Icons: Combat Arena wavedashes to autumn open beta

The Super Smash Bros. fans at Wavedash Games have finally announced their own Smashlike, Icons: Combat Arena [official site]. They've gabbed about it for ages but now we have a name, a little look at it in motion, and word that it'll launch into open beta this autumn then be free-to-play. Icons is a platformer fighter in that Smash Bros. way, with pugilists leaping around -- and trying to knock each other off -- the fightfield. Here, have a peek in the first gameplay vid:

That's Smash as far as my Unsmashed eyes can see, and Smashfans seem to think the characters seem familiar from Smash too (in moves, not look - Smash being crammed full of Nintendo characters). That's no surprise, as several members of Wavedash Games formerly worked on Project M, a mod for Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

I suppose they're now free to make the Smash they want without wondering if Nintendo's lawyers will get shirty and shut 'em down. And they can do it for a living, which is nice.

Much of Icons is unknown for now, mind. Specifics of how it plays and how its free-to-play model will run are mysteries to be revealed at a future date.

You can sign up for the beta over here to register your name. Smash isn't my style but I might sign up just so no one can steal Xx420blazedasher69xX from me.