Featuring favorites from SpongeBob, TMNT, The Loud House, and more!
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is due out this Fall for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. It's a Super Smash Bros.-like platform fighter, meaning that, like in Nintendo's popular series, you're trying to knock the other players off of the stage.
Today IGN has unveiled four new gameplay videos for you, including a four-player brawl featuring TMNT's Leonardo and April O'Neil as well as SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick, as well as 1v1s with April vs. Nigel Thornberry from Wild Thornberrys (smashing!) and CatDog vs. The Loud House's Lucy Loud, and a gameplay breakdown from one of the developers.
Without further adieu, here are the videos. Enjoy! And make sure to find out more about here!
April vs. Nigel
Catdog vs. Lucy Loud
SpongeBob vs. Leonardo vs. April vs. Patrick
Gameplay Breakdown from One of the Developers
Highlights from the videos include:
SpongeBob performing the wavedash. Wavedashing plays a huge role in high-level Super Smash Bros. Melee (and, to a lesser extent, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate) competition. By repeatedly air-dodging into the ground, players can rapidly cover ground thanks to the Smash engine’s slide-y physics. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl’s devs were open about wavedashing being in the game when it was first announced this summer, but it’s still really fun to see in motion.
Holding the left trigger prevents characters from turning away from opponents, allowing for retreating attacks without trade-offs to movement.
There’s a built-in rock-paper-scissors system that dictates how high, mid, and low attacks interact. All projectiles can be reflected multiple times, growing in strength and speed with each volley. You’re even able to grab projectiles out of the air and carry them around before throwing them back.
Besides the obvious appeal of having a bunch of cartoon characters duke it out in free-for-all matches, the game's developers have been open about wanting to keep Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl competitively viable while still making it possible for casual players to pick it up instantly. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that the team over at Ludosity opted to add several of the gameplay mechanics that make up much of the advanced aspects of other similar games like Rivals of Aether.
During a nearly 6-minute overview of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl’s core gameplay mechanics, character designer and programmer Thaddeus Crews explained some of the key differences that make the game so unique. For example, across all its roster characters will be able to throw out moves mostly divided into sets of three with the variants being up, down, and mid; this means that everyone’s light, strong, special, and aerial attacks will come in those three flavors.
Things get a little bit more complicated from there, as clashing strong attacks will be prioritized according to the game’s own “Rock paper scissors” system, parry-style perfect guards, projectiles that can be easily reflected or grabbed for later use. As if that wasn’t enough, the advanced movement options granted by wavelanding and wavedashing are complemented by the lack of an air dodge, plus a dedicated strafe button.
On top of it all, the aerial grab system and substituting shields for the type of pushback blocking that exists in most fighting games should be the perfect recipe for countless day one combos. With whacky movesets for SpongeBob and Patrick already out there, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl shows tons of promise ahead of its reportedly leaked October 5 release date.
From EventHubs:
We learn that the platform fighter features a couple of interesting priority systems, such as certain directional heavy attacks beating out others and leaving the opponent in special states like stagger and spin out.
However, the main event of the video is definitely the demonstration for wave dashes and wave landing. Using the incredibly fast downward air dashes, players can cause their characters to slide forward a bit after landing.
From the looks of it, immediately cancelling a jump into a downward air dash repeatedly allows you to wave dash across the screen very quickly. We see Spongebob traversing the stage swiftly and their looks to be a great balance of speed and control with this technique.
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From CBR:
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl Smashes the Competition in New Gameplay Videos
Newly released gameplay of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl shows off combat featuring characters from TMNT, Spongebob Squarepants, The Loud House and more.
Upcoming Smash Bros.-like fighting game Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl pits classic characters from various Nickelodeon cartoons against each other. Recently released gameplay footage gives fans a look into the mechanics and movesets of the different characters as they duke it out in both one-on-one and free-for-all combat.
As reported by IGN, the released gameplay videos include two one-on-one battles: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' April O'Neil vs. The Wild Thornberrys' Nigel Thornberry and CatDog vs. The Loud House's Lucy Loud. The videos also showcase a free-for-all brawl between SpongeBob SquarePants, Patrick Star, April O'Neil and Leonardo, along with a more in-depth breakdown of the game's controls.
In the breakdown video, character designer and programmer Thaddeus Crews goes through the various controls of the characters, using Spongebob as an example. Much like the Smash Bros. series of platform fighting games, attacks in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl generally come in three variants: up, down and side (or "mid," as Crews calls it). The game is based around the use of light attacks, strong attacks and special attacks, all of which have directional variants and can be used both on the ground and in the air.
While there are many ways the combat and mechanics of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl differ from those of Smash Bros. games, one feature that has fans particularly excited is the characters' ability to wavedash. Wavedashing is a mechanic that was a fundamental aspect of competitive play in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and the fast-paced inputs that seem to be possible in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl bode well for casual and competitive play alike.
Additionally, the videos show what appears to be a more complex relationship between different kinds of strong moves in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl. Crews says that different directional inputs overpower each other and inflict various status effects. Crews goes through this rock-paper-scissors-like relationship, explaining that "down beats mid and causes a stagger. Mid beats up and causes a turn-around. Up beats down and causes a spinout."
As shown in the breakdown and reflected in the gameplay videos, there is a mix of casual, carefree mechanics and more high-level combos. Patrick Star has a sacrificial KO confirm, similar to Smash Bros.'s Ganondorf or Bowser side-b attack, and CatDog can ladder high-range up-aerials to earn kills off the top of the map. While the mechanics are intended to keep hardcore players interested, the game's developers are also attempting to inject plenty of humor to keep fans of the cartoons entertained: Nigel Thornberry attacks people with his nose like a feral woodpecker and SpongeBob's taunt turns him into the "SpongeMock" meme.
Published by GameMill Entertainment and developed by Ludosity and FairPlay Labs, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl launches for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch this fall.
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Originally published: September 08, 2021.
