Review | Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl

LifeisXbox’s Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl review | Nintendo fans have been enjoying Super Smash Bros. for a while now. The game was, and still is, immensely popular because of its fast-paced gameplay and crossover characters. Getting to fight with all your favorite Nintendo characters proved to be an all-time winner so it’s actually curious that not more publishers have combined various franchises in look-a-like games. Enter Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, which, at first glance, basically looks like a Nickelodeon-themed knock-off. Developed by Ludosity and Fair Play Labs, and published by ‪GameMill Entertainment‬, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a platform fighter/brawler that might just be exactly what both older and younger kids want.

ℹ️ | Maui played Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl for 5 hours on Xbox Series X. This game is also available on Xbox One, Steam, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4/5.

What we liked!

• Cast of characters | In Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, we get a total of 20 characters that we can enter into fight-offs. Even though I’m hoping to see more characters in future DLCs, I think the first twenty choices were pretty good. I didn’t know all of them (I hadn’t even heard of some of them), but taking into account that I am currently 26 and don’t watch the newest Nickelodeon series anymore, that makes totally sense. Of course, we have Spongebob Squarepants present as the most well-known fighter of all, but Patrick and Sandy are found in the game as well. For Avatar fans, we have Aang, Toph, and Korra, while Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans can choose between Leonardo, Michelangelo, and April O’Neil. Besides these characters, we can also fight with Catdog, Lucy Loud, Danny Phantom, Helga, Powdered Toast Man, and a few more famous Nickelodeon characters. Each character has their own moves, and these moves usually correspondent with their personality or character in some way, which was fun to try out.
• Stages | Next to 20 playable characters, we get 20 playable stages. The Jellyfish Fields look bright and beautiful, while the Royal Woods Cemetry gives off some creepy vibes that are perfect around the Halloween days. We also have Ghost Zone, Western Air Temple, The Loud House, Showdown at Teeter Totter Gulch, and many more stages where battles can be held. It was really cool to recognize some of the stages and linking them to a specific character, even if I did not recognize everything. All stages were pretty simple, but still very enjoyable. Some had things popping up, while others had you constantly moving as not to fall off of a platform. Just as is the case with the characters, I’d love to see more stages added in future DLCs or patches, but as a start, it’s pretty neat!

Somewhere between

• Content | I didn’t think so when I first fired up the game, but it became clear pretty fast that the amount of content is fairly limited. There is a training mode, which is really helpful, and a how to play menu that explains the game perfectly. Next, there are three game modes. The first one, Battle, includes three options. In Stock Battle, you get a set number of lives. Whoever remains the last one standing, wins. You can adjust the number of lives, as well as the time limit, and battles can be played with up to four players. In Timed Battle, a timer counts down and whoever KO’s the most opponents, can call themself the winner. Lastly, there is a Sports Battle. Get the ball into the opponent’s goal and whoever gets the highest score, wins. Second, there is an Arcade mode, in which you have to get through seven stages with your champion of choice. You can pick a difficulty setting here, ranging from very easy to very hard, and best times per player are shown so you can constantly improve yourself if you wish to do so. I missed some sort of goal, mission or story in the Arcade mode, as I wasn’t really compelled to complete every character’s arcade run (except if you’re going after those achievements). The last mode is played Online, on which I’ll elaborate further down. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl also offers some extras like a gallery in which you can collect screensaver-like pictures, and a jukebox where tunes you’ve unlocked are kept. You can also consult the replays you’ve saved or take a look at each character their specific moves.
• Repetitive | I described the content offered by this game above, and you might think ‘hey Maui, this isn’t so bad, is it? That’s quite some content’. Well, no it’s not so bad, but it does tend to get repetitive quite fast. I think that’s in the nature of these types of games, but still, I believe that keeping this game interesting is very important and this didn’t really happen. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl will probably keep you busy for a few fights before you decide to end the game again, and probably return some other time. So, if you’re giving this one a game, remember that it might get repetitive and that this game is not meant to be enjoyed for sittings of several hours on end.

What we disliked

• Online mode | Competitive play, quick play, or enter online lobbies. Some pretty standard options are given in the online mode here. This online mode should be one of the main features of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, but it missed an opportunity here.The game released about a month ago and online servers have already died down, I’m afraid. I tried multiple times (at different hours) to find someone random to play with online and I was never successful. Being unable to play an online match, I had to look up if the online servers actually performed accordingly, and unfortunately, I’m going to have to give a lag warning here as well. Better stay in the Battle and Arcade modes, it seems.

How long to beat the story | There is no story.
How long to achieve 1000G | 8 to 10 hours
Similar with | Super Smash Bros.

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