Nickelodeon All Star Brawl

Alright kids, put on your time travelling hats because we're taking a ride in the Wayback Machine. The year is 1998. Nintendo unleashes a major game-changer. I'm talking Super Smash Brothers on the Nintendo 64. A four-player fighting game that pitted iconic Nintendo characters against each other. It was a massive critical and commercial success, and since then, every major Nintendo console has had an iteration. And the latest entry, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, has enjoyed years of undying love, both from the fans and developers. Recently, they unveiled the final DLC fighter (let's all stop whining about Sora already). But you know how it goes; every big fish has a leech on his belly.

Developers: Ludosity, Fair Play Labs, Ludosity AB

Publishers: GameMill Entertainment, Maximum Games

Reviewed on Nintnendo Switch

Written by: Danny K

So many different franchises want to ride Nintendo's coattails. We've seen Smash clones with PlayStation, Cartoon Network, Kung Fu Panda, and heck, even the Indie Gaming scene hasn't been able to escape Smash Fever, with games like Slap City and Brawlhalla. Smash clones might have varying degrees of success, but none of them have ever been able to knock Nintendo off its pedestal. The most recent franchise vying for Nintendo's fighting game crown has been Nickelodeon, with Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl. Can SpongeBob, Lincoln Loud, and Powdered Toastman make Mario, Link, and Pikachu sleep with one eye open? Or will they join the long line of franchises that tried and failed to dethrone Nintendo? Let's see. Story? What story? This is a smash clone, since when do smash clones have stories? Okay, fine, some Smash clones do. But not this one. Moving on.

Before I start talking about the gameplay, I need to clear the air here. You’ll be hearing me say the word “Clone” a lot in this review. In the last few years, though, “clone” has taken on a negative connotation. And really, how fair is that? I think people are using the word clone as a synonym for rip-off, which, again, is unfair. That’s not to say there are no clones that are not rip-offs, but I digress.

Anyway, on paper, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is more or less how I’ve described it; a smash clone with Nickelodeon characters. As far as which characters we get? Well, we have characters from older cartoons such as Rugrats, The Wild Thornberries, and Aaah! Real Monsters! and more modern ones such as Avatar the Last Airbender, The Loud House, and Danny Phantom. The lineup is a nice blend of characters, catering to fans of older and newer cartoons. From what I understand, more will be available in the future as DLC, so if your favorite Nicktoons character isn’t here, don’t worry, they might show up later.

It’s when we dissect the game more that things get...hmmm. Let’s start with the controls. They lack the complexity of Smash, which can be seen as good or bad. In my case, it's not a bad thing, it just will take some time for you to adjust if you are coming in from Smash.

All-Star Brawl’s controls are much simpler, and while saying you can’t chain a combo on your enemy is a lie, it takes a little more effort to do than in smash. Your moves consist of a basic attack, a strong attack, a special attack, a throw, a jump, a block, and a taunt. You are able to remap the controls as needed and they’re not bad, you just might have to take some time to get a feel for them.

As far as gameplay goes, it’s what you’d expect. Smack the opponent around, the more damage they get, the further they fly, and knock them off the stage. Do that until you win. You have your Stock battle, lives for the uninitiated, time brawl, and sports which we’ll get back to later. There’s also an arcade mode. Pick a fighter, bring them through seven fights, some opponents are chosen for you, other times you’ll have your choice between two, win and get some unlocks. Nothing fancy and pretty bare-bones compared to Smash’s classic mode.

You’ve got a wide array of stages to play in, which do act differently. For example, The Loud House, where you can fight on the house itself and the front lawn, and the sides and top of the map are kill zones. Then you’ve got Space Madness, where you have to keep jumping across floating tables and stuff so as not to fall to your doom, but being on them pushes them down.

Control complexity aside, there’s a lot that Smash Bros has that All-Star Brawl does not. One of those things? Items. You don’t get any items, just your moves, and some stage hazards to lay the hurt. However, although the lack of items certainly doesn’t help NASB, it doesn’t exactly hurt it either. A lot of this review has been me saying “It’s like Smash but not” and saying what Smash brings to the table that NASB lacks. But that’s not really fair. One mode that NASB offers is Sport.

Basically, the same gameplay, but with a pong kind of deal, where the fighters need to focus on scoring points with a soccer ball rather than outright kill each other. I could see this being a pretty fun time. And even though NASB could be called inferior to Smash, it’s not bad. During my playtime, I was having fun once I got a handle on the controls. Smacking my opponents around and testing characters to see which fit me better wasn’t unenjoyable in the least.

Presentation-wise, this game is okay. The music isn’t exactly a jam, but it’s good background noise to listen to while the fighting happens. The only voice you’ll be hearing is the announcer, and to his credit he sounds like he’s interested in what’s going on, putting in some effort, and having some fun with it. The graphics are bright and colorful and do a good job representing the cartoons they are from. There’s a ton of fanservice, both in the fighters themselves and the arenas. There’s a lot of background references to the cartoons, some obvious, others very subtle. For example, while in the Loud House level, the sisters can be seen cheering the fighters on in the windows. In the Teeter Totter Gulch stage, you can see Angelica’s beloved doll Cynthia stuck in the sandy whirlpools.

When entering the fight in Arcade mode, the characters are given some lines of dialogue for you to read. They are all just generic lines and you’ll usually see all of a character’s lines in a single run of arcade, and there are no specific ones between characters. There’s also no fanfare for beating arcade mode. If you’re expecting every character to have a unique intro and ending to their arcade run, you’re playing the wrong game. Barebones presentation isn’t the greatest thing for a game, but not the worst either.

In conclusion, while I enjoyed my time with Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, I have to admit that those who didn’t kind of have a point. If you were to bring me two people, one who likes the game, and one who does not, and set them at a table to talk it out, I’d be able to see both sides of the debate. No, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is not a Smash killer. But it doesn’t have to be. I made a prediction when going into the game that it would be like a cover of a favorite song. While it lacks the appeal of the original, it has its own strengths and can stand on its own. My prediction came true.

If you’re looking for a more casual Smash game and wanted to get it to mess around with friends, I wouldn’t try to talk you out of it. Just manage your expectations and who knows, you might have some fun.

Author: Danny K