Nickelodeon All Stars Brawl, the latest fighting game from Ludosity, can be summed up with one strong word: exciting. The game takes what you know and love about the fighting game formula and puts its own unique twist on the genre with unique and interesting mechanics and movement options, and to top it all off, features characters from your favorite childhood tv shows.
Nickelodeon All Stars Brawl is a platform fighter, similar to Super Smash Brothers or Rivals of Aether, but it is able to differentiate itself in significant ways. For starters, the options the player is given for movement, especially in the air, are almost infinite. Controlling a character in this game feels lightning quick compared to some of the other fighting games on the market currently, which makes the game feel even more unique.
Many might call this game a knock-off of Super Smash Brothers, but Ludosity has taken great care to make sure their game stands apart from its predecessors, while still feeling like a platform fighter. The hits look meaty, the movement fluid and simple, and the game is filled with the colorful and quirky pizzaz that Nickelodeon was and still is known for.
Speaking of Nickelodeon, the game would not be complete without its character roster. The game features all the classics many grew up with, such as Spongebob, Patrick, Danny Phantom, Aang and Korra. The game also features some of Nickelodeon’s newer characters, such as Lincoln and Lucy Loud. To round out the solid roster the game bolsters, there are some strange choices, such as Reptar and Powdered Toast Man, which help give the game some of the random silliness that Nickelodeon is known for. The roster is currently 20 strong, but the team has already confirmed there are more in development to be released soon.
Fighting against friends as your favorite Nickelodeon characters is obviously tons of fun, but it just feels like the game is missing something. Maybe it’s the lack of voice acting or the lack of battle modes the game has, but there’s a clear void in the game, likely cut due to development time or just wasn’t thought about.
A glimpse of some of the gameplay, featuring Patrick from Spongebob and the aforementioned odd player choice of Powdered Toast Man, with the battle map being the iconic setting of the Western Air Temple from Avatar, the Last Airbender.
The development team seems to be on top of things, however. Since the game was released, the developers have already pushed out two big updates for balancing and bug fixes, and there is more content soon on the horizon. So, in a few months, the game might look much more complete than the version we are playing right now.
The team also actively listens to the community and is supporting fighting game players with this release. There have already been many tournaments with large prize pools, and the netcode for the game is significantly better than some of their competitors.
Nickelodeon All Star Brawl is a fighting game to remember. It feels good to move, it feels exciting to get a kill with my favorite characters, and is overall a joy to play, and with a bit more polish on top, could easily become a mainstay in the fighting game world.
