Nostalgia is a powerful thing. It can drive someone to spend an entire weekend re-watching an old cartoon they haven’t seen since they were a kid, or play through an old game they used to love on an old console. There is a significant portion of people that enjoy the opportunity to embrace nostalgia no matter how small.
This is a large part of why a trailer dropped today for a new Nickelodeon game. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a Super Smash Bros. style fighting game where players will be able to take their favorite Nickelodeon characters and put them in battles to see who comes out victorious. Where the nostalgia comes in is the roster, because the trailer features a plethora of 90’s Nickelodeon cartoon characters including Spongebob, Nigel Thornberry, and Reptar the dinosaur. It will also feature two of the Ninja Turtles, Michaelangelo and Leonardo.
The trailer for this game looks extremely bizarre. There’s an art style to it that initially comes off as unappealing, but when the characters are actually put into some of the stages they look like they fit right in. All of the stages are, unsurprisingly, Nickelodeon-themed and like Smash Bros. will be based on characters in the game. It’s going to be weird watching Reptar beat up Leonardo in Jellyfish fields, but also is that any weirder than Link fighting Donkey Kong in Delfino Plaza?
It will be interesting to see just how deep into copying Smash Bros. this game goes. There’s a lot of technical intricacies to the Super Smash Bros. games that make them unique it’s why they have such a super competitive esports scene. If Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl manages to capture even some of that same spirit then it could end up being a fun time! However, if it comes off as nothing more than a cheap cash grab clone then it will fail. It needs to do something unique beyond just being a Smash Bros. clone. We’ll just have to wait and see until we get some more info in the future.