I like the idea in concept but I'm not a fan of the art direction and character animations. It kind of reminds me of that digimon super smash knock off. I hope it does well enough to garner attention of the fgc if tor a little while.

eh, I can kind of see that. initially that was kind of my gut objection too, looks cheap, a bit chunky in the animations, but maybe that will be even'ed out by the time it releases? It looks like it supports crossplay and I doubt they're going to prevent people from playing ads on it unless they're part of the "nicktoons partner program" so hopefully maybe youtube will give it the boost it needs to compete with smash bros?

Funnily enough I believe Smash started out as a cheap throw away project that wasn’t expected to sell well but became the monster that we know of today. I wouldn’t get my hopes up about Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl making any great improvements before its release date (which seems to be in two days). Usually when companies start doing showcasing like this, they’re 90% done with the game and are just making sure it isn’t a buggy mess and that it will be out by their preferred release date.

Cross-play and good net code don’t mean anything if the game isn’t aesthetically pleasing. You may remember the abomination that was Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, I kept hoping that what was being shown wasn’t the final product, but I was thoroughly disappointed.

I don’t have a dog in the fight as I haven’t really played Smash since Melee but when I last saw the latest game’s roster it did seem rather bloated. The character select screen almost looked like I was playing MUGEN.

I agree with you that Nintendo has some rather draconian and outdated policies when it comes to managing their IP. If I were them, I’d let people freely stream their games without consequence, but I understand where they’re coming from. Probably a bunch of old guys doing business the old way. They’re like how Disney use to be 10-15 years back. Give them another 10-15 years they may come around XD.

also playstation tried to horn in on the smash mania too. I think they tried too hard to not be a smash knockoff and it just didn't work though.

The problem with Smash clones or crossover fighting games in general is that you must have very strong IP representation AND a talented well-funded developer to even be able to compete. Sony tried but it doesn’t have the IP necessary to make a quirky fun party game like Smash. Just look at PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale’s roster; Sony had to borrow heavily from other publisher’s IP to even be able to put together that mess of a lineup for their Smash clone. They'd fair better if they released a realistic fighter like Mortal Kombat or Injustice.

Now that I think about it Sony may have a potentially good roster for a game, but they’d have to borrow from their movies and animation departments for it to have a ghost of a chance of being good.

I get the feeling you don't particularly like Smash Bros.

I used to, it kind of broke it's hold over me when brawl came out and the mechanics were a mess and I haven't really looked back since, save for humoring a few friends and family with some matches.

It's made by the Slap City devs and they're really good at making platform fighters imo. The game feel, balancing, and online netcode in that game was great. So I'm looking forward to it.

For a game that lives or dies partially off its roster, I'm surprised that the matches seem so lifeless. I blame the sound direction for much of it, as the lack of fighter dialog or noises beyond basic contact takes some of the soul away.

yeah they definitely need to make sure that ships. it might just be wishful thinking on my part as far as knocking nintendo down a peg, but some aspects look kind of like what I wanted Nintendo to do for more than a decade but was completely ignored

Game looks very fun but highly unfinished.

yeah they should explore cutting the roster if absolutely necessary to make sure the SFX and music are good as some people pointed out.

Not only SFX, the hit feedback is also not all in there. Mind you the game looks solid, but it really needed some tiny bit more polish.

It looks like a cheap super smash bros clone.

it does look unpolished ATM and honestly I was thinking about the same thing you were saying at first glance. It looks like whoever made it is taking it seriously and not just making shovelware looking at the physics and tight mechanics, and hopefully they got the budget to tighten things up.

If XJ-9 from My Life as a Teenage Robot or Chalkzone’s Rudy Tabootie are playable I’ll get it. Kinda of like the promise I made to myself to get the Friday the 13th game if they ever gave Jason the Uber Jason skin from Jason X.

XJ9 playing like melee samus would be pretty legit lol.