Dan Fornace, the independent game developer behind Rivals of Aether, asked his followers on Twitter today via a poll if they’d be interested in a Switch version of the game. Rivals of Aether is a fighting game that takes inspiration from Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. series.
Would you purchase / repurchase Rivals of Aether for the Nintendo Switch if we could bring it to the platform?
— Dan Fornace (@danfornace) October 6, 2017
Rivals of Aether came out earlier this year for Xbox One and PC. Microsoft would showcase the game at its indie sections of events like the Game Developer’s Conference. It even has Ori, the star of the acclaimed Ori and the Blind Forest for Xbox One and PC, as a guest character. But the Switch’s popularity and the success of other indie games on the platform could make a port tantalizing for Fornace. We don’t have exact sales numbers for the game, but it has about 168,000 owners on Steam, according to SteamSpy.
Right now, the vast majority of people who responded to his poll said they would buy the game on Switch.
Other indie hits have found their way to Nintendo’s home console/portable hybrid since it launched in March, like the retro side-scroller Shovel Knight and the farming simulator Stardew Valley. The system has also been home to some of the most acclaimed new indies of the year, like the golf-based role-playing game Golf Story.
Rivals of Aether stands out from other fighting games. Most take their inspiration from 2D franchises like Street Fighter or 3D ones like Tekken. Aether instead follows the Super Smash Bros. template, which has characters focusing on throwing each off of stages instead of depleting health bars. It also does away with complicated button commands for special moves and promotes four-player brawls.
Despite Super Smash Bros.’ huge success, we haven’t seen many similar fighters. If you don’t own Nintendo systems, you probably won’t get to play anything like it. Having a game that was like Smash Bros. on Xbox One and PC is part of Rival of Aether’s appeal. But coming to the Switch can tap into a market of traditional Smash fans, especially since Nintendo has not yet announced a version of its fighting franchise for the new system yet.