An absolute bare-bones budget title, but quite excellent given its scope. The team at Ludosity (for which I hold nothing but respect, largely since that's where one of my favorite developers, Daniel Remar, ended up) was clearly passionate for this project and did everything they could to make it the best they could be. At the risk of making assumptions, I feel like the nature of the project and its setbacks has been transparently laid bare. Nickelodeon approached Ludosity about developing a platform fighter; Ludosity accepted; Nickelodeon had them on a tight leash with respect to funding and brand requirements; the game was a critical disappointment but a commercial success; Nickelodeon started listening to feedback and eased restrictions; Ludosity applied lessons learned and their increased budget for the DLC and sequel.
That growth and progression is the main thing to hold onto, since if you look at the game as it came out of the box without due context, it's bound to be a disappointment. I can see why this game has its mixed reputation, between rough animation (Danny Phantom and Ren & Stimpy in particular are animated pretty poorly), its initial lack of voice acting (easily the heart and soul of many of these characters), and its dry suite of modes. I do think, given what Ludosity had to work with, they focused on precisely the right thing by creating razor-sharp gameplay core. Not that it's exactly a crowded field, but this is probably the closest someone's come outside the indie space to challenging Super Smash Bros.' claim to the throne.
And I know that developer Thaddeus Crews has said that the endless Smash Bros. comparisons have been more harmful than not for Nick All-Stars. I can respect that, but I really must must make the comparison here to emphasize two things. First, this game had the scope of the original Smash Bros. but is mechanically in-line with the far more technically-sophisticated Melee; this aspiration impresses me far more than a given indie or passion project with theoretically infinite dev time and resources to secure the mechanical tone it was going for. Second, Nick All-Stars did Smash Bros. better than Sony did Smash Bros.
One thing I appreciate in crossover rosters is when character picks are creative. Conventional wisdom dictates that you pick main characters all the time, but Nick All-Stars is content to buck that trend. Your Rugrats character pull is in-universe mascot Reptar rather than any of the literal baby leads (although there would've been something cathartic about putting Angelica Pickles in the arena). None of the Wild Thornberries cast are fighters by nature, but Nigel Thornberry is given a silly animal-based moveset to complement his memetic status. Arnold of Hey Arnold! is pacifistic by nature, so violent deuteragonist Helga Pataki carries the series. Oblina is there over Ickis, April O'Neil is there over Donatello and Raphael, Toph is there over other more-prominent Avatar characters, etc. I think it's easy to fall into the trap of being disappointed that a given lead isn't there, but I dunno, it's a little more special to see fan favorites or variety. Hugh Neutron making the DLC felt like K. Rool and Banjo-Kazooie making it to Smash Bros. all over again. Anyway, character picks aren't idle inclusions; you have lots of careful little expressions of source material, like how Helga's projectile draws in opponents (appropriate for the character who only knows to express her feelings for others through aggression), or... basically everything my friends said here about CatDog.
There really was something special to watching this game grow. With Smash Bros. (that comparison again; I know, I know), each new game felt like Christmas, particularly in following its pre- and post-release cycle. I've resolved myself to accepting that the next Smash Bros., whenever it happens, won't feel the same; it can't, after Ultimate did something amazing that can never be done again. But suddenly, this game came out of the woodwork. It was a different developer working with a different ensemble towards different project goals, but damn if it didn't feel like Christmas in July.
That growth and progression is the main thing to hold onto, since if you look at the game as it came out of the box without due context, it's bound to be a disappointment. I can see why this game has its mixed reputation, between rough animation (Danny Phantom and Ren & Stimpy in particular are animated pretty poorly), its initial lack of voice acting (easily the heart and soul of many of these characters), and its dry suite of modes. I do think, given what Ludosity had to work with, they focused on precisely the right thing by creating razor-sharp gameplay core. Not that it's exactly a crowded field, but this is probably the closest someone's come outside the indie space to challenging Super Smash Bros.' claim to the throne.
And I know that developer Thaddeus Crews has said that the endless Smash Bros. comparisons have been more harmful than not for Nick All-Stars. I can respect that, but I really must must make the comparison here to emphasize two things. First, this game had the scope of the original Smash Bros. but is mechanically in-line with the far more technically-sophisticated Melee; this aspiration impresses me far more than a given indie or passion project with theoretically infinite dev time and resources to secure the mechanical tone it was going for. Second, Nick All-Stars did Smash Bros. better than Sony did Smash Bros.
One thing I appreciate in crossover rosters is when character picks are creative. Conventional wisdom dictates that you pick main characters all the time, but Nick All-Stars is content to buck that trend. Your Rugrats character pull is in-universe mascot Reptar rather than any of the literal baby leads (although there would've been something cathartic about putting Angelica Pickles in the arena). None of the Wild Thornberries cast are fighters by nature, but Nigel Thornberry is given a silly animal-based moveset to complement his memetic status. Arnold of Hey Arnold! is pacifistic by nature, so violent deuteragonist Helga Pataki carries the series. Oblina is there over Ickis, April O'Neil is there over Donatello and Raphael, Toph is there over other more-prominent Avatar characters, etc. I think it's easy to fall into the trap of being disappointed that a given lead isn't there, but I dunno, it's a little more special to see fan favorites or variety. Hugh Neutron making the DLC felt like K. Rool and Banjo-Kazooie making it to Smash Bros. all over again. Anyway, character picks aren't idle inclusions; you have lots of careful little expressions of source material, like how Helga's projectile draws in opponents (appropriate for the character who only knows to express her feelings for others through aggression), or... basically everything my friends said here about CatDog.
There really was something special to watching this game grow. With Smash Bros. (that comparison again; I know, I know), each new game felt like Christmas, particularly in following its pre- and post-release cycle. I've resolved myself to accepting that the next Smash Bros., whenever it happens, won't feel the same; it can't, after Ultimate did something amazing that can never be done again. But suddenly, this game came out of the woodwork. It was a different developer working with a different ensemble towards different project goals, but damn if it didn't feel like Christmas in July.