Pretty damn fun game and a big improvement over the first game in terms of presentation and polish (even if it still has a good amount of kinks to iron out), the campaign is solid defo better than smash ultimates lame ass world of light, said campaign is also very danny phantom heavy interestingly I'm a fan of that show so I'm not complaining.

Yeah this game probably isn't gonna blow your mind but its very solid i think, big step up from the first game and better than shit like mutliversus, defo one of the best platform fighters i've played just needs to iron out those kinks.

Notes: pleaseeeeee get timmy turner if u make a third game please I'm begging ya u can give fairly oddparents 2 reboots in the 2020s but not just stick him in a fighting game cmonnnnnnnn

Decent alternative to Smash with some pretty solid new additions to the formula like aerial smash attacks and the slime meter which adds some more variety to movesets. I also enjoyed what I played of the rogue-like mode which was a fun take on a single player adventure. It does however get repetitive in it's structure the more you play through it.

While it looks really nice with expressive characters and nice visuals, it does have a little bit of jankiness to it with how models interact and the menus accepting your prompt before you even reach the screen. While I enjoyed it I personally I think the game feels a little too floaty with movement and air speed and a little unresponsive with it's hitboxes. Also the lack of alternate fighting modes does leave it a little barren.

I have not played the original but safe to say this game looks to have improved in most aspects. However the game still has that ‘Game Mill’ publishing jank that brings it down. The controls are strange and feels like you are sifting through mud. The campaign made the horrible choice of giving you one life so when the controls don’t work in your favour you have to restart from the beginning. But for all its shortcomings you can’t deny the fun to be had when using your favourite Nickelodeon character.

I don't know how Fair Play Labs have done it. Everything else GameMill Entertainment has published has been the drizzling shits, whether through deadlines, funding, or using the cheapest developers they can find. You would expect All Star Brawl 2 to be garbage, more games for the mill. But Fair Play Labs are just so passionate, so devoted to making the best possible Smash clone, with licensed characters given due care and attention, with quality modes and decent online, that they've pulled a miracle out. They've made the best Smash clone I've ever played.

My playthrough consisted of trying a few modes out, including the online, but mostly of many, many hours of the campaign mode, a roguelike jaunt through three large zones of group battles, one on ones with possessed characters, power-up stops, minigames, and boss battles. I used most of every character I could in this mode, but mostly focused on Rocko, Spongebob, Raphael, and Patrick. This mode is THE mode. Endlessly fun, and hilariously broken by the time you've funnelled enough slime and splats into the permanent power-ups in this mode. It sounds funny, but I appreciate this as a workaround to unlocking characters. Serious online players don't want to have to unlock characters before they get to grind them out, but the experience of unlocking new guys to play as is crucial to the casual experience. It's the best part of smash, and having unlocks in this one mode brings that feeling out nicely.

Mechanically this is... kind of brilliant? You've got all your air dodges and wavedashing and such that a melee player would want, but with some good additive changes to the Smash formula. You have a slime meter that lets you beef up your specials, as well as granting you a cinematic ultimate move when full. Your chargeable, smash-esque moves are on a separate button to your light attacks, removing the need to 'smash' the analogue stick. More accessible to kids, innit. The only thing you really lose is that not all your buttons do something different between side and neutral, but like... who cares? Immensely playable. Great game feel. Only occasionally bugged out the arse, and even then it's had regular updates to smooth stuff out.

I just really like this. Mr. Krabs just got added in as dlc. I should try him out as a main. The fun never ends. But sincerely so.

Fuck GameMill.

I had a lot of fun with this campaign! It just feels like a fleshed Out Smash Classic Mode (ironically this game also has a standalone Classic Mode, which feels redundant given) and I can say with certainty that I enjoyed the experience more than the single player content of Smash for Wii U and Ultimate combined, so make of that what you will.

My only complaints are that I hate the number of fakeout endings (one of my largest gaming pet peeves) and a glitch where I kept spawning under the platform ended a run right at the end which cost me 40 minutes or so getting back to that point. Otherwise a pretty solid experience!

free weekend review:

fun game but very very jank. my friend found out he can squirt with mecha-plankton on the spongebob map & tank the FPS to literally 3. ren & stimpy, & garfield were super fun to play.

but i'd rather play smash 🧍‍♂️

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 for a competitive platform fighter fan is a game with a solid foundation within a sea of negatives, many of which hold it back from any kind of greatness. It’s a decent attempt at what I’d assume many of us would consider a difficult genre to break into, and it deserves credit for that; however, its shortcomings merit highlighting, as they are lessons to be learned should other developers look to enter the arena.

NASB 2 shines when it’s faithful to the source material of nostalgic children's cartoons it’s based on—taking many well-known moments or stills from the show and confidently recreating that through a character’s moveset—many of these moves being unique, while others pay homage to other popular platform fighters. It’s a joy to see the attention to detail paid not only to the characters but to the fans of these characters as well. While this is a fantastic effort and has likely been a draw for many of us to the game, this scrutinous level of complexity does not extend to the gameplay as a whole.

The game’s competitive influence takes a lot of inspiration from the systems and mechanics of the Super Smash Bros. series, namely Melee. While this sounds great on paper to those who are fans of Melee’s ‘lightning in a bottle’ gameplay, implementing these mechanics into a cohesive and new take on the platform fighter genre is an incredible task.

Many of the classic mechanics return, such as wavedashing, dash-dancing, shield-dropping, and ledge-dashing, to name a few. However, simply including these mechanics is not enough to appease their target audience of platform-fighting veterans. This is why liberty has been taken to introduce the slime mechanic, borrowing traditional fighter resource management ideas and meshing them together with Melee’s systems. Overall, I would say this is one of the more successful endeavors when it comes to the addition of mechanics, but it doesn’t come without its flaws.

Slime adds an extra layer to the gameplay of NASB 2, encouraging players to make impactful decisions while juggling the resources they’re attempting to build. Many of these decisions feel burdened by the lack of polish in specific regards to hitboxes/hurtboxes and some frustrating character design choices. On their own, many of the characters look like loyal representations of their Nickelodeon designs, but when pitted against one another, the cracks begin to show.

The creative combo feature of Melee is one aspect the game has failed to successfully capture—many combos involving linear routes without expressive choice, combo DI being meaningless in a lot of circumstances—creating an unfortunate rippling negativity not only through the combo game but defensively too. I assume the intent behind this was to offset the addition of defensive slime mechanics such as Slime Burst, but it ended up not balancing out well.

The risk and reward of edgeguarding have also been skewed towards a more ‘Ultimate’ favoured approach, albeit not as drastic as SSBU. Still, due to the strong recoveries and mixups many, if not all, of the cast have access to, going off-stage isn’t always going to be as beneficial as controlling the stage would be. This one, I would argue, is more subjective, as personally, I don’t like it this way and enjoy the lethal nature of edgeguarding in Melee, but others may prefer the slower burn approach of NASB.

Speaking of slower burn, I find this sentiment manages to leak its way into many of the game’s matchups, and I suggest this is due to some of the flawed character design decisions. Jenny is a notable example of a ‘Zoner’ archetype that can slow the game down to a crawl at times. Slow gameplay isn’t necessarily the flaw in this case; in fact, slow gameplay can be quite rewarding when done properly, but when it comes to Jenny, she has a small hurtbox, many projectiles, and a ridiculously strong recovery. When these factors come together, it creates an uninteractive experience, and it’s not exclusive to Jenny; many of the games’ matchups can lead to time, which, in my opinion, is incredibly unhealthy for a competitive game.

(I think it’s worth noting that many of my opinions are not in a tournament setting but via the game’s ranked mode, and my critique does not pertain to that context).

Lastly, the final thing I would like to point out about NASB 2 is its huge bug problem. Since the inception of the game and, consequently, every patch, some minor and game-breaking bugs have been present in the game, leading to a severe lack of polish. This has influenced my general opinion on the game, despite many attempts to overlook it, but it is simply too continuous and apparent.

Overall, despite many of the discrepancies I have with it, I still have over 100+ hours with NASB 2, and I enjoyed the majority of them. However, the staying power begins to falter the more time I invest, with only the promise of DLC characters fueling my declining interest. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is an above-average platform fighter that is worth playing for a competitive fan, but if you’re a fan of wine, don’t buy milk.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 fixes nearly every issue I've heard of with the first installment, and provides a great roster and great gameplay for some casual fun fighting.

I give Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 an 8!

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 was a huge surprise for me. The roster is deep, striking almost every key character in Nick's lineup (except for Cat Dog, Timmy Turner, and the other two turtles). I was super happy with the arrangement, and am a proud El Tigre main.

The combat was surprisingly awesome, with it being similar to Smash Ultimate, but carrying its own unique charm. It kind of reminds me of Multiversus.

I really love this game, and as a fighter, it's shockingly deep and has a solid foundation to learn upon.

Characters/Roster: 9
Story: -
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 8