Nickelodeon's Smash Brothers

 A new challenger approaches

SpongeBob is my childhood. Yes, as much as I cringe whenever I see people proclaim how 'x is my childhood and you can't change it', I am guilty of as much myself because there are indeed these smatterings of TV shows that are synonymous in my head of warm summer mornings plopped down on the floor for what felt like the entire live-long day. It's funny, given my pathetically weak internal clock nowadays, to think that back then I knew the time table so darn well that I could reliably show up for SpongeBob time on Nickelodeon and leave before the next show. I guess that just means the children's show indoctrination process worked wonders on little me, huh. But can I really complain when my show of choice (or at least one of them) was the ever colourful, ever funny, occasionally smart, Nick power-child known as SpongeBob?

SpongeBob is also my curse. That's not just something I say because much of my early sense of comedy was shaped by the show, which meant a definite leaning towards the obnoxious and stupid. (I was a kid, and there's certainly worse comedic influences out there. I wasn't into 'Fanboy and chum chum', thank god.) I say this more because it's one of those shows that I just can't put behind me, and that's likely because of Nick's recent death march to ensure this series ends up on simply everyone's radar. I can put Avatar to rest, safe in the knowledge that show as close to perfection as possible and all can respect that. (Dammit Netflix) I can say goodbye to Kim Possible, a little disquiet as I feel the story isn't quiet over, but the finale slapped at least. (Dammit Disney) But SpongeBob has never had the cut-off point. There's never been a single consecutive period of no SpongeBob content to rest our minds on, the show has been going strong for twenty years and is going to start ramping up now that creator Steven Hillenburg has passed.

It's this never ending hook to the SpongeBob name that has dragged me, and many others, into paying attention to this damned Super Smash brothers rip-off that Nickelodeon are pimping in order to corner the market for that style of game but aimed at- who exactly? Nick viewers who are avid gamers that somehow haven't been put of by the decades of low effort bowser games licenced by Nick? It seems kind of contentious to try and do Nintendo's game, in Nintendo's backyard and trying to poach Nintendo's audience, but here we are. I guess that PlayStation mounted their own version of this style of game a while back too, but then they were fostering a very unique style of audience that Smash Bros. wasn't reaching. I just think that Nick has opened itself up to quite the competition by this project's very existence.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is an upcoming fighting game that seems to have swooped in out of nowhere. I seriously have no idea when this was even announced but the various hero announcement vids have littered my YouTube recommendations over the past few weeks. Quite simply, this is Nick's way of cashing in on all of the profitable figures under their umbrella over the years by sticking them in a death arena so similar to the Smash Bros. formula that the game is probably listed as a 'shadow fighter' in official legal documents. We're looking at quite the packed cast too, from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rugrats, Danny Phantom, SpongeBob, Hey Arnold! and Invader Zim, to more contemporary titles like... The Loud House... that's about it for newer series'. (Really lets you feel the power of Nick's modern lineup, huh.)

If you're unfamiliar with the platform brawler playstyle, it sort of shapes up like this: no one has a 'health bar' so to speak as much as they have a 'percentage bar'. The more one gets damaged, the higher that percentage bar rises which correlates to the amount of knockback they receive from certain attacks. The only way then to kill another fighter is to knock them off of the stage, thus consuming one their 'stock' or 'lives'. This makes it possible for high level plays where high-dmg-percent players can simply position themselves in the right spot so that they won't die from another hit, or stupid players can accidentally wander off the side and die straight away. It also leaves room for creative maps which really play with the rebound effect of percentage-building to create frustrating or high tension comeback scenarios. Not to everyone's taste, but I like it.

Nick have borrowed this basic formula and ran with it for their game, to the point where the effect for someone being knocked out of the screen, a rush of wind and light in the direction of the just-departed, looks lifted wholesale. People have also been quick to point out similar movesets in the character trailers, such as Reptar's down special which is literally Yoshi and Bowser's down special. (But then what are you going to do with a giant lizard person in the air anyway?) I just find the whole experiment to be questionable, because some of the deep fun of Smash Bros. comes in their ludicrously intricate movesets that always borrow animation frameworks or poses from source material. Practically every move you can pull of with a character in Smash Bros. is a reference to, or directly copied from, the source game of that character. Can the same be said for Helga from Hey Arnold!'s moveset? I suspect not.

And then there's the sort of gross behind-the-scenes implications of all this where Nickelodeon are clearly giving into their corporate side to cash in on as many properties as humanly possible. I can't speak for the creators of these shows and how they feel about having their characters in this crossover, but I know that at least the recent departed Hillenburg would have had an issue with it at least at some point in his life. (Others have gone record as noting that he didn't really gravitate to the idea of crossovers. Or spin-offs for that matter.) And now there's been the reveal that Aang and Korra will both be in the game, likely to coincide with that Netflix series which is in production. (God, I hate this reality sometimes) Which does bring up the question; why Aang and Korra? Aren't they technically the same person? Will they be shadow fighters? Also, more importantly, are Nick exploiting their influence for this property free-for-all. 

Moralities aside for a second, I will say that the game itself doesn't look terrible. Sanitising the various mixed art styles across Nick's line-up by bringing them into a smooth 3d model reality was a bold move, but one which looks just fine across the board so far. The action looks exciting as well, and Smash Bros. could really do with some competition to encourage Nintendo to improve their internet infrastructure. (It's a mess, guys!) But even then, I just don't know how I feel about all of this for the moment. Is this a celebration of Nick or a shameless cash grab that just happened to score some competent talent in the development room? Does it even matter which it is if the final game is good? All questions that need to be asked by the individual on release night, I suppose. At the very least, this game will serve to let us beat up our childhood heroes as other childhood heroes, and isn't that just the meaning of happiness deep down?