Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl Reviews
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl reminds me of the popular maxim, fast, cheap, or good? Pick two. Just with different options and only one choice. It’s clear Ludosity did the best they could, honestly, there is no denying good gameplay would beat out voices, a bad story, or a number of other things, it just doesn’t make for a great experience.
Nickelodeon All-Stars Brawl might even be an interesting alternative to people who like competitive platform fighters, but as a videogame it's clearly a waste of potential. Luckily, Ludosity has a good history and seems to be listening to fans feedback in order to make constant updates to make the game better. However, at the time of this review, the title still offers a shallow experience for any players who aren't interested in the competitive scene.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a project that exudes everywhere the passion of its developers for extremely competitive platform fighters, especially those from Super Smash Bros., and the ambition to create their own work that reflects this feeling and makes it evident to the eyes from an audience with a similar taste. The game works perfectly well for hardcore gamers, who are looking to competitively improve themselves in high-tech, fast-paced battles, but it's not recommended for those who just want chaotic and uncompromising smackdown fun.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a fun premise that is performed mildly, missing out on the complexity of its inspiration and resulting in a shorter replay value.
Although I was impressed by how solid its gameplay is, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl still feels like a hollow experience that could have been elevated to new heights if it featured additional modes and a more fleshed-out presentation complete with voice acting.
A mechanically solid and fun Super Smash Bros. clone which doesn't have the style, personality or affection for its characters to reach the heights of its inspiration.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl simply feels like a barebones platform fighter. Combat is pretty decent, but there’s just so little surrounding it. The game’s greatest sin is how little it leans into the over-the-top zaniness that is Nickelodeon and its extensive history of memorable characters and moments. It lacks identity while being based on some of the most unique entertainment properties of the past few decades.
Any Nickelodeon fan could easily name off a dozen or so characters notably absent from the game’s roster – as a TMNT fan, the lack of Raphel, Donatello, and the expansive list of their villains, such as Shredder, Bebop, Rocksteady, and more, is a big disappointment. I imagine we’ll get some DLC in the future, in fact, there have already been some rumours about who might be included. My only hope is that they’ll provide new stages in addition to new characters. If you’re finally bored of Smash Bros. Ultimate and need a similar alternative, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl might scratch that itch, but just barely.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a fun fighter that still requires some fine-tuning. Outside of the fun combat, the game really falls short with dull unlockables and the lack of voiceovers that were really needed. The developers do have a strong foundation for a great follow up game.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a must-play for the hardcore, but doesn't look after casual audiences.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a great Smash clone that painfully underutilizes its Nickelodeon license, to its own detriment. Lacking some of Nick's biggest characters, franchises, and environments, absolutely no voice lines whatsoever, and all wrapped up in a rather unimpressive package, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a good concept, and one of the best Smash-alikes to come along in the last 20 years. But it really needs a stronger presentation and more thorough use of its namesake license to earn a better foothold as a mainstay character brawler.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a great idea with some powerful nostalgia and a winning formula behind it, but the execution is lacking. With lackluster aesthetics, spotty online issues, and a host of other issues, it's not a great experience for those accustomed to highly polished alternatives, namely, Super Smash Bros. I believe it will find its audience, but it doesn't straddle the line between casual and competitive as effectively as the original Nick cartoons seamlessly wove adult jokes into children's shows. Ultimately, the idea may be more exciting than playing the actual game.
There's a good skeleton to Nickelodeon All-Stars Brawl. The fighting is fast and extremely deep, despite having only one more attack button over the Super Smash Bros. series. For pro-type players who always play without items and can quickly master the game's nuances, this is excellent. However, the presentation is as basic as the game's modes, and the lack of anything that provides more of a Nickelodeon "feel" (e.g., voices and music) makes the whole thing feel rather cheap. While the online performance can be good, it doesn't matter much if there's no community behind it. The game is a contender, but some serious effort in more than a few areas needs to be done if Nickelodeon All-Stars Brawl or a potential sequel wants to be taken more seriously.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is, well, fine. It will provide a good few hours of harmless fun and raise more than a few smiles in the nostalgia sector of the cortex as Reptar beats on April O'Neil. Underneath that initial sheen however is nothing of real interest. Thankfully, support seems to be very much active and maybe the initial issues will be focused on to provide a more well-rounded, in-depth experience. For now, though, the shadow of its inspiration looms heavy and ensures that this will not be challenging for any place in the top tier of party'esque fighters for some time.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl has the potential to be great, it just doesn’t quite reach that level. What’s there is pretty good, but the lack of polish and small amount of content makes All-Star Brawl fall short of the excellent party fighter that it could be. Hopefully, the devs continue to support the game and polish it as time goes on, as it could be a diamond in the rough given a bit more time in the oven.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl doesn’t bring anything new to the table, instead offering a certainly competent if not hugely exciting brawler with a confusing roster of characters cynically chopped up seemingly for future monetisation and very little to actually fight for in terms of unlockables for the fans. The fundamentals are here, and the Sports modes are terrific fun, but there isn’t much else to get too excited about when the content included is this lacking.
There's a lot to like here, even if there's plenty of room for improvement. It's far from esports ready, but it does feel like a solid first step for a great new franchise.
Nickelodeon All Star Brawl feels like a bit of an underbaked experience. Some matches feel like they have an incredible, speedy fluidity to them, so there’s clearly something interesting there, but it definitely needs some touching up to make it feel more balanced.
A fleshed out Nicktoons cast come together for a big brawl that leaves a lot to be desired.
Yes, the sheer hilarity of seeing Patrick Star beat up CatDog is still funny, but I don't think the lifespan of this game will increase over time. Watching all these fighters silently duke it out makes it feel like we're watching storyboards for a singular crossover episode. While that may entice you into watching the commercials, the final product just leaves all these popular properties feel compromised.