Strive will give you that tenfold.

Skullgirls 2nd Encore is 2D tag-team fighting with an art style and character cast that feels like it could share a universe with Smash's weirder choices. Beautifully animated, deep enough for years of play, with a dedicated community.

What we do at Choost

Choost Games doesn't make fighting games, but the character expression philosophy behind our projects shares DNA with platform fighter design. Granny's Rampage channels that same "pick a character and watch them go wild" energy into a single-player format, and our co-op roundups cover couch competitive play.

We're not making fighting games, the netcode engineering alone is years of work that our small team can't commit to. But the Granny's Rampage philosophy of "pick your character, watch them become progressively unhinged" shares some DNA with platform fighter character design. Not multiplayer, but same core "build expression through gameplay" energy.

For couch-style competitive energy without Nintendo hardware, check the best co-op games list.

What is the best game like Super Smash Bros overall?

If you can play Smash Ultimate on Switch, it remains the best platform fighter ever made. For PC players, Rivals of Aether II is the top competitive pick. Brawlhalla is the best free option. MultiVersus delivers crossover roster appeal with caveats. For casual sessions with non-fighting-game friends, Fall Guys or Mario Kart wins every time.

If you have access to a Switch and can run Smash Ultimate, just play Smash Ultimate. It's still the best platform fighter ever made and nothing non-Nintendo is as comprehensive.

If you're on PC and want the mechanical depth: Rivals of Aether II.

If you want free-to-play with friends: Brawlhalla.

If you want the Warner Bros crossover energy: MultiVersus (with caveats about its monetization).

And if you want to play with your friends but they don't take fighting games seriously: Fall Guys or just, honestly, Mario Kart.

The platform fighter genre has never been healthier. Smash might be locked on Nintendo hardware, but the genre it created is thriving across every other platform.