With the release of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 hanging around the corner, the great folks at Nickelodeon rightfully placed this title for sale on the Nintendo Switch. I will take a stab at trying any game for five dollars, especially a Nickelodeon Smash Brothers clone that enticed an esports community upon release. But then I questioned aloud, "Five dollars for a title from 2021?". The concerns were real, but I am always down to smoke a bowl and play lackluster games for the cheap. And boy, is this game lackluster! I'll start by saying that the surface-level controls and fighting mechanics are okay. There is enough complexity to comboing an opponent to reward invested players. The problem is you likely won't want to invest in different fighting playstyles/characters because the game fails on most levels to support its identity. Characters, stages, and mechanics are the groundwork for any fighting game. I guess in the year 2021, that's all this studio could muster up before shipping it out to a paying audience. This game features little to no extra content, even after the updates. The pitiful arcade mode is a joke and is pretty much the same as playing any CPU in any basic match. Instead, in arcade mode, you have the privilege to unlock cruddy-looking profile emblems and music tracks. These unlockables are worth nobody's time and get spit on by those from every Smash game. There are barely any costumes to spice up your Main or to differentiate yourself from an opponent with the same character. The sports mode is also a joke, and similar to arcade mode, it felt tacked on in a day to meet some standard of quality. There's no extra content outside these piss-poor attempts; unless you want to count online. Yeah, online... good luck finding a match these days. Everyone got over the novelty of seeing their favorite cartoon characters fight in a week and then deserted this shell of a game. I could only find online lobbies with a minimal amount of randoms who were also bamboozled into coughing up five bucks. The matches weren't even that fun. All these stiff characters fight as if they are on speed surviving a Black Friday Sale. The developers tried to mimic Smash Bros. Melee's quick inputs and crazy combos. It's a great idea. It's just simply rushed and doesn't come close in execution. The fluidity of the gameplay is wonky, and characters have no natural weight at high percents. Smash Bros. always nailed down the satisfaction of killing your opponent off-screen, while killing in Nick All-Star Butt Brawl has less appeal than eating a raisin. And harping on appeal, what is the presentation of this game? The Game's UI and artwork are horrendous. Its' basic coloring book appearance burns my eyes after a while. Jump in a match while you can, or the game's display will shut down your switch after a minute. In the end, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl was built by a small dev team on a tight budget and short timeframe. A lack of time and creativity killed the project before it could gain momentum. I can't fault them significantly in an attempt to tackle such a tough goal. All I know is moderately smooth controls aren't enough to build longevity for an online fighting game. The two-person switch player base on a Friday Night speaks for itself.

If you were to describe a platform fighter in the most barebones way it would probably be the gameplay of Nick All Star Brawl

The gameplay is fine and it works but not many of the movesets really feel like the characters, it’s just basic punches, kicks, occasional projectile attack and barely any references

Not to mention the weird roster picks that heavily favour the 90s era and like 2 shows from the 2010s

Considering this beaten after completing arcade mode with all characters including DLC. I wish there was more of a story mode. I wish it felt like there was more thought and effort put into the catch phrases.

I only paid $5 for the full game on sale + $4 for the DLC just because.

I had fun with it. Certainly $10 worth of fun. It feels like a rough draft and I hope they build on it in the sequel. There's loss of potential here.