Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl

My first hour with Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl was genuinely surprising, and not in the way the skeptic in me expected. The fighting feels good. Snappy, responsive controls, a three-tier attack system built around light hits, heavy hits, and specials (each with directional variants), plus competitive-minded mechanics like wavedashing and mid-air grabs that go a step further than the game it obviously adores. Ludosity came from making Slap City, and that pedigree shows the moment you start landing combos with CatDog or sending Reptar careening off a Rugrats-themed stage. For players who want a mechanically layered platform fighter and do not own a Switch, this is a legitimate option. The roster spans a genuinely impressive slice of Nickelodeon history. You get the obvious picks, SpongeBob and Patrick, the Ninja Turtles, Invader Zim, Korra, but also some inspired choices like Nigel Thornberry and Ren and Stimpy. Each fighter has a distinct move set drawn from their cartoon identity, and the 20-plus characters across 17 franchises give you enough variety to find a main you actually enjoy playing. The stages, themed to each show, are colorful and varied enough that some feature multiple platforms and moving elements to keep fights interesting. Here is where it gets uncomfortable, though. Strip away the Nickelodeon branding and what you have is a skeleton of a game. There is no story mode, no unlockable costumes at launch, no voice acting from any of the characters, and no licensed music from the shows. The single-player arcade mode is seven fights against randomized CPU opponents that unlock a handful of gallery images. That is it. For a licensed product built on decades of beloved cartoons, the absence of any real fan-service depth is baffling. No Nigel yelling "SMASHING". No SpongeBob theme. Nothing. The PC version at least gained community-made voice mods almost immediately after launch, and official alternate costumes arrived post-launch via free update, but the bare-bones release left a sour taste that the Mixed Steam rating reflects pretty accurately. Online play tells a similarly complicated story. The rollback netcode is a genuine achievement for a budget licensed release, and when connections cooperate the matches run smoothly. But the online player base thinned out fast, and finding matches became increasingly difficult well before a sequel arrived in 2023. Local multiplayer with up to four players is where this game actually lives. Get three friends in a room who have any nostalgia for 90s and early 2000s Nickelodeon, and the rough edges soften considerably. As a casual party brawler it works. As the competitive Smash alternative Ludosity clearly intended, it never quite got the sustained community to prove the concept. If you want a technically competent platform fighter with a fun Nicktoons cast and you have people to play it with locally, there is real enjoyment here. Solo players or anyone expecting the content depth of a fully supported live title will bounce off it fast. The sequel addressed many of these complaints, so if you are coming to this fresh in 2025, that might be the smarter entry point.

Alex · Scout Team

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