I’m a big fan of the Smash bros. series. From the casual side playing with friends to the competitive scene. I’m not that good myself but love to see the best in the world duke it out. So when Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl was announced at first, the whole smash scene was laughing. But then something changed. Unlike some other platform fighters, the mechanics and gameplay actually look good. Of course, seeing is one, playing is two, so let’s see if it hold up.
Nickelodeon’s iconic universes
Like in other platform fighters hitting your opponent will make them gain damage. Your goal is to knock your opponent off the stage and past the edge of the screen so they will get KOd. The more damage they get the farther they will fly. When knocked off the stage, get back to safety by using your jumps, air dashes, and special moves. The roster consists of 20 fan-favorite characters from across the Nickelodeon cartoon universe, including SpongeBob, TMNT, Hey Arnold!, Invader Zim, Danny Phantom, and more., each with unique moves and playstyles. Battle on a variety of stages inspired by Nickelodeon’s iconic universes.
In-depth on game mechanics
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl comes from the minds behind Slap City and you can see this influence in this game. I really enjoyed my time with that game so this is not a bad thing. It however is not a simple reskin since a lot of new mechanics are added in as well. For those less interested in me talking about the mechanics in-depth, I suggest skipping over this portion. To start off I just want to mention, every button can be remapped from the character select menu to suit your playstyle. For the sake of this review, I will go over the standard controls and what they do. Keep in mind I’m playing on Xbox.
Rock-paper-scissors – The face-buttons
Y is used to jump, press shortly for a short hop and hold for a jump, press again and you double jump. There are 3 different versions of your quick, powerful and special attacks; mid, up, and down. A is used for quick attacks, B for strong attacks, and X for special moves. Strong attacks are like rock-paper-scissors but then replaced by mid-down-up, this adds a unique strategic depth to the game. Besides this, strong attacks can send back projectiles as well. Besides these moves, you can also press A/B for running attacks
Wave-dashing is here – Shoulder and Trigger buttons
Every character can turn around in the air or on the ground. To prevent this from happening you can push LT to keep in the same direction. LB lets you taunt, also not unimportant. RT is used on the ground to completely block attacks, but you get pushed and can get pushed off the edge. In the air, RT will behave like an air dash that can be done in any direction. This mechanic however is very similar to a mechanic that was in smash bros. Melee called wave dash. The air dash can be done downwards after a short hop and lets you slide across the stage.
RT and A or RB will grab. You can grab your opponent as well as projectiles in the air or on the ground. To throw simply press A in the 3 directions from before. Like in Smash bros. mashing all the buttons will let you escape more easily out of a grab. Just like in Smash Bros. Press RT just before hitting walls/ground to tech and stop your momentum. Press left or right to tech roll.
More than only brawl
A couple of different modes are available, these are:
Stock – Players are eliminated if they lose all their stocks (lives)
Timed – The player with the most KOs after time expires wins
Sports – Player/team with the most goals wins – different ball types change how you interact with them.
Arcade – Play through a set of battles against the computer to win.
Battle your friends locally with up to 4 players simultaneously or in online competitive multiplayer. The modes can be played in teams or free-for-all with friendly fire on or off. Stock, timed and arcade are pretty standard modes for a fighting game so you know what to expect. A less standard but super interesting mode is sports battle. In this mode the goal is to hit the ball in your opponent’s goal, the highest score wins. There are different types of balls with different properties. For instance, the soccer ball can only be hit, and the football only is grabbed, but there are more than only these 2. Sadly each ball is locked to a specific mode. I would love to have had an option for a random ball every time to keep things interesting.
But does it play well?
So now we know what we are dealing with, is it any fun? The gameplay and mechanics are really in-depth which is rare for a platform fighter and especially one with licensed characters. The game in therms of feel is a mix between Smash bros. 64, Smash bros. Melee and obviously Slap City. The game is enjoyable for casual players while also being deep enough for competitive play.
There are however some issues that need to be addressed on the competitive side. I don’t want to go into too deep, but there are some infinite combos that need to be patched. I won’t go into detail about the balance since the game is so young, so it’s hard to really know which character is the best. Luckily the developers mentioned that the game is getting patches and DLC in the future so high hopes on fixing up the flaws it currently has.
Lack of polish and Nickelodeon
Sadly there are some problems with the game. These are problems for casual/competitive players as well for the spectators. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl overall lacks polish on multiple fronts. The game may be a Nickelodeon-themed fighting game but besides the characters and stages, there is not much Nickelodeon about it. All the sounds are slapstick/cartoony sounds (that are the same as in Slap City). There are no SpongeBob death sounds, taunts or warcries to be found.
This holds also true for the stages with every stage only having one song, which can get old rather quickly. The songs are themed after the series that they originated from but are completely new creations, so don’t expect any cool theme songs or other songs from the OST. The animations also need some cleaning up. Some hitboxes don’t line up with the actual animation which causes some weird interactions. This probably in some part has to do with the transition from 2D to 3D, which is the first time for some characters in this game, but this is no excuse.
Conclusion
To conclude, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a good and deep platform fighter, especially one with licensed characters that often are hit or miss. The game plays like a mix between Smash 64/Melee and Slap City. Sadly there are some problems like missing voice-over, a proper OST, janky animations, and infinite combos. Luckily the developers mentioned that the game is getting patches and DLC in the future so high hopes on fixing up the flaws it currently has. It still is worth to be played, especially if you are into platform fighters.
