The announcement ofNickelodeon All-Star Brawlshocked fans from multiple different communities. It shocked the Nickelodeon fanbase, which will get a game bringing all of its favorite cartoons together. It shocked theSuper Smash Bros.fandom to see another game that could prove to be competition. But more than any,Nickelodeon All-Star Brawlshocked the fighting game community. The devs at Ludosity make it clear that this was the team’s intent, asNickelodeon All-Star Brawlis intended to be a competitively viable experience.
In an interview with Kotaku, Ludosity CEO Joel Nyström was asked aboutNickelodeon All-Star Brawl’s competitive prospects. To start, he was asked if Nickelodeon wasn’t “really interested in making a competitive fighting game,” the question seemingly implying that Nickelodeon’s young target demographics would lead to a casual-minded game. Nyström dismisses that idea entirely, saying that, “Nickelodeon is absolutely on board with having the game be competitively viable,” and that it has been a part of the deal from the start.
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What Nyström is saying is that Nickelodeon approached Ludosity knowing that the development team had a competitive mindset for fighting games. Nickelodeon chose Ludosity because of its work on theSuper Smash Bros.-inspiredgameSlap City. As such, Ludosity signing on to makeNickelodeon All-Star Brawlensures that it was planned to have the depth of other competitive fighting games from the outset.
That said, fellow developer Elias Forslind also makes clear thatNickelodeon All-Star Brawlisn’t being made with the specific goal of it being extremely competitive. Rather, like withwhat Ludosity did withSlap City, it’s approachingNickelodeon All-Star Brawlas an experience that’s fun for everyone. Forslind explains how he doesn’t have the “mad skills” to be as good as competitive fighting game players, so he’s making a game that’s also fun to play in casual free-for-all matches, too.
Otherwise, Ludosity says that Nickelodeon has largely left it to work onNickelodeon All-Star Brawlas it pleases. Nyström adds that, if it has to do with gameplay, then the idea probably originated from within Ludosity. Nyström even says that the team was able to provide input onwhich characters are part ofNickelodeon All-Star Brawl. Perhaps that’s why the roster is so diverse.
It’s one thing to say that Ludosity has the freedom tomakeNickelodeon All-Star Brawla high-level competitive fighting gameand to add rollback netcode. However, making a genuinely competitive fighting game with a robust competitive feature set is another thing altogether. Just becauseSuper Smash Bros.is lacking competitive features doesn’t meanNickelodeon All-Star Brawlcan get away with it. If Ludosity says to expect a competitive experience, the FGC is certainly going to have high expectations.
Nickelodeon All-Stars Brawlreleases fall 2021 on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
