Review: NICKELODEON ALL-STAR BRAWL Has a Good Skeleton That Needs A Lot More Meat and Polish
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl was recently released by Ludosity, Fair Play Labs, and GameMill Entertainment. The game is very similar to the popular Super Smash Bros. franchise but features iconic Nickelodeon characters like Spongebob Squarepants, Danny Phantom, CatDog, Aang, and two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. GameMill was kind enough to supply me with a copy of the game on Xbox Series X|S, but you can also play the game on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox One.
The idea for the game is awesome. Nickelodeon characters having an all-out brawl to assert their dominance. They even have a pretty diverse roster that covers a variety of shows that fans of Nickelodeon will recognize. Visually, the game looks good as well. Everything comes together to create a package that looks enticing. Sadly, we run into problems as we start to really dive deeper into the game.
For starters, as I played I noticed that during a 4-person match the frame-rate would drop on occasion providing a less than smooth experience and a suboptimal experience in a fast-paced brawling game. In addition, the game sounds empty. There are no voices other than the announcer and the music feels pretty generic. I don’t think there are any tracks from the shows that they represent either. This means that while the game looks like a fun experience, it sounds hollow and soulless.
Also, the lack of cross-play really bums me out. We’re getting to a point where more and more games have this feature and when a big party game like this is released, it’s sad that it’s not cross-play compatible. I hope that’s something they implement in the near future. Another aspect that some people won’t care about is that there are no items. I know that “real” players don’t use items, but some of us really enjoy having them. You could have the Fenton Thermos or wield Tommy’s rattle or something. Items can add more fun to the game, but they’re lacking here. The final big complaint is that you have to reset CPU characters after every round. This is just a simple quality of life feature that can really help. Especially when your child keeps wanting to play against level 1 CPUs.
The nice thing about all of my aforementioned problems is that they can all be addressed and patched in. I just hope that some of these, like the music and voices, are patched in sooner rather than later.
The controls do take some getting used to as you cannot press up to jump and there are three attack buttons to utilize. This isn’t a complaint, it’s just something to take into account. You’ll have to take a little bit of time to adjust to the layout.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl does offer a unique game mode called Sport. In this mode, there’s a soccer ball that your team is trying to get into the opposing team’s goal by hitting it. It’s a fun mode albeit I struggle with it quite a bit.
Overall, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl looks like a lot of fun and has a lot of potential. The gameplay itself is fun. However, the game has some areas that definitely need improvement in order to really maintain hype and keep the game going. I hope they address at least some of the aspects that I didn’t like and I hope they continue to support the game and add new characters. I’d love to see the guys from Rocket Power, My Life as a Teenage Robot, or Chalk Zone make their way into the game.
