With Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, Nickelodeon attempted to create one of these crossover platform fighters, and now there is a sequel, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2.
The simple idea of several different characters from different series coming together is extremely fascinating. Usually, in media, it’s a simple crossover with one other franchise, but in something like the Super Smash Bros. series, multiple worlds collide for their games. Even then, Smash Bros. had a game style that was its own unless you looked at the several games that have copied it, like Multiverses, Brawlhalla, or PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.
In 2021, Nickelodeon even tried to make one of these cross-over platform fighters in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, and now there’s a sequel to that game in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2. In a way, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 feels like an upgraded version of the first game rather than a full-on sequel. The first game also went through a lot of changes itself, so this game coming out so quickly after is a bit of a surprise, especially given how it took a long time for some aspects to be added to the first game. This factor is where a lot of the game’s more disappointing aspects come into play, especially when looking at the roster.
As much as Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 seems like a glow-up rather than a sequel, there was a lot that changed in the game, making the development less of a growing structure and more of a rebuild from the original game. That means the first thing a lot of players will notice is the changes in the roster. There are more obvious cuts, like Leonardo and Michelangelo, in favor of the other turtles, Raphael and Donatello. But there are stranger character removals like Lincoln Loud, despite his sister Lucy Loud remaining on the roster, or fan favorites like Toph or Hugh Neutron.
For a lot of fighting games, the roster of characters is not only the identity of the game but also the main factor in a lot of players’ enjoyment. So, in turn, these strange cuts could turn away some fans. However, as strange as some of these changes are, they’re all for the sake of the game developers and the quality of the game. There is always a reason for a change, like a character removal, and in this case, those characters simply weren’t the priority. That won’t change the fact that there will certainly be fans who are upset about cuts or characters missing out on the roster. Big missing names are usually due to those mentioned priorities or legal issues.
Staying on the topic of characters, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 has tweaked up the characters quite a bit here to give them much more diverse move-sets, all while keeping the move-sets heavily based on references. So someone picking a character like El Tigre just based on liking his character in the cartoon is going to have fun because his moveset is inspired by moments in the cartoon. The same goes for all of the characters, as characters like Garfield and Spongebob will even have memes incorporated into their attacks. Those references breathe a lot of life into these characters and make it worth exploring each option the character select screen has to offer.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 doesn’t just focus on the casual audience, as the dev team knows some fans want a much more technical-based game. There are several tools in the game to look at more in-depth elements like frame data and hitboxes. This allows those who wish to take things to a competitive level to analyze the tools that they are left with in order to optimize different types of strategies.
In terms of presentation, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is about on par with what is expected from licensed games, if not above the standard. Licensed games have gotten way past their completely bad reputation they used to have in the PlayStation 2 and Wii eras and are now usually just good unless a larger company produces them. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is clearly in a spot where they are making the game for more than just a quick cash grab, as there is an actual following to the style of game that it is.
The music in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is pretty good, all things considered. While the main theme will get repetitive as it is played in a lot of spots and has a rather generic feeling, the other tunes in the game, such as the stage themes, are pretty good and fit in well with their given aesthetic. A stage representing Jimmy Neutron will have a song that sounds like it would be from that show, and the same goes for all of the stages.
Continuing the theming on audio, there is a lot of voice acting present in the game; for the most part, it is all done greatly. This makes sense, given how popular some of these characters are, and having them sound off would be a large distraction. That being said, there are a few exceptions that sound very off, especially GIR. While GIR isn’t playable, he shows up throughout the game, and fans of Invader Zim will be caught off guard when it sounds horrible. In the same vein, sometimes it seems like the voice direction may be a bit off, as well as the lines spoken by some characters like Korra or Donatello.
The visuals are where Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 can be a bit dicey. From a glance, everything looks very nice, and some of the models look very good for characters like Aang or Jimmy Neutron. However, there are some characters that try to emulate the way they looked in their 2D cartoons, and it doesn’t translate to absolute perfection, but it is hardly a distraction when the game is actually being played and is only really noticeable from viewing the game whilst not playing.
Several animations don’t look quite finished. In some cases, like in attack animations, it is likely just due to how the gameplay goes about outputting attacks and can easily be excused. But then there are some stage animations or special attack animations that just look unfinished. Namely, Jenny and Reptar have special attack animations that needed a bit more time in the oven to polish up their appearances. During special attacks, the enemy also noticeably just stands there with their idle animation playing.
As mentioned, the stages also have some pretty lackluster animations. Most of the time, the animations that happen in the background are very nicely animated and add to the visual flair of the stages. It is more so the interactable elements that have issues with the stages. Most of the time, it is simply a stiff animation, like stage elements shifting into view. Otherwise, it is sometimes not just a visual issue, and sometimes elements like the geometry of the stage don’t quite work. Namely, elements on the laboratory stage are intractable under the stage’s main platform despite not loading in yet.
In what is a big twist, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 has a rouge-like mode in which the player goes through a series of levels before fighting a final boss. This mode is treated as a story mode where Clockwork from the Danny Phantom series pulls together heroes from other worlds before Vlad Plasmius, also from the Danny Phantom series, can destroy it all. It is in this mode where a lot of the references outside of character move sets will be found with nonplayable characters showing up.
The story mode is by far the highlight of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, as there is a lot to be explored here. It is a great place to explore character move sets and learn how they play as you slowly unlock fighters in this mode rather than starting with the whole roster. Different forms of fights happen as well, such as wave battles and boss battles, on top of the already engaging one-on-one fights. These extra battle types are rather polished, as the enemies in both have really well-done animations for how little screen time they have overall.
The best parts of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 come from the fan service and the surprisingly fun story mode. This is something that a game series like Smash Bros. lacks. In Smash, there is almost zero interaction between the characters, and while what is here is minimal, it is still more than what the Smash series has offered since Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Not to say that this suddenly makes the game more fun than Smash; it is just to say that despite being an obvious copy of the Nintendo franchise, it still got something right that the other series struggled with.
The biggest thing about Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is that it cannot separate itself from its competitors. In a lot of ways, it is just a matter of quality, but it also doesn’t help that the Smash Bros. series has been around a lot longer than the Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl series has been. It also doesn’t help that the source material for Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is all from kids’ shows, whereas something like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has characters like Joker or Snake that pull from more mature titles that heavily stretch that fan base.
In the long run, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 has a lot to offer, and with the promise of DLC later down the line, that time the game has in the spotlight will be stretched out. It is just a shame they promise paid DLC before the team has even begun to polish a lot of the rough spots with the game. But seeing how much changed about the first game allowed for that game to completely reform itself, so here’s hoping that the same happens here, although it has way less to fix than the first title did a couple of years ago.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is a fun game, but it won’t have that much of an impact, unlike its competitors. As mentioned previously, the element of DLC will probably help its lifespan, but it is very unlikely that we will ever see Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 show up at a large event like EVO. Going into the future of the series, it is quite clear what the team should really focus on.
Rather than being so focused on the competitive scene, focusing on the interactions between the different characters and series would be the big element that they could ring in on. Seeing all of these characters talk to each other and share an experience is the most interesting part of the game, and the way the team approached the story mode allows for a lot of replay value.
