Fraymakers (Steam) Early Access Impressions

Fun that Jumped the Gun

Platform fighters have recently grown from a small niche, almost entirely defined by Smash Bros, into a fully-fledged fighting game genre. One of the latest additions to this genre is Fraymakers. This new brawler comes to us from McLeodGaming, the developers of Super Smash Flash 2, a popular Smash Bros fangame. The influence from their prior work is clear, as Fraymakers seeks to crossover icons of the indie scene in the same fashion that Smash crosses over icons of Nintendo and the wider gaming landscape. Fraymakers launched in early access back in January 2023, and since then I’ve had time to try out each of the characters, assists, stages, and the wonderfully wacky world of custom content. So as both feedback for the developers and as a reference for potential early adopters, I’m here to give my impressions on Fraymakers.

A crossover fighter markets itself heavily on its cast of recognizable characters. Fraymakers narrows its focus onto the indie games scene, which is admittedly still a wide scope for better and for worse. With how many indie hits launch each year, nailing down a cast of indie all-stars can’t be easy, especially when you’re a relatively new team looking to cut deals with each respective license holder. That said, Fraymaker’s roster feels a bit iffy on star power. The small cast is certainly diverse with oddballs from various genres and eras of the indie scene. However, I feel they’re lacking that big headliner character. Like Mario in Smash or SpongeBob in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, someone that’ll bring in a wide audience and introduce the rest of the cast is needed to better hook new players. Some names that come to mind that could sway the Fraymakers roster positively include: The Knight from Hollow Knight, Cuphead, Sans from Undertale, Shantae, Zagreus from Hades, the Crewmate from Among Us (who already appears as an assist), or even the crossover king, Shovel Knight. The roster is still set to grow during early access, so only time will tell if any of these stars enter the fold.

Jumping into the gameplay itself, everything feels really smooth. The controls are tight and responsive and moves land with a satisfying impact. The game speed falls down the middle in terms of the genre, reminding me most of Rivals of Aether. Characters are all fully animated with impressively detailed sprite art enhancing the feedback of each landed attack. It's quite a delightful sight to watch Octodad flail around in the air or Commander Video run, leaving a shining rainbow trail. Unfortunately, only four fighters are available currently, which feels like a small cast, even for early access. To Fraymakers’ credit, however, the combatants that are here have extremely unique movesets from one another, with steeper learning curves when compared to your average Smash Bros character. Five stages are available as of now, pulling iconic locations from each fighter’s respective game, with the odd exception of Welltaro. These arenas sport much more competitive-oriented layouts, signaling that competitive play is a major focus of the team. The standout feature of Fraymakers’ gameplay has to be its assist system. Before each match, you’ll select an assist to join your fighter. These assists include many more indie stars, from Chicory’s Pizza, to Gunman Clive, to the Crewmate from Among Us. Each assist provides its own attack which can be activated via a special meter mid-battle. Creative use of this assist can result in crazy satisfying combos, shield pressure, or just a simple distraction. With two dozen assists available in early access and dozens more coming down the road, the strategic possibilities truly do feel endless. My only worry with this mechanic is the balancing issues that’ll arrive when high-level players inevitably find infinite combos or zero-to-death scenarios with certain combinations.

While the Fraymakers package is currently low on official content, the creator community is already putting the game’s “Fray Tools” to good use, creating numerous custom characters, stages, and assists to flesh out the experience, while providing some good laughs. I’ve probably spent just as much, if not more time, with Fraymaker’s custom content. Fighting as Gengar at Home Depot and summoning Walter White to throw a pizza at my opponent, is a beautiful scenario only achievable through community content. There’s already a lot of great stuff out there, and while most of it is memes, you can still find some genuine professional-looking creations. I’m excited to see what fans are able to add to the Fraymakers experience as time passes.

Possibly the biggest question that anyone has when a new fighting game drops is: “How’s the online?” I regret to inform you that in its current state Fraymakers’ online is unreliable. Many matches I entered were perfectly fine, while several others involved a wide range of lag. This is not to mention the times when I simply never found a match and had to begrudgingly back out and try again. Hopefully, these issues can be ironed out throughout Fraymakers’ early access run, as laggy online will inevitably scare away many players.

All and all Fraymakers is a fun, charming platform fighter, but I find that a lot of my admiration for the title comes from its potential, rather than what’s already here. The roster, stages, and online functions definitely could’ve used a bit more time in the oven before hitting early access. What’s here is really enjoyable and it makes me excited for the full package, but for now, all I can really do is wait and hope that Fraymakers delivers. If you’re a fan of platform fighters it wouldn’t be a bad idea to wishlist this one. That said, I think enjoying the full product at launch will provide a much more enriching experience.

To learn more about Fraymakers check out the official Steam page or the McLeodGaming website.