Nickleodeon All-Star Brawl

 Whenever something is successful, there are going to be imitators. That's especially true of video games.

I think just about everyone that has ever picked up a video game controller has played or at least heard of Super Smash Bros. Honestly, I'm surprised it took someone until 1998 to think of the concept. A company takes the characters from its most famous IPs and shoehorns them into a fighting game, what's not to like? Smash Bros. was an instant success when it landed on the N64 and every time a new version of the game comes out, it's a major deal. One of the major factors that sets Smash appart from other fighting games is its accessibility. It's so incredibly easy to learn, each character's special moves are all performed the same way and they all get similar effects from their buttons. But it's tough to master, players have spent countless hours studying frame data and perfecting strategies for the strongest characters. Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Gamecube still has a thriving competitive scene and it's more than 20 years old. So yeah, there were bound to be imitators. In 2021, developers Ludosity and Fair Play Labs threw their hat in the platform fighter (someone else's term, not mine) with Nickleodeon All-Star Brawl.

Again, Nickelodeon is a name that needs no introduction, especially to 90's kids. I spent countless hours watching the network growing up and shows like Rugrats, Rocco's Modern Life and The Angry Beavers were must watch TV in my house. Now that I have kids of my own, I am always looking for stuff to play with them. They love playing Smash, so I figured an even more kid friendly version of the game would be right up their alley. At least I was right about that. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is certainly a fine distraction for young players. But for the older set? Yeah, it's still solid. It isn't Super Smash Bros., not even close. But it's a decent alternatively for those who don't own a Nintendo console or who don't want to shell out ridiculous amounts of money for copies of the Smash games. It's gameplay is familiar enough, almost too much so, and it's well designed with few technical flaws. However, it absolutely has that "ripoff of another game" feel to it. I never felt dissatisfied playing NASB, but I also always kind of felt like I'd rather be playing Smash instead. It's also lacking in content and kind of fails a bit in an area where it should have thrived: effectively providing a sense of nostalgia.

Look, relying exclusively on nostalgia to sell games isn't really something I think developers and publishers should be doing. I write about old games all the time, but nostalgia is only a small part of why I play what I play. But platform fighters in general are a haven for gamers who want to reach back into their past. Remember, Smash may be a big deal now, but when it was released, it relied heavily on nostalgia to move units. I mean, who has as many memorable and iconic characters as Nintendo? Not too many brands can say they do, but Nickelodeon is on that short list. And unfortunately, a huge amount of their iconic characters are not in this game. Why, why did they feel the need to include four characters from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? I know they are a Nick-owned IP now, but most people still don't think of them as such. They don't fit stylistically with just about any of the other franchises represented here and besides, they've already got their own tournament fighting game already. 

Some of this is just a matter of the characters being from after my time, I know Avatar, The Legend of Korra, Danny Phantom and The Loud House are big shows for Nick. But why is Helga in the game and not Arnold or Gerald? Why Oblina but no Ickus or Crum or Gromble? Ren and Stimpy are fine, but they included Powdered Toast Man? He wasn't even a tertiary character on that show (at least I thought so, I never really liked Ren and Stimpy), they may as well have included Log. Just Rocco? That series could have its own platform fighter, thrown in Heifer, Philbert, Dr. Hutchins, Peaches (P..P..Peaches? YES, Peaches!), the Hopping Hessian, the Bigheads, etc. Eliza Thornberry and Jimmy Neutron aren't here, but their dads are? I know some of the issues are rights related, I am pretty sure Disney now owns the rights to all the Doug characters, so I wasn't expecting them. But no Angry Beavers at all? Come on.  But the biggest, most eggregious omission is the complete and total lack of Rugrats characters. Reptar is the series' only representation and I don't understand why. Was it because they didn't want to have babies or children in a fighting scenario? Can't be because Helga is here and if my memory serves me correctly, she's in 4th grade at P.S. 118. And even then, you had the dads from Wild Thornberrys and Jimmy Neutron, so why not let Stu Pickles throw down? 

NASB really missed a golden opportunity for a full-fledged nostalgia bomb by choosing a relatively weak and borderline confusing roster.

Fortunately, the gameplay is strong enough on its own to carry the title. In case it wasn't apparent by now, NASB plays similarly to Super Smash Bros., with the object to push your opponent off screen. The higher you build their damage meter, the easier it gets. The stages have a variety of hazards to make that easier (or harder), and you can choose to play for best score within a time limit or have a set number of lives. Unlike it's more famous cousin, NASB has three attack buttons, light, strong and special. Light attacks are quick and easy to chain, strong attacks are used to launch your opponents and special attacks are special moves. Just like the other game I promise I will try to stop bringing up, each characters has four special attacks, a standard one and one each mapped to up, forward and down in conjunction with the special button. These can range from projectiles to lunge attacks, with just about every character having some way to improve their jumping. The controls are responsive and while it took me longer than it should have to get them down, everything made sense once I figured it out. The stage design is pretty creative, some are definitely stronger than others but there aren't any real stinkers. The graphics are good, the sound is good, NASB is certainly a well made game.

There were some attemps made to differentiate NASB from others of its genre and fortunately, they all work relatively well. You can strafe, which will prevent your character from turning around and allow you to apply continuous pressure to an enemy on one side of the arena. Pressure is important here, as successive hits will allow you to knock your enemy back over and over again. Even blocked hits will result in knockback. The tradeoff here is that blocked attacks don't do any damage. I kind of like this mechanic, it makes NASB stand out a bit and it makes pushing forward much more viable. The characters do seem pretty balanced, I wasn't really able to find one I thought was that much stronger than the others. I don't know what, if any, competitive scene exists around this game, but I can imagine its tier list would look very interesting.   

Aside from the lack of more iconic characters, I think the biggest frustration is the lack of consistency. It seems like the different types of attacks don't behave the same way every time. Sometimes your quick attacks will shut down the heavy ones while other times they won't. It's really hard to punish whiffed attacks, which is a key component of fighting games. A lot of the special moves are just not very good and a lot of them propel your characters across the screen with minimal control. Attacks like that are typically problematic in games like this. A lot of the jumping moves are also underwhelming and difficult to control. Most of the special attacks are pretty balanced, but a few of them are completely ridiculous. Garfield's pies are especially ridiculous. I also feel like some of the hitboxes, especially on the heavy attacks. I also think the stages are ridiculous. There is some inspired design here but there are also some completely stupid ones. The stage with the floating objects that you have to jump between is particularly awful.

Overall, NASB is a solid fighting game that's worth a playthrough for younger gamers. It does get pretty difficult on the highest levels, but its not nearly as bad as some other fighting games. It's cast was a little weak, but it still had some fun and memorable characters that all at least feel and play differently. Is NASB ever going to be a competitive fighting game? Probably not. Remember how fast MultiVersus came and went? But it was a good, fun distraction and something to play with little ones or less experienced fighting game players.

7/10