Yeah, I'm definitely gonna give this game a few more patches before I pick it up again. I found out last night that lobbies just straight-up don't work. I tried running some games with a buddy of mine (same platform, same version of the game and everything) and the game kept hanging on the VS screen and kicking us back to the lobby screen after every match. It's bad enough that my main is a dumpster fire right now. Seriously, here are just a few of the most fun Zim bugs I've run into:
- Sometimes the screen will shake uncontrollably after GIR dies until he is summoned again. This is probably the worst one since it's not really avoidable provided you're playing the character at all like you should.
- In certain matchups (including the Vlad fight, of all things), GIR will just ignore all your commands except Side Special, effectively reducing him to a glorified projectile.
- Picking up GIR and then using Down Strong will permanently glue GIR to your body, rendering him useless for the rest of the match even if you summon him again.
- Soft platforms can eat GIR. Summoning him too close to a platform just deletes him and puts him on cooldown, and he can even bonk on the side of them, killing him instantly.
- Sometimes the Explslowsion visual will stay in your hand even after you throw it, making it incredibly unclear whether Zim actually has one or not.
...and probably even more that I missed. This character is so broken, there's literally a thread in NASBcord called "Invader Zim issues" with nearly 50 posts. This is all on TOP of him having a completely unsalvageable recovery with or without GIR, which is a design issue that I don't even expect to be fixed. It's like they don't want people playing this character or something. Zim's not the only character who's broken beyond belief, either - hi, Rocko.
I'm honestly tempted to call this game's launch even worse than the first; at least then, I could pick a character and trust that I'd be able to play as them. At least I could
go online then, even if the netcode was worse. I hate to be a downer, but this game does not want to be played. Really hope it recovers quickly, otherwise we'll be down to double-digit playercounts even faster than last time. This really needed another half year in the oven; same story two years later.