Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is a great overhauled fighting game with a bright future | REVIEW

WACO, Texas (KWTX) -

*Code provided by publisher

Have you ever wondered who would win between a half ghost – half human hybrid who is constantly struggling to hide his identity from his ghost hunting parents and a robot with the fighting capabilities of the U.S military and the emotional stability of a teenage girl? Well good news because Fair Play Labs and Ludosity are back with Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2. The follow up to the moderately successful 2021 party brawler was released on November 7th. With a variety of updates, new characters, new maps, and the addition of a semi rouge lite story mode. This game has enough to bring both casual and dedicated fans of the genre, despite punching above it’s weight class.

Nickelodeon has re-entered the arena of party brawlers with two years of experience and public feedback under its belt. After a somewhat rocky launch of the first game Fair play Labs and Ludosity fought to bring fans what they wanted. A brawl style game using titular and supporting characters from some of your favorite childhood cartoons such as Rokco from Rocko’s Modern life or Danny Fenton from Danny Phantom. You can find out who is the best avatar between Aang and Korra in a battle of skills in a 1v1 scenario. You can even have an all-out 4-person brawl to see who the best villain is between Plankton, Azula, Invader Zim, and Ember. With full access to Nickelodeons catalog of vastly different characters and shows you’re sure to find someone that you will enjoy playing with.

It would have been easy to put out a soulless, hollow, cash grab preying on the love and nostalgia many of us have for our favorite Saturday morning cartoons. The devs here, however, clearly grew up watching along with us. A fact demonstrated throughout the game’s design. From deep cut easter eggs to reviving beloved characters it’s apparent they wanted to deliver a game you could enjoy with the characters not just bland fighters wearing their skins. So, let’s address the elephant in the room, it is impossible to speak about this style of game without comparing it to Super Smash Bros. For better or worse Nintendo has dominated the market in party brawlers since Smash Bros hit the scene all the way back in 1999. Super Smash Bros. Practically invented the genre so of course many of the systems in place throughout this Nicktoons infused fighter are similar but FP Labs and Ludosity didn’t shy away from the challenge of making their game unique. While you will still find the basics like quick attacks, charged attacks, special moves, blocks, dodges etc. Etc. ASB 2 introduces a whole new system called the slime meter. A feature inspired by Nickelodeon’s love of absolutely destroying people with green, viscous slime. You build this aptly named meter by either taking or dealing damage. The slime meter has multiple uses ranging from simply powering up moves by increasing damage or range to increasing dodge distance or even canceling recovery at the end of moves to allow you to continue pummeling the competition. It honestly at times feels like you are breaking the game in the best way. If you manage to build up all three bars you can unleash your ultimate attack. Whether it’s Patrick smashing spiders with his house or Korra entering the avatar state every ultimate feels like it’s taken right from the shows they call home. While I can’t say that it is the best or tightest game mechanically, I can say it is well optimized and you will definitely have a blast if you get a few friends together for a few matches.

Now that we’ve talked a bit about what this game is let’s talk about what you will be playing. There is an offline battle mode where you can play with up to four people or bots locally. Don’t expect the bots to put up too much of a challenge though as level 9 bots are still simple to take out. An online battle mode is also available where you can play ranked or unranked battles. While unranked has a few options in 1v1s, 2v2s, or free for all. The ranked mode is exclusively 1v1 for those of us who like to play as competitively as possible. With a new game comes new game modes as well. This includes a story mode that for the most part is a lose stringing together of worlds that explains why all your favorite Nicktoons are together. This mode takes you on a short path with rouge like systems of upgrades and powerups where if you lose you start all over. These paths culminate in a small boss battle with some iconic characters like king jellyfish for SpongeBob. While nothing groundbreaking this mode gives you an intro to mechanics that will do a decent job of teaching you the systems in place. Now if you really want to get into learning the ins and outs of this game the new training mode is honestly amazing. With options allowing you to not only see damage but also launch angles, hitboxes, and much more, this game has one of the most robust training modes I’ve seen in a fighter.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is a refreshing take on the party brawl style gameplay. With a simple control scheme easy enough for younger or newer players to tackle and a robust system that allows more competitive players to kick it up a notch for bragging rights. It’s fair to say there’s a little bit of something for everyone here. The price point may be a little high sitting at 50 $ as of now but if this is a style of game you enjoy there is plenty of meat to the game with DLC already announced to be released shortly. I give this game 7 out of 10 buckets of slime. So if you’re ready to slime the competition in a solid smash bros option for those not on a Nintendo system then pick this one. For Hardwired I’ve been Alex Richardson.

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