Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (Switch) Review

Licensed games have a history of being largely a little pants. There are notable exceptions, of course, but for every Goldeneye 007 or Spongebob: Battle for the Bikini Bottom there are handfuls of people like M & Ms Kart Racing, Superman 64and the Wii version of Iron Man. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl tries to counteract this trend by getting developers of Slap city to do so, a game celebrated as one of the few contenders for Super Smash Bros.And we promise this is the last time we will mention that series. Big names from Nickelodeon, a competent developer, everything looks promising at first glance, but is it worth it in practice?

If you didn’t know, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is classified as a ‘platform fighter’, a genre that makes you deal damage to your opponents so that they are easier to hit in the planes of death on all four sides of the screen. . popularized by the Super Smash Bros. series (damn). Each of the 20 fighters has roughly 18 moves they can perform, as well as rudimentary grappling, blocking, and jumping mechanics. 18 moves may seem like a lot at first, but many of these are often semi-duplicates that change slightly because they are performed in the air rather than on the ground, and if 18 seems like a lot then don’t look at a certain hero at a certain Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (damn it again).

All moves are easy to perform, and each character’s move set is unique to them. However, the move sets on offer are not as varied or original as we would like. For example, Aang from the excellent Avatar: The Last Airbender features moves only suitable for close quarters, which feels distinctly odd given his favorite fighting techniques on his own. There has definitely been serious consideration for characters to represent their source media, a highlight of ours being Ren and Stimpy launching Log de Blammo !, but many other moves for each fighter feel like they were developed simply because they had gaps to fill.

Many of the moves shown are fairly simple attacks, but some have deeper mechanics in play, all well executed and satisfying to master. However, what is not so satisfying are the explanations of these movements in the game, or more specifically the lack of them. Most of the moves are self-explanatory, some have a short explanation that is helpful, some don’t do a good enough job of explaining things, but worst of all, some are not listed at all. Toph, for example, has a special down that is a front flip with a heavy iron boot, but when in the air it creates a floating platform of land; the latter is not on his move list at all.

Presentation is also a mixed bag. For the most part, the game looks good on the Switch and runs at a decently stable 60fps through most stages. In some, however, the frame rate seems to really suffer, and it’s not entirely clear why. Other than that, a lot of the characters have had to transition from 2D to 3D, which can be a tough question, but the artists have done a pretty good job of making that leap, especially for the likes of Nigel Thornberry, who looks good. as scary as you want it to make it.

Other areas are less accomplished, especially when it comes to the soundtrack. Some tunes are perfectly fine, but others, like the Western Air Temple stage theme, are downright disgusting and most have an obvious cut when attempting to loop. Artwork rewards for completing Single Player Arcade mode do not fill the screen correctly and there is no voice acting at all; the whole package seems to be missing a lot polishing in various areas.

But you’ll notice that we haven’t talked about the actual game yet beyond the nitty-gritty of move sets, and that’s mainly because we wanted to remove some complaints first. In short, when you are fighting, the game is excellent; the mechanics are tight, the combo potential is huge, and each character has different strengths and weaknesses. We are not going to comment too much on balance, as this is something that evolves throughout the life of a game of this type, but we will say that, although some characters do feel ‘higher level’ than others, this is equally likely due to our playing styles.

The game shines brightest in classic one-on-one battles against another player, and the most enjoyable thing is that this is just as much fun online as it is offline. The target audience is likely more interested in playing as SpongeBob and beating up Patrick, but there is clearly a drive to attract an entirely different set of players. You know, the kind that knows what DACUS means. It has been taken into account to ensure that this subset of fight fans is catered for properly, but without overwhelming the more casual audience. Things can get a little hectic at times, but that’s part of the fun, and the intentional inclusion of features from fan-favorite bugs, like wavedashing, helps give the combat its own unique, stylish feel.

Naturally, you can also play with four players in total, but it must be said that the hectic nature of a good fight in this game makes it a bit difficult to properly analyze everything that is going on. You can also select between value and timed battles, as well as some sports game modes in which you unsurprisingly perform sporting objectives, such as attacking a ball so that it falls into your opponent’s goal hole.

Online features custom lobbies, Quick Play to get you straight into the fray with someone else, and Competitive Play that restricts the stages you can choose from, as well as employing a simple ranking system. All except custom lobbies seem to be restricted to one-on-one battles, but as we think we’ve made it very clear, this is where the game is best; it allows for more stable connections, and we can’t imagine many cases where we’d want to play four players with anyone except friends, so we’re not complaining. Online games are also pleasantly smooth with very little latency. We experienced a single match that seemed to work at around 15 frames per second and removed pretty much all particle effects, but that was absolutely the exception to an otherwise lighthearted online experience.

conclusion

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a solid platform fighter with great hidden depth, and also an unfortunate lack of polish outside of matches. If hard play is the number one concern, you’ll have a lot of money to sink your teeth into here, but expect the various elements around it to disappoint you. There’s a great time to go by, but it’s not Super Smash Bros. (damn it one more time).