Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl developer Ludosity has revealed competitive viability was always one of the fighting game's chief objectives. All-Star Brawl will soon join the platform fighter genre with a roster of animated characters from Nickelodeon's most popular classic and modern shows.
Confirmed Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl characters like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Michelangelo and Leonardo or Danny Phantom might lend themselves well to a fighting game, but Ludosity is also including characters not typically associated with combat. Players will level up in order to unlock more fighters, similar to its obvious inspiration, Super Smash Bros. This is not the first time Nickelodeon has been inspired by a Nintendo game franchise, as the network licensed a Mario Kart-esque game called Nickelodeon Kart Racers in 2018.
For Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, Nickelodeon has given Ludosity a lot of creative freedom. Developers told Kotaku Nickelodeon rarely rejects the studio's ideas, and every character's style and moves came entirely from the minds at Ludosity. The studio's CEO, Joel Nyström, went on to refute the notion that Nickelodeon wouldn't be interested in producing a competitive fighting game, explaining the network approached Ludosity for that very purpose.
Nickelodeon sought out Ludosity after the release of its 2018 game Slap City - a platform fighter featuring a roster of original characters, such as the hugely muscular, platypus-like Ultra Fishbunjin 3000. Chief designer Elias "sinxtanx" Forslind told Kotaku Ludosity hopes Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl players, both casual and competitive, will enjoy all of what the game has to offer.
"When you make a game fun to play, anyone can have fun with it. This is very good for me, since I don’t have the mad skills like competitive players, but I can still greatly enjoy casual free-for-all matches in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl."
With some fighters already confirmed, fans can begin to speculate what kinds of movesets individual characters might have. The Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl box art also hints at a slew of other characters yet to be officially unveiled. It only includes silhouettes, but some figures are more easily discernible than others. Avatar: The Last Airbender's Aang and The Legend of Korra's titular character are all but confirmed, due to their distinguishable outlines on the box art, but there are many potential character options, seeing as Nickelodeon is pulling from its the last three decades of television shows.
Whether or not their favorite Nicktoon characters will be included, fans can prepare for a game that looks to appeal to those interested in the competitive side of platform fighters. It does seem somewhat doubtful Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl will be able to reach (or surpass) the genre standard set by Super Smash Bros., especially after other developers have attempted Smash-likes and failed to do so. However, the internet's enthusiastic reaction to its reveal suggests this achievement is possible.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl will release on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in fall 2021.
Source: Kotaku