Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl Review: Nostalgia With A Purpose

Patrick Star is a pretty oddball character in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, even more so than he is in his usual Spongebob Squarepants setting. For example, in this game, he’s a grappler — though it would be more apt to say a "hugger" — and a pretty decent one at that. And, his Down+Special, "Hug Driver," grabs his opponent and launches them with them to slam them into the gro


But, the other unique aspect about the stages in this game is their designs, since each stage is built to have a certain size, number of platforms, and so on. This seems normal, of course, but in comparison to Smash Ultimate , it is just a tad lack


And damn, do these devs love Melee. The respect it has for the second Smash game is bashing you in the face in every fight. Everything is lightning fast and every move counts. There are no items, no final smashes, no gimmicks alongside the fighting - All-Star Brawl Stars tips and tricks trusts its players enough to find fun in zipping across the map and beating the hell out of each other as cartoon characters. It doesn’t need to be a party game, it’s confident that fighting games can be just as fun on their


But, because these are all icons people grew up with, people are really tying themselves down to specific characters more often than usual, and it’s a shame because those characters will, more than likely, not be that overpowered in a few months time. And, additionally, future DLC characters have already been leaked via datamine , so there's even less of a reason to get handcuffed to a specific charac


And, Reptar, from Rugrats , is one of those heavy characters. Now, it's obvious why he was the choice as the Rugrats rep in NASB , as these babies can Kart Race , but it's not like they can join in on the violence of a Smash-type game. In any case, this iconic cartoon dinosaur does some serious damage. That Down+Special "Flame Breath" is so incredibly strong and versatile, he has two different spikes ( "Tail Slam" and "Leg Kick" ), and all of his moves seem to have decent KO potential at minimum. That said, he is slow, his recovery is predictable, and he can be locked into combos incredibly easily without being able to counter-attack, so he still only eeks out the number ten s


The developers of NASB have been so incredibly vocal both in interviews and on their Discord server for the game. They’ve answered so many fan questions and made it clear that they care about this game, long-term. And, one of the most commonly occurring questions has to do with "Tap-Jump", and this has been answered by Ludosity many times by now. Basically, because NASB uses a digital input system, rather than an analog one, Tap-Jump isn’t currently possible to add, but they are looking for a workaro


Fast Falling, as it’s called in other games, is the method of making a character fall down faster in a platform fighter like Smash by tapping down an extra time in the air while falling. It has its uses, both for dodging attacks and for unleashing new o


Basically, don’t come here because the recent Battle for Bikini Bottom remaster got you in the mood for some SpongeBob humour. Come here because you want to see SpongeBob beat the crap out of Nigel Thornberry, and find your own humour in t


But, even still, this elusive little Air Nomad is so good, especially in the air. The most accurate comparison would probably be Diddy Kong in Smash Bros Ultimate , as he’s fast and builds up damage in an instant, but struggles with actually finishing off opponents consisten


All things considered, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a Melee fan project, first and foremost. It’s got the cute Nick paint thrown on it, but the fighting is what you should come here for, even if the cartoon characters had you hooked in the first pl


For anyone familiar with Ludosity’s previous work, Slap City , both it and NASB have a "Sports" mode in the "Battle" tab where players can use the characters to score goals on each other, competing for the highest score rather than the most


For example, her Down+Special, "On The Air" , is currently shockingly strong for building damage and her "Ratings Meter" quickly. Plus, her "Breaking News" Neutral Special ramping up in damage and knockback based on her "Ratings Meter" is such a neat way to incentivize players to use specific mo


The memes had me terrified: everyone expected developer Ludosity to come out with the "Smash Killer". No game could ever be that. But somehow, this small studio that was thrown into the spotlight just weeks ago has brought out a fighting game that at least gives Smash Ultimate some competition. While recent Smash titles brought final smashes, more items, and overall just slower gameplay, All-Star Brawl provides the fast-paced competitive play many of us have been dying for since Melee all those years


So the way Defending works in NASB is pretty simple: hold the "Defend" input, and the character will have some sort of animation where they’ll put their arms out to block. And, for the most part, players sort of instinctually know to use this as a way to block incoming damage coming from the direction their character is fac