The announcement of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl has been met with a fair amount of excitement from fans. It seems like a rock solid idea, right? A party brawler in the same vein as Super Smash Bros., starring numerous Nicktoons new and old? It sounds like a slam dunk — but it needs to get the gameplay right.
In a new video from IGN, Thaddeus Crews of developer Ludosity talks us through the game's basic fighting mechanics. As you might expect, the game is all about ring-outs, much like Nintendo's popular fighter — it even uses the percentage system, where the more damage you take, the further you'll fly when knocked back. However, what's perhaps surprising is how technical this kids' fighting game seems to be.
You have basic light and strong attacks on the ground and in the air, and each character has a set of specials too. Interestingly, directional inputs has a rock-paper-scissors priority system, where up attacks beat down attacks, down beats mid, and mid beats up. These clashes cause certain interactions that give the advantaged player the edge.
There's also a strafing system which lets you keep your character facing in one direction, dashes with their own advantages and disadvantages, guarding that's punishable with knockback, and grabs, which can be used against opponents or even on projectiles. It's quite a lot to take in, especially when you consider this is a game starring Reptar and Nigel Thornberry.
Still, it sounds fairly impressive, and we're certainly intrigued to give it a shot. What do you think? Can this game measure up to Smash? Does it need to? Practice your kara-tay in the comments section below.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 37
Weirdly looks decent. Part of me wishes they plumped for Guilty Gear style graphics though, it would look so much better in 2D!
The Smash “Killer” is here T_T
Looks very promising but honestly makes me wish for Sony to bring back Playstation All Stars.
I never played Smash Bros, this looks like a cool party game but I'm sure it will also have a crazy competitive scene
Are there no super moves?
"At high percenTS"
im cringing at the fact that this might become an ''e-sport'' lol .
@Voltan took the words right out of my mouth
@ZeroOverOne yes , lol .
Always cool to see gameplay of a Smash-like title done by people who are actually skilled at platform fighters. It's 100% the type of game that can look either really appealing or like an absolute snoozefest depending on who's playing.
This does look 99% like Smash lol it's hilarious!
Also, how can Nickelodeon make it right and Playstation ruined it with All Stars? Sad...
I’ve never gotten into Smash/PlayStation All Stars, cause I’m not a fan of the gameplay in general, compared to traditional fighting games like Tekken or Street Fighter.
Looks cool for Nickelodeon fans though.
As someone who used to frequent Smash tournaments and keeps up with the competitive scene, the amount of specific call-outs to how they've built on remixed, and deviated from mechanics found in the franchise is insane.
Wavedashing is basically the crux of movement options from Smash Melee, canceling dash attacks into other moves seems like a remix of a (kinda) exploit from Smash Brawl, and many of the movement options seemed to be direct expansions to Smash's movement options. The casual party gamer probably doesn't care too much about throwing out retreating aerial attacks, but in Smash it can be difficult to consistently do it and it makes a big difference for neutral and defensive play to be able to pull it off without killing your momentum.
I don't even know if I'm gonna play this game, but I am absolutely blown away by the amount of competitive detail going into it. Living in a region that lives and breathes Super Smash Bros, it'll be hilarious if a scene develops for this game around here.
@Cloud7794 what region is that ?
Just please don't mimic the controls. They were the reason I could never get into Smash.
When I first saw this game get announced I admit I was pretty dismissive of it as a fun joke but the more I hear about it the more I'm actually interested. The priority system kind of reminds me of Dead or Alive's triangle system and Dead or Alive is among my favorite fighters out there.
I've always wanted to see a disney version of smash. No marvel just Pinocchio vs Dumbo, Elsa vs woody, Beast vs Simba, etc
I cannot believe this game has tech. Nickelodeon does what Nintendon't I guess.
@AFCC You're crazy. PSBRA was awesome. Sure it wasn't Smash, but I enjoyed it.
@Rafie I liked the game and played it a lot. But it was only slightly above average! It controls okayish and is not smooth at all.
The percentage system needed to be in Playstation All Stars. I know I sound like a broken record, but it would've elevated the game to higher heights.
Anyways, this game looks fantastic. I love how much depth it has.
@nessisonett i don't know who is the publisher of this game but i don't think they would spend the money needed to make it 2d because let's be honest these games (with cartoon characters from de 90s - 00s) aren't the best sellers.
Will definitely get this when its around $10 or so
I'm honestly surprised that this game actually looks more in depth in terms of mechanics than smash does. It remains to be seen how the final product holds up but it seems like they've got some people with fighting game know how making this. I mean really, this is a Nickelodeon game...it doesn't HAVE to be good.
My god...now imagine in 5 years that we're actually hyping up Nick games because they consistently release great games from now on...
@Deadlyblack I thank that would have made Playstation Allstars above decent, only being able to kill with supers made the whole thing pointless to play. You could win a match without even needing to throw a single punch 😐
@Dragonaged I'd be on that like gravy on biscuits.
Be interesting to see which Nick characters are included.
@AFCC That's cool. That also falls in line with what I said previously saying that it's not Smash. Many devs tried to emulate the Smash formula with games like PSABR, Cartoon Network Punch XL, etc. I felt that Playstation Battle All Stars were the closest. The energy and using supers to finish the opponent turned people off. I thought it was a different take on Smash so it wasn't exactly a carbon copy of the game. I really didn't have a problem with the controls either. Still I respect your opinion.
The idea of something like smash brothers without needing a Nintendo console is great. That animation style however, is a travesty. Hate it, at least with those characters. It might suit others on the roster more, but in that case, why show these two?
The most underrated part of the whole gameplay breakdown video is SpongeBob's taunt at 5:38 of the video. It's a taunt straight from the meme!!
@AFCC I liked it so much it was the only fighter i ever Platinumed almost twice but the i was to late with the Vita version because of the closure of online. 🤪
As a adult i have to say it looks like fun its a pity i dont have kids to use it as a excuse to play but i probably will get it anyway.
@nomither6 Central Florida, but Florida in general has a ton of Super Smash Bros. players.
@Cloud7794 oh wow , i thought it would be the northeast or westcoast ! thats surprising . wish i lived somewhere where people actually even played video games .
@Rafie I loved the finishing moves on the game, yeah. But this game seems like a copy of smash with different characters. Even the moves seem similar.
@nomither6 Florida (particularly Central), the tri-state area, and west coast (I believe specifically south Cali) are the the USA's strongest Smash regions if memory serves me.
Honestly you can probably find some scene for big games like Smash unless you live outside of cities in the mid-west or some equivalent. Alternatively, you can join a discord or community for your game to find people in your region, or play a game with good online like Guilty Gear.
Just type the name of your game + your state into Google and you might be surprised. I just looked up what the Smash scene in Iowa looks like for example, and there's a few players - even professional ones.
Gameplay looks fun but no voices means a hard pass...I'm a console player so modding isn't an option.
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