Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is expected to arrive next month on the Switch according to a Nintendo listing, and ahead of release publisher GameMill Entertainment has been sharing various video exclusives with IGN.
In the latest series of clips, we've got a closer look at the game's fighting mechanics - including how damage works and the different types of moves on offer. It's very similar to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with percentages building up as characters are knocked around the arena.
The following video is a four-player arena brawl featuring Spongebob, Leonardo, Patrick, and April. And following this are two 1v1 matches - showing off some more complex fights.
It's all looking very promising. The only complaint from Nickelodeon fans so far seems to be that there's no voice work. With any luck, something like this could be patched in later down the line, if there is enough demand for it.
What are your own impressions of this Nick brawler so far? Will you be checking it out when it arrives on the Nintendo Switch? Leave a comment down below.
[source youtube.com, via nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 33
Gameplay-wise, it looks fantastic, though watching just plain footage of battles does make it easier to understand the criticisms regarding the game's presentation. I absolutely don't blame the developers for it, I'm sure Nick simply didn't want to give them a big budget. That being said, the lack of even simple grunts when a character takes damage does make the game look and sound a little bit off. Ideally, they'd get full voice acting, though I don't know how feasible that is given how some of these shows are 20+ years old now. The seemingly generic music is also a bit of a let-down. I'm still looking forward to the game, but given how packed October already is (assuming it releases that month like the eShop originally said it would), I'll probably have to hold off on it for a little bit.
It really just kind of feels like someone copying Smash, but making it look a bit worse and adding Nick characters for the fighters. The music in the Avatar stage sounds horrid and repetitive, when they should've used actual music from the show, or remixed the songs from the show.
I want the raw thrills ninja turtle arcade game. But this will do.
I'm impressed that the mechanics are actually unique compared to Slap City. Slap City had one Air Strong attack and had Smash-style guarding, but Nick All-Stars seems to be doing its own unique thing, and I find that great!
Eek, might just be my opinion but this looks pretty bad compared to what I thought it'd be, its just smash but with worse graphics, music, audio, moves, characters, and no voices like whaaaa? They could at least add voices and cooler/more stand-out moves, it just seems very bland atm, looks to me like a 25-30 dollar game not 50-60
I was surprised to see the game have a lot of depth, my optimism increased alot compared to when I first saw the reveal trailer.
My only criticisms are
-No voice acting
-Presentation looks off a bit (this can be ignored as long as the game is fun)
-Animations seem a bit stiff
-Music and Sound effects kind sub par
-No El Tigre or Jenny (XJ9)
Other than that I can see this game succeeding.
I think the game is amazing as long as you don't compare it to smash, Now if you did, welllllll.
(Also The musics sucks!)
I agree with a lot of what's been said. I do understand the developers may not have been given the big budget on it. For one thing, the mechanics seem well-developed, and most important, fun to play.
On the Audio Side...
One solution I can see is to just to re-use and touch-up some older voice work / music from the shows years of history. Create, combine, or make new sound effects for the general hits. Some of the sound effects sound just a bit too silly and not crunchy enough.
Hopefully, if this sells well enough, that either a voice / music DLC or a sequel can bring in the audio we need to bring this to the next level.
I take it back, this isn't overhyped shovelware, CATDOG SCHMOOVIN 10/10
Imagine if Smash Bros. had no music from the source titles and no voice acting for the characters.
To be fair, those 3D models did great for so many old flat cartoons
Really wished games like these would have more effort put into them...we could have plenty of awesome Smash-like games that use famous cartoon characters, but...nope...it always ends up being super boring or bad in some way.
Wait no voice acting???? Can't they just reuse voives from their original shows. I know it'd be expensive, but come on
@Snatcher I'm going to compare because I'm a Nintendo Fan Boy to the end of the world.
@Joeynator3000
The lack of voice acting kills it for me. It feels rather soulless as a result.
It definitely lacks the soul of smash bros but I wouldn’t expect it to. It’d be hard to get the voice work for each of these characters. Without the grunts and groans it just calls more attention to the bland music.
No voices is a real loss for me also.
Aside from the no voices... Everything else looks really good! Pretty excited to see the rest of the characters!
Hopefully with many people saying that the audio needs voice lines, we get an updated later down the line.
@Poodlestargenerica Because Nick hired this team to make a game with their licenses. It's made by a talented indie team, but Nick is where a lot of the funding comes from. If Nick cheaps out and doesn't give them enough money to pay voice actors/musicians, then the developers can't do anything about that.
Looks good, the percentage number could be bigger, but man, no voice acting? I mean, they literally have all the sound clips available from the cartoons and they didn’t use them? I hope they correct that, but don’t think they will, a huge missed opportunity.
Seeing games like this makes you appreciate more what Nintendo has done with the smash franchise.
@JeanPaul
Yeah. Every single character in Smash Bros shows off personality in some form whether they speak or don't speak. From the overconfident Ken to the cold, cunning Sephiroth. From the happy-go-lucky Min Min to the timid, relaxed Luigi. From the bold, yet ruthless Ike to the devilishly devious Wolf. Everyone shows who they are with their animations AND sound design.
One of my favorite lines is actually Chrom's "Sorry!" when he gets KO'd. It's as if he's apologizing to the player which fits his clumsy, yet well-meaning demeanor he shows towards Robin and Lissa in Fire Emblem Awakening.
Even characters who don't speak like Pac-Man, King K. Rool, Isabelle, Ridley, and Kirby have personality thanks to their animations.
This game is just...nowhere close to what Nintendo accomplished. The way Smash Bros brings every character to life is seriously underrated.
TBH I think this looks on-par with Smash and possibly even better. A bigger, flashier, more polished game does not inherently mean a better game - watch MK8D and CTRNF side-by-side and Mario takes an easy crown, play CTR after a round of Mario Kart and the marsupial underdog comes out on top by an even bigger landslide.
@Noid Yeah, this game is winning me over on depth alone. The lack of voice acting is a shame, but it's the gameplay that matters most here.
The voice acting is a bummer, I don't think it will be patched later though as it's likely only missing due to complicated and expensive contracts. Nickelodeon don't own the voices in the same way they own the characters, and unless the contracts with those vocie actors for that character explicitly gave Nickelodeon permission to use those voice clips elsewhere they may not be able too. And re-casting for a side/other project like this could cause a lot of issues and legal problems with the voice actors guild.
Smash Bros character voice contracts will be for video games so adding them there is probably much less an issue, it's likely most of these contracts will be for animation specifically. Though of course there are several who have had video games elsewhere, so some may indeed be legally ok to have voices but having some with and some without would be weirder than having none at all maybe?
I'm not sure what to think of those grabs and attacks to reflect projectiles, though.
This looks like it might be fun to play, but onthe other hand, it might end up being like TMNT Smash-Up (remember that one?), which in some areas was better than Brawl, but it wasn't as fun as the Smash Bros. at the time.
Patch in voice work? Haha oh man..good one.
@tekoii Too bad it's not that easy. I watch Jhonen Vasquez (creator of Invader Zim) stream all the time, and you can tell he's not thrilled with it all when it's brought up but must remain silent as he's getting paid for Zim being in it, especially with no voices (voice actor for Zim has been on his streams and said they both said Nick didn't reach out to them at all for neither input or voice acting.)
Looks and sounds bland as can be from those trailers though.
I just hope this becomes big enough for a sequel. We need more platform fighters with bigger IP in it, not just indie ones. I know it's hard to compete with Smash Bros' 20 year history, a game that has characters from the last 40 YEARS! I'm glad that Ludosity got a chance to work with these characters and I'm excited to play this myself.
I didn’t realize there weren’t even pain sounds or yells. Will wait until this is on sale.
It’s not a deal breaker as I play the power rangers fighting game with no sound (so i can pretend it’s a super sentai game since I haven’t seen power rangers since the first movie-which was so bad it put me off the franchise). Just not a day one purchase though.
@UglyCasanova Dang that part about Invader Zim's creator is pretty wild. I can imagine how much it would suck to see it. I understand maybe the voice work and stuff like that being hard to do, but its just a shame they didn't recycle something in the years of these shows runtime into it. I think though that the game still looks rather solid and fun to play, just an absolute nightmare in the audio department.
@EarthboundBenjy
Slap City's unique mechanic is the clutch system. The movesets also have fresh ideas, and even just games with Melee-esque movement and combo potential needed to exist in greater numbers.
i think they might be better off adding Spongebob Squarepants to super smash brothers. one of his attacks could be throwing crabby patties at his enemies, or whacking them with a spatula...lol
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl does needs a lot of modes especially a mode that makes trophies out of the characters in the Nickelodeon universe describing the trophy if you know what I mean.
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