Bland levels, bland roster, bland art style, bland music, bland gameplay. A competent product that I feel virtually nothing but apathy for - granted I don't care that much about the Smash games either, but come on... There's just no comparison here, those are (mostly) leagues better than this is despite it still being a capable clone on a base level. The PlayStation All-Stars comparisons are noted but I would say they're only founded in the sense that both feel like almost immediate abandonware despite being spearheaded by waves of gigantic IPs that have all the ingredients for what should have been a huge slam dunk. Otherwise Sony's attempt felt way more personalized than this shallow husk imo. Feels like a sixth-gen game and not in a good way, everything about this just screams chintzy. Crazy how even after all these post-launch fixes the sound mixing is still this bad.

It's ugly, it feels stiff and janky, it had a rough launch, it was a priced as a triple A game; it's not great. But as a foundation, it was pretty solid. A year more cooking in the oven would have done wonders for this game. And I'd love to say that was the case with its sequel, but that game isn't without its faults either. Nickelodeon Brawl has strong legs on it, but a bloated, fat underbelly to be carried. I can't say I regret purchasing the game on launch, because I feel like all that money made it possible for the sequel to be published. Now all we can hope is that if there IS a third game in the future, that it will finally be the game this was meant to be.

Nickelodeon All Star Brawl is a platform fighting game similar to Super Smash Bros, released in 2021. The game had quite a bit of hype surrounding it, and some people even dubbed it the “Smash Killer” However, the game quickly became forgotten about after release… What happened to it?

The main reason for the game’s sudden decline was the hype surrounding it. Since it was being regarded as a “Smash Killer”, everyone started to raise their expectations for the game. While the game is very enjoyable, it’s not Smash Bros levels of standards… it’s a more simple platform fighting game. As a result, people quickly abandoned the game and went back to Smash. On top of this, the game was released on the exact same day as the final Smash Ultimate character: Sora. Sora was one of the most requested characters in a fighting game, and it’s a miracle that they were able to add him to Smash since he’s owned by Disney. It’s no wonder that everyone was playing Smash that day instead of Nick All Star Brawl. The game only sold around 100,000 copies which pales in comparison to Smash Ultimate’s 30 million copies sold. This is not only because of Sora, but because some people may have dismissed the game as being shovelware.

Despite all of this, the game was somewhat successful. I only got the game recently when it went on sale, but I've been having fun with it. While it’s no “Smash Killer” like everyone thought, it’s still enjoyable in its own right. It’s a simple and fun game that I can pick up and play, and it has quite a few Nickelodeon references that are nice to see. However, the game does have quite a few flaws.

My main problem with the game is every character feels way too similar in playstyle; some characters differ slightly but it’s mostly all the fucking same thing, so deciding on your main boils down to “pick your favorite character” which brings me to my next point… the roster.

There are a lot of characters that make sense, but some feel really weird. Only 2 of the ninja turtles made it into the roster (Leonardo & Michelangelo) which really sucks for people who wanna play as Raphael or Donatello. They also decided to include Helga from Hey Arnold but not Arnold himself, which feels really weird.

The game received 2 free characters (Garfield and Shredder), and then 3 DLC characters. The DLC choices were Jenny Wakeman, Rocko, and my personal favorite Hugh Neutron. Hugh was added as a meme character, but also because of the huge fan demand for having him in the game. It still feels weird having Hugh in the game but not Jimmy Neutron himself, but at the same time It’s great that they added him cause, it goes to show that they listen to their fans.

This doesn’t just apply to characters. When the game first launched, there was no voice acting present. Later on, they added voice acting to the game in an update. This really adds to the game; it makes it more enjoyable, and at the same time it proves that the devs really do listen, which goes a long way in a game like this. But it still really don’t get why the fuck they didn’t think to add it in the first place.

Going back to the roster, the biggest missed opportunity of them all is the lack of Fairly OddParents content. I think this may be related to series creator Butch Hartman leaving Nickelodeon in 2018, but Fairly Oddparents is one of the reasons Nickelodeon is so beloved. They even got Danny Phantom (another Butch Hartman show) represented in the game, so why not Fairly OddParents?

Aside from those missing characters, the roster is fine. Spongebob, Avatar, and Ninja Turtles take up most of the roster, but they’re the more popular Nickelodeon shows so it makes sense. But yeah, most of the character choices are pretty cool.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the gameplay. I still vastly prefer the gameplay of Smash games, but for what it is it’s a nice alternative. The gameplay is very fast which makes it good for competitive gameplay, however this may throw off more casual players. There are some easy difficulty options for more casual players, but the game seems to be aimed at players of games like Smash Melee (one of the more competitive smash games) which I don’t have a problem with, but like I said, this could make it hard for more casual players to enjoy the game.

Also, there really isn’t much replay value. The only real modes are the battles and an arcade mode. There’s also this weird sports mode, but I thought it was shit and didn’t play that much of it. So the main replay value comes from replaying the battle modes, which is fine but it doesn’t provide much single player content. There’s also online, but I can’t try that because it’s fucking dead now. I can see why the game was quickly forgotten about, since there isn’t much to go back to other than the main battles.

Overall, I think Nick All Star Brawl is a fine game. It’s nothing groundbreaking or anything, but for what it is I enjoyed it a lot.

Es difícil hacer un Smashlike hoy en día, teniendo titanes del género como el mismo iniciador de este estilo de pelea, Smash bros, y uno que otro indie muy bien logrado, como el Rivals of Aether.

Antes que todo, el apartado visual no está para nada mal, pero no destaca en absoluto. Está bien, es lo necesario para la fluidez que requiere el título, porque a diferencia de otros smashlike, este en particular es sumamente ágil.

El apartado sonoro, por su parte, deja mucho que desear. El OST de ciertos escenarios está bien, pero otros pasan muy desapercibidos, sobre todo teniendo en cuenta que el repertorio de canciones es muy reducido.
Fuera de esto, los efectos de sonido son absolutamente arcaicos y mal trabajados; las voces simplemente no existen, y es sumamente tedioso como los golpes repiten sus sonidos una y otra vez.

La cantidad de personajes y de escenarios, teniendo en cuenta las series de Nickelodeon que existen hasta la fecha, es bastante limitada, y esto es lamentable. Al igual que con los efectos de sonido, y otros apartados como las repeticiones, o la creación de perfiles personalizados para los comandos, espero que el equipo de desarrollo vaya implementando actualizaciones para la mejoría de estas selecciones.

Por último, y donde destaca Nickelodeon All Star, es en su jugabilidad. Es frenética en su totalidad, y, a pesar de que en su esencia sea un juego sumamente casual, y la extensión de combos, junto con el moveset de los personajes, y las mecánicas propias, invita al jugador a ingeniarselas para buscar nuevas formas de combatir y de crear combos.

Actualmente, y en relación a su precio, no recomiendo comprar este juego, pero espero con mucha esperanza las actualizaciones y el desarrollo por parte del equipo, para que pueda ser un juego a la altura, y un buen ícono de los smashlike.

an interesting experiment. a high concept sort of game that's low on any actual 'meat' per se. what i mean is that there's a lot of deliberate design choices iterating off the overhead from slap city; to create something that feels distinctly unique, but that's probably both it's best aspect and it's biggest flaw. it's also, the only thing the game really has going for it, with how little content it has too. it's game feel is kind of awful, there's no turnaround state, control is all digital, there's no prejump, etc. choices made to account for broader systems, like multiple air dashes in any direction instead of an airdodge, the rps on clashing strong attacks, or being able to grab projectiles. things that on paper seem like they'd lead to cool interplay, but really don't. platform fighters are already the kind of game where random, obscure things happen all the time in every match, they didn't need to deliberate on that.

I got this game for free and wanted my money back. As a huge fan of Super Smash Bros I have always wanted a good alternative for other consoles / PC and so far nobody can seem to do it. Hopefully the upcoming sequel can fix the major problems here.

Aside from it not playing like Smash Bros control wise, which made it worse, it also just didn't feel good. The strikes didn't feel impactful, the game didn't feel reactive enough. I wasn't having fun.

I see the potential, but do not recommend this at all.