Thank you GameMill Entertainment for sending us a review code!

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is back with twenty stages and voice-acted brawlers to fight with. The characters you know and love from popular Nickelodeon shows are ready to duke it out to see who is the strongest.

The twenty five brawlers to choose from include SpongeBob, Squidward, Patrick, Mecha Plankton, Ren & Stimpy, Raphael, Donatello, April, Grandma Gertie, Gerald, Nigel, Zim, Angry Beavers, Garfield, Aang, Korra, Azula, Danny Phantom, Ember, Jenny Wakeman, Reptar, El Tigre, Rocko, Jimmy Neutron, and Lucy Loud. Other characters like Splinter and Shredder are available to interact with, but you won’t be able to fight as them.

There are four game modes and here’s a quick breakdown of them:

Battle – If you just want to smack cartoon characters around, this is your stop. There is no backstory here, just a stage an cartoon characters looking to be the last one standing. Can you hold your ground? Pick a level and a fighter and have up to three players join in the fun. If you don’t have family or friends nearby, you can fight against AI opponents. When adding CPU players you can assign them a skill level ranging from zero to nine. The game mode can be set to stocks, timed, or stamina. You can have teams or for free for all. Items can be enabled or disabled as well.

Campaign mode – This mode starts off with SpongeBob and Patrick blowing bubbles until a portal appears and sucks Patrick into it. Another portal opens up for SpongeBob to jump through. SpongeBob must fight through hordes of enemies to save his friend so he can finish teaching him how to blow bubbles. Between fighting stages you can acquire power-ups and perks to aid you in your journey. If you fall in battle (or off of the main platform) your friend Clockwork will rewind time and bring you back to the hub where you can resume your campaign. You’ll have to start the run over from the beginning, but any characters you have unlocked and currency earned will still remain.

Online mode – If you can find people to play against online you can compete in casual or ranked matches. Sadly, I haven’t been able to find anyone online to play against.

Single Player mode – There are several minigames in this section including a Dojo where you can review the game moves or practice your brawling skills. In the Boss Rush game, you can play back-to-back boss battles to see how long you can last. Whack-A-Bot is a timed minigame where you have to destroy as many randomly appearing robots as you can in sixty seconds. Pop the Slime Balloons is another timed minigame where you have to pop as many balloons as you can before the timer runs out. The Arcade mode plays very similarly to the campaign mode, but is a little faster paced.

I’m glad to see more voice acting in this sequel, especially in the campaign mode. It can get a little repetitive in the battles though. The background music is energetic and pleasant to listen to.

Morally, there are some things worth noting. Violence is a given in brawling games. Thankfully, this title is light-hearted and free of blood and gore. There are some undead characters like Lucy Loud. Aang is reincarnated and makes references to a spirit world. Some of the characters’ abilities could be considered magic use. Ren & Stimpy are known for their potty humor and they won’t disappoint in this title with their fart attack.

Overall Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 has a lot of offer and is bound to keep players busy for a while. It’s a shame that the online mode is dead, but there’s plenty to do while playing solo. Because of the lack of multiplayer, I would hold off on paying full price. I have seen it for less than $24 on Amazon.