NICKELODEON ALL-STAR BRAWL Review: Childhood Battlegrounds

Nintendo Switch Review Code Provided by GameMill Entertainment

When a new game style is created, there are often games that want to mimic it with subtle changes. While the Super Smash Bros games aren't new in the slightest, the games coming out to expand the library of titles fitting that game type are recent. The latest title to come out fitting the brawl genre is Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl from the combined efforts of Ludosity, Fair Play Labs, and GameMill Entertainment. As an official Nickelodeon game featuring characters from the '90s and early 2000s, it definitely has a strong starting roster. When it comes to the gameplay options, it has a fairly decent level of entertainment that makes it a game worth playing.

Gameplay

The first thing you will get to explore when you load the game up is the menu. Here you can choose between Battle, Arcade, Online, and Extras. Giving some leniency with this being the first game from these developers for this genre, this does provide the basic level of aspects you would want.

In Extras, you can explore things like artwork, characters move sets, and music. The Battle section is where you can set up single-match fights in either stock, timed, or sport game modes. While we all know the stock and timed modes, the sport game mode is a bit unique and the experience changes depending on which ball you choose to start with. The Arcade section was honestly a letdown when you play through it, but at least you get a different completion time for each character and have difficulties to choose from. Then the Online mode is, obviously, to battle other players online.

Diving deeper into the Arcade mode for the game, they went with a super simplistic setup with this one. You pick whatever character you want to play as, set the difficulty, and then start the run. There will be seven matches to fight in total with the opponent and map being randomly selected. However, matches two, four, and six will have a choice between two different opponents to fight against and you only have to pick one to defeat before moving forward. And that's it. There are no special fights here, no extra story or unique dialogue, just a basic seven-match completion for each run. If you change fighters in the middle of a run, it resets, so anything other than completing a run once it starts will cause a restart.

As for the Sport game mode they introduced with this game, this was pretty interesting. You have a number of balls to choose from and each one has its own rules. The standard soccer ball plays normally, the football can't be hit and only grabbed, the Plankton ball is heavier, and so on. Ultimately, the goal in this mode is to get the ball through your opponent’s star-shaped goal while defending your own. The player with the highest points at the end of time is the winner.

When it comes to the controls themselves, these are actually completely changeable. While you won't find this option in the settings, you will be able to access the control options in the character select screen. Here you can swap out controls to however you want them to be. This gives each player the ability to edit their controls before a match begins without affecting the controls for the other players.

The character roster is rather impressive and features characters from a multitude of shows many of us will remember from our childhood. Characters range from Spongebob to Reptar to Nigel Thornberry to Danny Phantom and so many more. There is a bit of an oddity when you think about the characters they have and the ones they could have as well, given they would have been in the same show, but this leads me to believe we can expect new characters to be added later on.

The move set for each character is very similar to that of Smash Bros, but it is a bit more of a lite set. You have variation attacks for your standard, strong, and aerial attacks, then there is the grab (which seemed rather weak to me), and then the factor that each character has a truly unique set of moves fitting to their character. One thing I liked that I saw was a form of stun was featured in the game, although I couldn't pinpoint how to trigger it. Perhaps it is similar to the slipping effect we saw in Smash Bros before, but something keeps you from being a menace to lower-skilled opponents.

Visuals and Audio

The aesthetic of this game has a sense of nostalgia to it. All of the characters seem like a 3D rendition of their art styles from when their cartoons were aired on TV. From what I could tell, each character looked exactly how I would expect them to in a 3D space. The only thing I didn't like is that there were no alternate costumes.

Sound effects and voice work were also a bit nostalgic. I'm pretty sure the announcer voice they use in the game drops lines that were used during moments on the Nickelodeon TV program. Plus, the music for each level was a nice take from the cartoon it was designed after.

Replayability

This game is made to be played over and over again. It is a brawler that can be played against computers, families, and friends. Plus, there are so many characters in the roster as it is now that it is going to take time for anybody to get really good with one of the characters, let alone multiple characters.

What Could Be Better

The Arcade mode was honestly such a letdown for me. When I played the Super Smash Bros game back on the N64, the arcade mode back then had special levels and challenges to make the arcade runs unique and more fun. Playing this game single-player, the Arcade mode should be the most entertaining part of the game, but instead, it is just a standard seven-match run with nothing special or unique about it.

Some small complaints would be the lack of alternate costumes on the characters and some of the map designs. I set up a game with four of the same character and the only thing that separated us was that we had a colored arrow over our head that showed who was who. Just put in some color options for the characters.

Conclusion

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is the childhood battleground I didn't know I wanted! It is a lot of fun to play and has a solid value as a multiplayer title. It could be improved for single-player entertainment in a few ways, but they definitely kept the multiplayer action in mind while developing this one. Despite the possibilities for this game to have been made wrong, it is a brawler worth having – given you are a fan of the fast-paced fighting action.