Slime time.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl was an idea that was full of untapped and unrealized potential. The Nickelodeon brand has a wealth of impressive characters, many of which have been well-known for decades. And given the success of Smash Bros, the idea of pitting these very characters against one another seemed like a no-brainer. While All-Star Brawl made good on certain elements of that concept, it launched in a state that felt devoid of the personality of its roster, a game that was by all accounts bland, boring, and soulless.
So when it was announced that All-Star Brawl 2 would release just a short two years later, I was skeptical if Fair Play Labs and Ludosity could pull it off, especially given it was rebuilt from the ground up. After spending a few hours with All-Star Brawl 2, not only is it a vastly better experience, from its gameplay to its use of its characters, it is a better game in nearly every single way. Now that said, I personally feel that this game would have been an uncontested home run had its roster been significantly beefier and filled with a few more mainstays, especially as several secondary characters represent their brand instead of their own respective stars.
Part of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl’s charm is how easy it is to pick up and play. While you have the options for prepping a shield to brace for an attack, dodging incoming strikes to throwing your opponent, All-Star Brawl engages its combat through light attacks, charge attacks, and special attacks, all pulled off with their own respective buttons. And instead of pushing up on the analog stick to jump, Brawl has its own dedicated jump button, making the appeal of aerial attacks and defenses to be more manageable for new players. All in all, Brawl played well enough for what it was attempting to do.
New to Brawl 2 are Slime Moves. This new system operates almost identically to that of EX bars in Street Fighter and Super Meter in Mortal Kombat. As you give or take damage, you’ll charge up three green bars, which disappointingly don’t really have any sort of slime aesthetic to match the name. Nonetheless, filling this bar allows you to change how certain attacks work as well as unleash a devastating ultimate attack. Each segment of the bar allows you to power up each attack in your arsenal, you merely have to press LT plus the corresponding attack button to pull it off. This slime system can make your charge attacks so powerful that you can end most matches as you hit them into the next galaxy over.
The Slime system can also benefit you in other ways that really make it a simple yet flexible system across all offensive and defensive moves. You can spend slime while blocking to avoid losing any shield health as well as triggering this combination while you are sent flying as it will halt all your momentum and likely save you from losing a match. You can also perform Slime Cancels in order to interrupt your current move. This is achieved by pressing and releasing the Slime button while performing an attack. While its implementation in standard fighting games isn’t new, its inclusion in the platform fighter is a new one and I’m sure we will see many others bring this feature to their own respective titles soon.
Now, all the best mechanics in the world won’t save a fighter if the roster isn’t itself also impressive. While your mileage will always vary on this sort of thing, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 made some decent additions albeit with some questionable cuts. Out of the 25 available fighters at launch, 14 return from the first game, making 11 of its current roster brand-new additions. Some of the returning cast includes April O’Neil, SpongeBob, Patrick, Korra, Aang, and Ren and Stimpy. Noticeable cuts made to the roster are in the form of Sandy Cheeks, Oblina, Mr. Krabs, Zuko, Lincoln Loud, Helga, and worst of all, Leonardo and Michaelangelo, who are swapped here for Donatello and Raphael instead.
While removing these characters was likely a time crunch to get the game to ship for this holiday season, It’s a shame that more mainstays of certain Nickelodeon brands were not represented here. Rugrats again only has representation in Reptar, and Arnold of Hey Arnold! is another miss for the series, which for some weird reason, we have not just Gerald, but Grandma Gertie as well. Still, we do have some solid additions in Ember from Danny Phantom who easily became my main, as well as El Tigre and Garfield, with the latter being DLC for the original game. It’s also a shame we don’t have Odie as his is modeled and present in Garfield’s home stage.
While DLC is set to release in the foreseeable future, I would have been really impressed if the roster had been a solid 30 with the inclusion of more heavy hitters like the aforementioned Arnold, Rugrats, Doug, and even swapping out the TMNT cast with their latest movie versions or the addition of characters like Krang, Splinter, or Casey Jones, given the later would be a solid melee option with his hockey stick. While Shredder is present in the game, as well as a handful of other cut characters, Shredder has been regulated to being just a boss character, complete with a shortlist of moves, making them a character that just wouldn’t work as a playable option.
What makes the roster impressive here is that Fair Play Labs went back to basics on every single character. Each fighter plays far better than the previous game, making them feel more unique and reflective of their individual properties. What is even more impressive is that the entire cast is fully voiced this time around, with exclusive conversations throughout the game based on the relationship between those conversing. It really allows this cast to benefit from each other, making the roster feel genuinely connected as well as hearing some of the original folk behind the mic.
One of my criticisms of the first game was the lack of anything more than traditional versus game modes. Its bare minimum modes to tick a certain box on the back of the game case felt hollow and unsatisfying, especially given the repeated text-only dialogue and a complete lack of personality on anything the game offered. Honestly, it felt miserable at times. That said, All-Star Brawl 2 is a night and day difference with far more depth and personality in a single screen than the entirety of its predecessor. Not only is there a satisfying arcade mode and decent online offerings, but we finally have a complete single-player story mode that handles its cast rather well.
The Campaign mode leans heavily into Danny Phantom territory with the show’s central antagonist, Vlad Plasmius, being the central villain here. We also have Clockwork as well, watching over the universe that seems destined to be destroyed by Vlad’s plans. He uses his abilities to summon SpongeBob and the rest of the cast as a means to stop Vlad from succeeding. While I am not well versed in Danny Phantom, It’s a smart choice to use existing characters as opposed to creating something unique for the game that may not work well to honor to brand. You also get some very interesting dialogue between Danny, Clockwork, Ember, and Vlad, that help sell the threat being personal to them.
The campaign itself is a roguelite that sees you making progress toward reaching Vlad and stopping him for good. You’ll actually reach Vlad several times, always being one step away from victory. This allows the mode to continue on well past your first complete run. Like the arcade mode, you’ll push through a choose-your-path system where you can take on various challenges, battles, and shops, on your path to the nearest boss. From the Wilderness to the streets of Metropolis (not that one), to Outerspace, the three stages each end with a boss such as the Flying Dutchman, Shredder, Sartana of the Dead, King Jellyfish, as well as one that I won’t mention. These battles are not too difficult, but on the hardest difficulty, each attack can almost send you reeling.
Each run is about a few things; fighting members of the roster to remove their brainwashing and bring them to your side, and earning the two types of currency needed to purchase perks as well as the slots to equip more. While there is a third currency, it is only usable during your run to purchase additional skills that I’ll get into shortly. When you have succeeded in completing a current run or you lose all of your stock lives, you’ll return back to the space between time that Clockwork brings you to. You’ll meet a few characters like Nora Wakeman, Gary, and Splinter, who all provide you with different options such as practicing your combat skills in the Dojo or buying decorations for the hub world.
However, it is Nora Wakeman who will assist in making you more powerful. As you collect the green slime and purple splat currencies, each will help you purchase more perks as well as upgrade them. Once you have the appropriate slots, you’ll be able to equip six perks. These range from providing additional stocks, and a protection shield, to firing off a projectile every few seconds. And, as mentioned, you can upgrade them to level five, such as the Ignorance is Bliss perk granting you 5 total additional stocks, thus keeping you alive in the fight that much longer. And with 18 perks to choose from, you’ll be able to create unique builds that will aid you on your run.
Each run will have a random path that has you taking on 1v1 challenges with the cast, fights against the Foot Clan, Mousers, and a variety of other threats, to platforming and mini-game challenges that don’t work as well due to the movement not really feeling fluid enough to really take advantage of the mobility needed to really pull these off. That said, they are a good way to earn the various currencies you need to upgrade your perks. You’ll also have a variety of shops to spend that third currency as well. These let you refill your health, cause your charged attack to issue out debuffs, to changing how your targeting projectiles work, or how often you expel them.
All in all, there is a fair bit to take on, making each run unique and somewhat unpredictable. Even taking on already freed characters from Vlad’s mind control will see you battling their evil shadow doppelganger, granting you a costume for your trouble. It’s also great seeing character-specific dialogue, such as SpongeBob and Patrick’s conversations with Mrs. Puff, or Jimmy and his dad sharing a moment together.
While the story itself can feel a tad light and repeat a few concepts throughout your journey, the roguelite elements really work here in ways that really caused me to become more invested. While it rarely reaches that “one more run” territory that can make a roguelike or roguelite work in the game’s favor, the idea of constantly upgrading my perks, or even decorating the hub world, to be something that gave me a decent amount of drive.
Visually, Brawl 2 is a big step up from the first game. Stages look drastically better with a few standouts, such as Garfield’s lasagna heaven, to character models seeing big improvements all across the board. The game feels more colorful and full of life, even if it does still suffer from characters getting sometimes lost in stages. While there are more color choices for characters as well as a few costumes, some of which are DLC, you’ll still have some online matches where you are the same color as someone else and it can get a bit crazy in 2v2 matches.
If I had to make one major criticism of Brawl 2, it is that the AI for its computer controller characters is extremely lacking unless you max them out. Anything from level 1 to 3 can simply see your opposition just standing around twiddling their pixelated thumbs. Sure, they will attack you when you approach them, but they lack anything to make them act on their own. I fought with Donatello in the campaign where they lept over me and into the abyss below, ending the match without me even hitting them. This happened a lot until I upped the difficulty to even find the single-player options to be even remotely challenging. That said, playing the game on harder difficulties doesn’t always fix the issue, but it does make them pull out more combat maneuvers and makes matches far more consistent.
My time with Brawl 2 online has been fairly minimal, largely due to a few issues that I certainly hope get ironed out. First, connecting to servers can be unpredictable if it takes 10 seconds or a few minutes. The same can be said for even finding a match as joining into ranked or even casual fights can seem to take forever, with the load times to match that waiting as well. Still, once I was in a match, it ran flawlessly with little to zero lag whatsoever. Ranked matches have a single search type while quick play allows 1v1 and 2v2 as well as Free for all, which has the last brawler standing as the winner. You can also join or create lobbies, which will relay what the stock lives are, the available timer, and if the match is set for teams of solo play.
While the roster’s quality will certainly vary from player to player, I do applaud Fair Play Labs and Ludosity’s reattempt to make this idea work. All-Star Brawl felt soulless and was a barren attempt at creating something intriguing. And with just over two years of development. All-Star Brawl 2 is the game that I wanted from the original, even if it still has its own set of issues. Nonetheless, All-Star Brawl 2 is an impressive addition to the genre and does the Nickelodeon brand some finally deserved justice.
Developer - Fair Play Labs / Ludosity. Publisher - GameMill Entertainment. Released - November 7th, 2023. Available On - Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4/PS5, Nintendo Switch, PC. Rated - (E 10+) Comic Mischief, Fantasy Violence.
Platform Reviewed - Both Xbox Series X / PlayStation 5. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.