Jacqueline Davitt

What began as a normal July day suddenly got an unexpected surprise as Nickelodeon announced Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl _ out of the blue. No one was expecting Nickelodeon to so closely imitate Nintendo's ever-popular **_Super Smash Bros. ** series. And yet, from the look of the platform-like levels to the presentation of the individual fighters' move sets, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl very much appears to be Smash for Nickelodeon's brand of cartoons. Brawl was even the title of the Wii's iteration for Super Smash Br Looking towards the bottom of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 's box art, there are two heads that would appear to be separate characters. In actuality, they are both one whole character, as the art seems to be showing off one of Nickelodeon's stranger creations: CatDog. Cat and Dog are conjoined siblings that face a number of challenges due to their radically different personalities, but they often find some way to work together eventually. It will be very interesting to see how this dynamic translates to Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl stars strategy|https://brawlstarsfans.com/ 's gameplay. Perhaps their elongated body will allow for mechanics similar to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 's Min Min , though this is purely speculat Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl was announced just a few days ago, but it's already getting a lot of gamers excited with its Super Smash Bros. comparisons and homages to Nickelodeon history. There have been numerous Super Smash Bros. copycats in the past, but this one seems to be the most colorful and thoughtfully crafted. Although it only got a short trailer, Nickelodeon games have shown some polish in recent years, so there is some reason to be optimis As is the case with the games that inspired it, Jay and Silent Bob: Mall Brawl feels designed more around local co-op play than solo action. Enemies gang up on an isolated player often, getting off cheap shots that could be avoided with a second character on screen. Playing alone does allow for switching between Jay and Silent Bob at will, so it's not impossible to beat. Still, bringing a friend to the couch is very much recommen Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is not Nickeldeon's first foray into gaming , though perhaps it's meant as a 30th anniversary nod to the Nicktoon. Nickelodeon's many cartoon hits have been a pop culture staple ever since the fateful night in 1991 when Rugrats, Doug , and Ren & Stimpy _ premiered. Over the subsequent thirty years, Nicktoons continued to garner mainstream success, particularly with _SpongeBob SquarePants . The company certainly has no shortage of material for a Smash -style braw While Brawl Chess is more streamlined than a standard game of chess, and therefore more user friendly, it is a little frustrating to not be able to perform some more advanced strategic chess moves in-game. For example, if the player manages to get one of their pawns to the other side of the board it is automatically promoted to a Queen. While a player would most likely make this choice anyway, there are situations where it is more advantageous to promote to a Knight instead. This is a minor issue, but more experienced chess players will definitely notice the lack of more advanced featu One thing that helps make up for this simplification is the five different difficulty levels for players to experiment with. It is highly recommended that those who only have a passing familiarity with chess start with the easiest level in order to grow accustomed to Brawl Chess , as the higher levels can actually get considerably more difficult. The Brawl Chess AI is very savvy and it will implement quite a few different advanced maneuvers depending on the level of difficulty that was pic The inclusion of microtransactions wouldn't be that big a deal if there was more content available in Brawl Chess, but there really isn't. With only the two modes to play in, things can get dull fast. While it certainly isn't expected for a game to completely reinvent the game of chess , there could have been different scenarios or challenge modes useful for players wanting to improve their skills. In its current state Brawl Chess is just chess. There is nothing wrong with simplicity, but without additional features or game modes on top of a standard game of chess, Brawl Chess does feel a little bland. Those who want a well-made chess game that they can take on the go with the Switch though could do a lot worse than Brawl Chess, so it's got a niche and it fills it w The rest of the characters seen in the Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl box art remain a mystery. Two popular Nickelodeon characters that perhaps are the most obvious possibilities for the roster are Jimmy Neutron and Timmy Turner , and it wouldn't be surprising to have a Rocko's Modern Life representative as well. For now, those looking forward to Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl will have to wait to learn more about the game's final roster and what other characters will be featured in the lin Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 's confirmed characters have already given a lot of fans something to be excited about, and the game's silhouetted box art is only feeding that excitement even more. There are still some characters that aren't very easy to make out, however, so there's really no telling how expansive the game's roster will be. It's clear that developers Ludosity and Fair Play Labs aren't afraid to include faces old and new, so Nickelodeon fans will just have to remain patient until more characters are ready to be announ