I'll admit, I only was excited for this game to be a Korra main - I'm not a huge fan of brawlers (or even fighting games in general). But I can say this game certainly has potential. While it was very clearly made on a limited budget, it's also evident that a lot of love went into this game. The character movesets are silly and charming, the stages are beautiful, and the core gameplay is well-made. However, my criticisms likely align with what a lot of people are saying - the game needs some work. Some fine-tuning and balancing of the gameplay could really make this game stand out and live up to its full potential. I'd also fix the soundtrack - I understand that the original planned OST for the game got shot down by Nickelodeon, but the fact that they put in some generic songs in replacement for the masterpiece Avatar/Korra sountracks still hurt. Obviously, I would also LOVE to see more characters added, as there are a lot of iconic series missing from this game. Overall, while NASB is a little wonky and iffy to begin with, the passion is clearly there and I'm very hopeful about what they do with the game in the future.

A personal interest of mine has always been cartoons and animation, and Nickelodeon is a recognizable name to this and other generations who grew up with its classic characters. They've been no stranger to making video games of these characters over the years either, since the days of the Sega Genesis/Super Nintendo in fact. Fans of such will often tell you that most Nickelodeon games are actually of a decent standard of quality, especially for licensed games. Keyword here being "most". Being licensed games, there comes the realization that Nickelodeon will release a product to make some quick cash and the quality will often be an afterthought to the profit. This was the major concern of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, a platform fighter featuring some of the more iconic characters on the network. Although, these concerns dwindled over time when I noticed a specific name attached to the credits: Ludosity. Ludosity is the developer of one "Slap City", an indie platform fighter that is actually very enjoyable. I and others were a little more intrigued. Could this game have the possibility of actually being good? The answer of course is yes, the game is very good.

It's almost impossible to talk about this game, or platform fighters in general without directly referring to the game that basically invented the subgenre, Super Smash Bros. Smash's non-traditional approach to the fighting game format inspired many other games in its rise to popularity. People were quick to call Nick's All Star Brawl just another Smash clone, but there's somethings that are different that set this game apart from others, including Smash. The mechanics are quick to learn but have an underlying complexity to them that offers a more interesting gameplay experience. Air dashing across all characters, not seen in a platform fighter i've played, combined with the ability to perform the infamous Wavedash, only slightly adds to the already fast paced combat of the game. Even the slower characters move at a brisk pace and moves are incredibly snappy to the point where just one button misplacement can cost you a stock. The rock -paper-scissors parry mechanic can be a little hard to understand at first, but you'll quickly learn to act fast once it's effects kick in on the field. Most of the characters have a decent balance to their moves and speed to the point where tierlists are difficult to make because every character has something interesting in them. Speaking of characters of course, the roster. The selling point of the game of course is that you get to play as iconic Nickelodeon characters, coincidentally mirroring Smash's selling point of playing as your favorite Nintendo characters. Being a fan of cartoons, I and some others will be quick to tell you there are some characters the base roster should have had. Though, with promised DLC on the way I hope these qualms will be rectified in the future. Nevertheless, the roster is decent. Of course you have the most recognizable characters, Spongebob, Ren and Stimpy, Invader Zim, Danny Phantom, Reptar of Rugrats, 2 of the 4 Ninja Turtles (hoping the other 2 will be added), and then you have more newer characters like Lincoln Loud of The Loud House and the main characters of the two Avatar series, Aang and Korra. Though, there are some surprising picks like Oblina from the not super well known Aahhh!!! Real Monsters, and Powdered Toast Man, a side character to Ren and Stimpy. It's not known how much of the roster was Ludosity and how much was a Nickelodeon mandate but there was thought and care put into having each character look and play as in-character as possible. The models and animation vary, but the background graphics are consistently gorgeous. Stages like Jellyfish Fields, The Ghost Zone, Western Air Temple, and Powdered Toast Trouble among others are crafted to fit the style of their respectively shows perfectly. The music is the only aesthetic thing that's a little lacking though. Some tracks are nice and fit the style of the show, but others are either grating or just boring. Luckily the game isn't hard at all to mod on PC, which is something the devs even encourage for your own personal experience.

This game surprised me in the best way possible. I can't recall the last time I had this much fun in a fighting game, even going so far as to say Smash hasn't given me this level of fun in years with its recent entries. The devs truly made something special, more than just a licensed game. Even better, it's just getting started. DLC is coming which boasts not only new characters and stages but other things too, and I cannot wait to see what this team will cook up next,

Note: Been playing Smash competitively since 2007, won't be covering the casual aspect of this game.

Since the very first day this game was announced, I felt sceptical about it. All the talk about the game was exclusively the implementation of rollback netcode, and movement options like air dashes and wavedash (and of course "funny spongebob does Melee techniques meme"), both of which were great for the marketing of the game, and the timing was perfect.

Smash players have been disillusioned with Ultimate for a while because of the incredibly poor online experience + the Covid-19 pandemic + Nintendo shutting down events, and NASB promised a fresh "Smash-like" ("Melee-like"?) experience that had good online, incredible potential for internet humor and the famous mechanic that Super Smash Bros has neglected for the past 3 games.

And I think NASB, as a product, really delivered. The game is exactly what they made it out to be. But mechanically it has no soul, the philosophy behind the design is flawed, and it ends up feeling like every other "smash clone" that has ever existed like Digimon Rumble Arena or Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion. The big difference being that now, most smash players know about the competitive scene.

The game is too technical for its own good. Mastering movement in NASB is very very important, and ergonomically awful, high level matches are just 2 characters flying around and doing a lot of "sick movement" while throwing out random hitboxes, until one of them gets hit and dies (or not) and then repeat until the match is over.

And why would you want that many movement options in the first place? Aerials have no endlag, short hopping and spamming aerials is a super strong strategy with very low risk, and some characters have moves so big that you can approach and anti air at the same time.
It's a super unnappealing gameplan for me, and the lack of defensive options make it even worse.

I criticize Rivals Of Aether for some of that as well, but every character has a specific mechanic/gameplan that makes them unique, they have to work towards a specific objective in the match, and taking all the matchups into consideration makes RoA a very rich game that stands out, where characters have their own way to deal with each other, and where movement really matters, even though it not being my cup of tea.

In NASB every character has crazy ground and air movement by design, similar recoveries, very similar or identical kill confirms and combos, they all look for the same things in neutral, so the line between characters is blurred.

Balance is really silly too, but that's expected in a game like this. And I really couldn't care less about patches, they won't fix what really is wrong about the game (most people are complaining about the game not being polished, lack of voice acting, and even about the price, and I think they are completely missing the important stuff).

And I'm sure Nickelodeon pressured the devs a lot to release the game asap, so that sucks too.

In the end NASB is another game that tries to be Smash (with a twist) but doesn't get it. I don't want every platform fighter to be the same, and this is a nice little experiment, but there's so much more to the genre than wavedashing and getting 0 to deaths.

Kusoge material for sure. Feels like Smash 64 with UMVC3 movement and that just doesn't make any sense.

Primeiramente, sobre o visual: É inconsistente.
Alguns personagens são bem acabados, como os Loud que são muito bonitinhos e tem ótimas animações, e outros são horríveis, como o Danny Phantom e os de Avatar que sofreram muito na conversão pra 3D. Diria que os personagens mais humanoides são os que ficaram piores, e com certeza são os que mais pecam em animação.

Os cenários até que são bons. Temos visuais bem bonitos e com senso artístico aqui e ali, como o da caixa d'água com aquelas cores vaporwave muito estilosas. Creio que os estágios estáticos se sobressaem mais que a maioria dos personagens por terem movimentos.

Agora, onde o jogo provavelmente mais peca: O som.
A trilha sonora não é tão ruim, mas se torna extremamente repetitiva por ter apenas uma música em cada estágio, além do tema de vitória ser o mesmo pra todos os personagens.

A sonoplastia tem qualidade de efeitos genéricos comprados prontos. Não é terrível, mas dificilmente elogiável e sem identidade nenhuma. E eu acho muito frustrante alguns efeitos mais sutis, que trariam muita vida aos personagens, serem completamente negligenciados, como sons de passos, por exemplo. Fala sério, só eu senti falta do barulho clássico dos sapatos do Bob Esponja?

E um último problema enorme pra fechar essa categoria é o fato de que nenhum personagem tem voz. O jogo é simplesmente mudo. Como puderam ignorar dublagem num jogo crossover com personagens icônicos? Inaceitável.

Bom... Depois de todas as críticas, eis o principal motivo pra eu dar uma nota positiva: A gameplay.

Apesar de todos os pecados, o jogo consegue acertar no principal fator pra nos divertir. As mecânicas de combate são muito funcionais e as batalhas são bem rápidas. Digno de uma tentativa competitiva de clone de Smash.

Não é perfeito e tem muitas limitações aqui também, mas de longe é onde o jogo mais acerta. Gastei horas com amigos aprendendo mais sobre as mecânicas e evoluindo as partidas cada vez mais, como um bom jogo de luta.

Então, concluindo:
O jogo é muito rústico e tem legítima dificuldade de nos fazer sentir a presença dos personagens e o impacto das lutas. Em muitas instâncias, realmente é o bootleg barato que parece ser, e é difícil perdoar muitos problemas técnicos. É bem cru e precário.

Contudo, consigo ignorar muitos desses deméritos durante as partidas divertidas que tiro com amigos. A gameplay competitiva, embora tenha consideráveis pendências, realmente o salva muito como jogo.

Vale a pena pra quem gosta de platform fighting e/ou não tem um Nintendo Switch pra curtir Smash.

Has the complete opposite strengths and weaknesses as Smash 4/Ult. On one hand, it feels fantastic to play a platform fighter with controls and hitboxes that actually 'feel' good. But on the other hand, you're missing out on the sheer polish, content and budget that smash has. There's clearly a lot of money and passion put into the core meat, but the menus and UX that surround it are totally barren, as is the single-player content. If post-launch updates and DLC are able to improve this, I'd have no shame in saying this is a way better fighter than Smash. I never want to go back to Smash's fucking awful movement and gameplay philosophies.