Now that Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl has hit shelves, early adopters are getting a feel for the latest entry in the fighter genre, which features Ren and Stimpy as a single fighter rather than their own individual characters. The cast may be entirely comprised of Nick characters, but the game still takes a lot of influence from iconic brawler series Super Smash Bros., and this includes the inclusion of tandem fighters. Strangely, Ren and Stimpy are the only tandem fighter in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, even though the chihuahua/cat duo are distinct characters in their source cartoon.
The issue is not one of roster space; The Ren & Stimpy Show has two brawlers in the game, the titular duo and the unexpected Powdered Toast Man. Separating Ren and Stimpy into individual fighters wouldn't have put their cartoon over some arbitrary, non-existent limit - SpongeBob SquarePants, for example, has three fighters. The Ren & Stimpy Show ran for five years in the early to mid 90s, giving Marland T. "Ren" Höek and Stimpson J. Cat plenty of individual characteristics to warrant their own spots in All-Star Brawl.
According to Joel Nyström, project manager at developer Ludosity, there were many fans of The Ren & Stimpy Show on the development team. In a PlayStation Blog post prior to release, Nyström even recognizes that Ren and Stimpy "are separate characters with distinct personalities, but they are also inseparable which is why they play as a single, joint character." Ultimately this makes a lot of sense to those familiar with the series. Ren is the overenthusiastic brainiac of the group, while Stimpy is the aloof, blissfully oblivious one.
All-Star Brawl Reflects Ren & Stimpy's Relationship
The two characters' personalities do not always mesh very well, but the duo are rather codependent. The show is named for both of them, after all, and one of them rarely gets involved in anything without the other. Of all the characters in the Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl roster, Ren and Stimpy probably make the most sense to combine into a single brawler, which subsequently provides some variety to the gameplay. Nyström goes on to write, "We really wanted them to be a duo. It allows for some very special moves and playstyles, so we thought it’d be interesting to explore." A large part of the game's appeal may be banking on nostalgia, but it would seem that making a compelling fighting game was at least an equal factor.
When playing as tag-team Ren and Stimpy, the former rides on the latter's back. Consequently, this makes them one of the slower characters in All-Star Brawl, but their low speed is compensated with a high reach. The duo's moves are inspired by well-known jokes from the show, with their animations reflecting the individual characters' interplay. Stimpy is typically the muscle of the two, doing most of the heavy lifting while Ren commands from on top. Mirroring the absurd slapstick antics of The Ren & Stimpy Show, they are each capable of swinging the other into opponents, but Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl keeps the two in tandem in the spirit of their characters' relationship.
Source: PlayStation Blog