Super Smash Bros. is one of those franchises that has been copied but never surpassed. It’s not just that it’s a lot of fun; Nintendo has a really deep reservoir of characters and games to draw from: even if you’ve never played a Metroid game, F-Zero, or Starfox, you’ll recognize these warriors.
But, as Smash likes to say, “A New Challenger Approaches!”
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a Smash Bros. idea using Nickelodeon characters created by Ludosity and Fair Play Labs. As you can see from the teaser above, it isn’t attempting to conceal it, and it recognizes that its greatest strength is the large cast of people from whom it can draw. SpongeBob SquarePants, two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and characters from Hey Arnold!, Invader Zim, Danny Phantom, The Loud House, and Aaahh!!! are also featured in the video. Real Monsters, Rugrats, and other characters.
The major topic of discussion on Ludosity’s Discord is the future of one character in particular: Garfield. Because Nickelodeon controls the rights, it’s feasible we’ll be launching Leonardo into space with a lasagna plate.
Some Smash Bros. top players, notably the fittingly called HungryBox, are already ecstatic about the news. I once skipped an event, and this man ate my steak (along with his own) and uploaded a picture of his delighted belly on social media, tagging me in, so I have no qualms about loosely stealing his title.
According to the game’s press release, there is 20 stages total, including SpongeBob SquarePants’ Jellyfish Fields and TMNT’s Technodrome. There are singleplayer and multiplayer modes in the game, with the latter providing both local and competitive internet play. The internet has gotten a lot of attention since it contains rollback netcode. This is the favorite option among fighting game aficionados, and it is essentially a predictive algorithm that ‘guesses’ what players would do during minute connection lapses: if it gets it wrong, the game would ‘roll back’ to the moment before the connection broke and restart play.
Also, this is a cool thing:
Interestingly, Nickelodeon All-Stars Brawl is the latest in a series of Nickelodeon ‘Super Brawl’ games that debuted on the company’s website over a decade ago (plus there was Super Brawl Universe on mobile, yes I have kids which is why I know this).
The game is set to arrive this autumn, and while the video only mentions consoles, a Ludosity developer stated on the studio’s Discord that this was an oversight, and that the game’s primary platform is PC. We’ve requested formal confirmation from the game’s publisher and will keep you updated if we receive a response.
