Last October, after a surprising amount of hype, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl debuted on all major platforms. While the game was well-received, one big complaint arose from the lack of voiced characters, making the whole thing feel a bit quiet and dead, especially compared to its competition. But now, a new update out today has added voice lines for the entire cast of animated superstars and usable items.
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Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a Smash Bros.-like fighting game that features a variety of cartoon characters from a wide range of Nickelodeon shows, including SpongeBob, Avatar, Invader Zim, and CatDog. When it was announced the mix of nostalgic fan favorites and memes helped get a lot of people excited. That excitement only grew when it became clear that the devs making this game were trying to make a serious, polished brawler—complete with great net code and, err, wavedashing (whatever that is).
Feelings on it cooled somewhat upon release as it felt a bit underbaked to some players. As mentioned, one big criticism was All-Star Brawl’s lack of character voices. Considering some of these characters are famous for their iconic voices and quotes, it left many disappointed. Today’s update finally fixes that.
Here’s the list of participating actors tweeted by Ludiosty earlier today:
Janet Varney – KorraCarolyn Lawrence – SandyFrancesca Marie Smith – HelgaTownsend Coleman – MichelangeloBilly West – Ren & StimpyDavid Kaufman – Danny PhantomJim Cummings – Shredder/Catdog (Cat)Tom Kenny – SpongeBob/CatDog (Dog)Cam Clarke – LeonardoFrank Welker – GarfieldBill Fagerbakke – PatrickRichard Horvitz – ZimFred Tatasciore – Reptar (Paramount+ reboot)Bentley Griffin – Lincoln LoudJessica DiCicco – Lucy LoudJanice Kawaye – JennyAlex Cazares – OblinaJim Meskimen – Nigel ThornberryVivian Vencer – TophDustin Sardella – AangAbby Trott – April O’NeilDavid Kaye – Powdered Toast Man
The voice actor for Jimmy Neutron’s father Hugh also confirmed that his character, who is being added to the game later this year via another update, will come fully voiced.
Our own Ian Walker enjoyed Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl last year, pointing out that even though the game had some rough graphics and lacked character voices at the time, it could still find an audience with dedicated fighting game fans and Smash Bros. vets.
While Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is far from perfect, that’s never stopped a game from being tournament viable before. Just look at the original Super Smash Bros. I don’t know what possessed Nickelodeon to support the development of a competitive fighting game, but I’m glad Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl exists, especially for its potential to remove Nintendo’s stranglehold on the genre.
As for why voiced characters weren’t already in the game, the developers haven’t yet responded to Kotaku’s request for comment, but at launch it was assumed to be a budget issue. Now that the game is out and has potentially sold enough copies, perhaps the devs were able to get more money to pay all these actors. The timing of this new update is also interesting, as the game is one of the three PS Plus games for June, through which it will be available starting tomorrow.
While the big news from this new update is the addition of voiced characters, Ludosity also added new in-game battle items, too. Some of these newly added items include the Krabby Patty from SpongeBob, the log from Ren & Stimpy, and Reptar from Rugrats.