Game #1140: Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl

  Everyone wants their own Smash clone.

 Smash clones tend to be mediocre at best and downright awful at worst, and yet.... somehow, I fell into the hype machine for Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl. I didn't watch a single video about the game, but I did read how Melee players were praising the game, so my interest was piqued only slightly so.

 Well... it's pretty barebones. The game is made up of two modes: Free Battles and Arcade. As with any other Smash clone, there are up to four fighters, and you must hit enemies to raise their damage percentage making them easier to knock out of the stage. There are 20 characters, and I kinda liked the roster. I knew it was decent when I read someone complaining about how they didn't recognize most characters like Oblina, and it's funny, because it's Oblina I know, but the new characters? Who are they? And that's what makes the roster so good: A nice mix of old and new. That said... Avatar, Spongebob and Ninja turtles gets three representatives each, and that's almost half the roster spent on only three franchises. Adding to how barebones it feels, there are no voices. I mean, understandable, getting back the voice actors could be costly... but no soundalikes? Not even grunts for getting hit? Before each Arcade Match, which has no story mind you, you get text with one-liners from each character.... but why? It's not voiced, there's no story and what characters' say is completely random, probably quips from their shows. And there's the fact that there are no alternate costumes or colors, which is ridiculous. I downloaded the update patch, and... fair enough, it adds Garfield and a single outfit to every character. But they are so lazy, most characters simply get a hat on top of their heads, Reptar gets a simple pink color swap. I mean, if costumes are gonna be this lazy just scrap them and give everyone four different color palettes referencing other characters from their shows, it's not that hard.

 I also felt like some of the character models are just ugly. Toph's pose looks so weird, and Korra's legs look even weirder. The stages, on the other hand, I felt were well made, they are visually distinct and offer interesting venues to fight in. What isn't very nice are the relatively long loading times, about 20 seconds before a match.

 Well, gameplay comes next. When it comes to Smash clones, I feel like it's the physics where most of these games get it wrong... and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl isn't the exception. The game just feels very floaty. Unlike Smash, there are not items, but there are stage hazards you' probably want to dodge.

 As for the fighting, there are three attack buttons: Weak, Strong and Special. It's quite unlike smash, there's no weak attack combo, just single attacks you can use repeatedly before knock-back pushes the enemy away, there are not tilts and not Smash Attacks. Instead, every character has nine different attacks on the air and on the ground, by coupling the Weak, Strong or Special attack buttons with up or down to change them. I'll be fair, as floaty as the game is... the engine allows for interesting combos to be made, so much so that I had fun a few times seeing the ground-to-air combos I managed to pull off, and landing a spike move, an attack that spikes the enemy straight to the bottom, felt SO good. So while I don't think the physics felt too good, I won't deny that it can be fun.

 When it comes to defensive options, there are no dodges, but you have a shield that can be timed for a parry.

 It's not completely awful, but man, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl feels very lacking in content. It needed more characters, it needed better extras, it needed alternate colors, it NEEDS voices. Considering Nickelodeon eventually churned out a sequel to their kart racer, I hope this game gets a sequel that adds more content and makes the physics feel nicer.

 5.0