With both Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl and Super Smash Bros Ultimate in the news lately, as one was just recently released and the other just came out with its final DLC character, it seemed like a good time to compare the two a bit.
It’s clear as day that these two games have a lot in common, and Super Smash Bros Ultimate was likely referenced quite a bit by developers Ludosity while Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl was being made. That said, the two games are obviously in entirely different realms in terms of budget, priveledges, and so on. So, we'll be talking about some major differences between the two, but this is all in good fun and is not some attempt to demean either game.
8 No Shield Rolls For Nickelodeon
First up is the fact that NASB has no Shield Roll or Spot Dodge mechanic. Rather than “Shielding”, players press the “Defend” input in NASB. This differs from Ultimate's Shield mechanic in a few key ways, but the one players will most likely notice first is the fact that defending in NASB feels very "locked-down" since the player doesn't have many maneuvering options while their defense is up.
In Ultimate, players can shield, then spot dodge or dodge roll in any direction, giving themselves a decent amount of I-Frames to avoid any incoming attacks. This also allows them to use their shield as a feint, tricking enemies into getting close before they spot dodge out of the shield and attack. Both the "Defend" and "Shield" mechanics in these games obviously have a lot of thought behind them, but NASB's does take a bit of getting used to.
7 All-Star Brawl Is Real Fast
The funny thing is, while the speed of NASB’s combat is wildly different from Smash Ultimate's, it’s actually similar to another Smash Bros game, Super Smash Bros Melee. SSBM is still an incredibly popular game that sees competitive play even in worldwide tournaments, and a big reason for that is the high skill-ceiling thanks to the fast-paced combat. In comparison, both Brawl and Smash Ultimate feel a lot more "floaty" with lighter gravity and weight behind attacks overall.
And while NASB isn’t exactly on the same level as Melee it does have combat speed comparable to it, which immediately drew longtime fans of the Gamecube fighter to this new platform brawler, which is why character tier lists seemed to come out so shockingly fast.
6 Standard & Heavy Attacks Are Separate Inputs In NASB
This next aspect is likely the thing players transferring from Smash Ultimate to NASB will struggle the most with, and it's the fact that light and heavy attacks are separated into two different inputs with All-Star Brawl.
In Smash, players had standard attacks, tilt attacks, and smash attacks, with the input for each depending on the direction and strength on the control stick (using default controls), while the "button" used for both was the same. Now, in NASB, players have both light and heavy attacks, and both of them have their own inputs as well. Mixing this up is an incredibly common mistake, and it's luckily one that doesn't seem to take too long to fix either.
5 No Items & Ultimate Moves For These Nickelodeon Icons
Even attempting to compare All-Star Brawl to Smash Ultimate in terms of content feels absurd, since Ultimate might be one of the most densely packed video games of all time. It has hundreds of stages, 82 total playable characters (a roster almost too big to remember), thousands of songs, multiple story modes, and more. Masahiro Sakurai seemingly has a passion for designing games that people can play for an astronomical amount of time, and Ultimate is his best work in that respect.
So, again, it's unfair to compare a project like this with All-Star Brawl, but it should be noted that Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl does not have any of the special competitive modes Ultimate has, nor does it have any items or anything comparable to “Final Smashes”. It’s a platform fighter through and through that put its online playability and overall polish over everything else.
4 Smash Has The Omega & Battlefield Variants
Next up let’s talk about NASB’s stages. Now, all of the stages in this game obviously reference the shows the playable characters within the game come from. Stages such as The Loud House, Catdog’s House, or even The Flying Dutchman are all pretty clear about what show they’re from, while stages like The Dump and Powdered Toast Trouble are a bit less immediately clear about what show they're referencing.
But, the other unique aspect about the stages in this game is their designs, since each stage is built to have a certain size, number of platforms, and so on. This seems normal, of course, but in comparison to Smash Ultimate, it is just a tad lacking.
In Ultimate, every single stage is also fully designed, but they also have their Omega and Battlefield variants that can be chosen for players who prefer more aerial characters or ones who like it simple. All this really amounts to is the fact that All-Star Brawl players will likely need to memorize which stages have platforms and where which is still a relatively noticeable difference between the two titles.
3 Smash Has The "World Of Light"
Once again, this comparison is entirely unfair, and another example of why is the fact that NASB actually has a relatively acceptable level of Story Mode content. Usually, in fighting games, an Arcade mode is the baseline players can expect, with some standout games like Mortal Kombat or Guilty Gear adding an overly expansive or innovative story mode into the mix.
But, Smash Ultimate takes this another step entirely with its “World of Light” Story Mode that almost entirely changes the standard of what a fighting game story mode should be like, making NASB's already sort of "barebones" Arcade Mode seem more sparse in comparison.
2 All-Star Brawl Actually Has Good Netcode
Moving onto the one big aspect that All-Star Brawl inarguably has on Smash Ultimate by leaps and bounds, the online playability. The online services in Nintendo Games usually leave a lot to be desired, especially for fighting games.
Because a match between two players needs to accurately translate frame-perfect inputs between two consoles, mediocre netcode can feel a lot more offensive than it would if the game being played was less dependant on precise actions. And, Smash Ultimate's online feels pretty bad (most of the time), while NASB has online that uses the rollback netcode that desperately needs to become the standard for all fighters in the future.
1 No Alternate Spongebob Costumes
And lastly, let’s talk about Alternate Costumes. In most fighting games, the playable characters have a variety of different skins or recolors players can choose from to make their main feel more “individual” to them. Mortal Kombat has all the cosmetics people can unlock, Street Fighter 4 has hundreds of costumes, and even Skullgirls has tons of intricate recolors that reference characters in a variety of different media.
Well, Smash, once again, took it above and beyond by giving quite a few of the playable cast individual costumes such as Fierce Deity Link, Shirtless Sephiroth, or all of Sora's different outfits. And, sadly, NASB doesn’t have any alternate costumes, nor does it have even alternate colors. Hopefully, these are added soon, because there’s so much potential for what costumes and recolors these iconic characters could have, or any future DLC characters, from Karate Training Spongebob to Book 3 Avatar Aang and so much more.