Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is an excellent platform fighting game, and contains several subtle features that make it a better experience than its rival, the seminal Super Smash Bros. series. All-Star Brawl, released in October of 2021, was a surprising success, bringing a variety of past and present Nickelodeon cartoon characters into a well-designed fighting game with the goal of causing incremental damage and sending other characters flying off the map. This model of gameplay has been often replicated, but has been solidified by the Super Smash Bros. series of games. Game developers Ludosity and Fair Play Labs have made several changes to that model, and have created a suitable challenger to the platform-fighting throne in All-Star Brawl.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl faced high expectations upon its release. Nintendo had been fine-tuning the long-standing Super Smash Bros. games since 1999, and to this day Super Smash Bros. is copied by inferior games. All-Star Brawl, however, stands out as a superior game because of its own approach to a tried-and-true style of gameplay. Elements of Super Smash Bros. have been considered hallmarks of the genre, but have made playing it complicated, exhaustive, and difficult to pick up. All-Star Brawl has stripped away several of those elements, making the game easy to play, challenging to master, and a ton of fun.
The key to the success of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is its simplistic approach to the overall experience of a platform fighting game. Where Super Smash Bros. has expanded and over-complicated menus, gameplay, and characters, All-Star Brawl has trimmed the fat from those features to create a highly accessible experience. This focus on simplicity is what has helped All-Star Brawl succeed where other Smash clones failed. A less-is-more approach has established All-Star Brawl as a fun alternative to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the most recent Super Smash Bros. release.
All-Star Brawl's Menus Are Simple And Straightforward
Platform fighting games are the most fun when played competitively, either with friends locally or online. Over the years, the customization options in Super Smash Bros. have become excessive and time-consuming. Friends gathering around to play a game of Super Smash Bros. might spend more time in the Settings menu figuring out the right settings for the perfect fight than actually playing the game. With Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl's setup menus, those options have been narrowed down to a handful of options, allowing players to get to the battle in minutes.
All-Star Brawl Gets Free Updates With New Fighters And Features
Nintendo recently announced that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's final update is coming soon. While updates to the game have remained free to keep the game fair and balanced, expanding the game's character roster came with the added costs of paid DLC packs. When purchasing the game and all DLC characters for Super Smash Bros. the final customer cost can reach almost $100. Meanwhile, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is available for $50.00, and has already released Garfield as a free DLC character download. More free updates have been teased, including playable characters and the addition of original voice acting lines, which means that All-Star Brawl has a long life of updates to look forward to.
All-Star Brawl's Character Roster Is Tight And Focused
One of the biggest challenges in any platform fighting game is choosing a main, and All-Star Brawl simplifies that process through a tight and focused character roster. The game currently features a cast of 21 Nickelodeon characters, making it easy for new players to jump in and select from a narrow pool of fun All-Star Brawl fighters great for newbies. For older, more seasoned players, this is also an opportunity to find a main fighter without having to wade through a massive roster of characters and move sets. Either way, the limited number of characters feels manageable and accessible for new and old fighting game players.
Super Smash Bros. makes that process almost impossible right out of the gate. Though players only have access to eight characters at the start of the game, Super Smash Bros. features a whopping 74 playable fighters that are unlocked through gameplay. This doesn't include the 12 additional characters available through DLC purchases, bringing the total up to 86. This makes the process of character selection for a new player almost impossible, and pushes more experienced players though an exhaustive amount of gameplay to find their main.
All-Star Brawl's Gameplay Focuses On The Brawl
The most important part of a platform fighter is its fighting mechanics, and All-Star Brawl has gleaned a lot from the Super Smash Bros. games, like the dash dancing feature. Other features have been adjusted to set All-Star Brawl apart from its predecessor. Each character has a light attack, a heavy attack and a special attack button that is character-specific. Character specials are simple, directional inputs, accessed with a single button push. All-Star Brawl removed throwable items entirely, as well as ultimate moves and a metered block. Jumping in to any character feels easy and exciting with every match.
All-Star Brawl Is Available On Most Gaming Platforms
Currently, All-Star Brawl is available on PC, Playstation, Xbox, and Switch, which makes the game instantly accessible to a wider swath of the video game community. Super Smash Bros. has remained a Nintendo-exclusive series over the years, and has been unavailable for players on other platforms. Players now have access to an excellent Super Smash Bros. alternative, no matter what console they own.
The game should continue to improve, with new characters, features, and an original Power Rangers-esque All-Star Brawl voice update rumored to come. Upcoming improvements would refine an already impressive platform fighter, and cement it as another hallmark multiplayer fighting game. This is no small feat, given its decade-old competition, but All-Star Brawl has emerged as a surprising revelation in platform fighting. All-Star Brawl is easy to jump into with simple menus and game customization. The game's characters are recognizable, fun, and easy to master. The brawl itself is a blast, and will be supplemented with new content completely for free. These features of gameplay will keep players coming back, and keep Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl in the spotlight for the next few years.