Nickelodeon has long been a staple
of fresh children’s shows to counter the commercialized world of Disney. And
just like Disney’s never-ending supply of poor-to-average quality-licensed
video games, Nickelodeon has put out one that treads on the average scale.
That’s not to say NickToons Attack
of the Toybots is a bad game by any means; however, it just becomes mundane and
repetitive. But now I’m getting ahead of myself. Attack of the Toybotts plays
out just like a serial Saturday morning cartoon: when Dr. Calamitous – an evil
scientist, no less – begins building evil robots and even mechanized versions of
our heroes, Spongebob, Danny Phantom, Timmy Turner,
Jimmy Neutron, and Tak. (Did I just recite all of those characters from memory?
– ughhh) More characters unlock as you go along.
This game
is quite simply a button-mashing beat-em-up, and to be honest, that is my least
favorite type of game. Not only is it a beat-em-up but it only requires one
button!
Granted
that one button can both attack and charge attack. The enemies in the standard
level file out of a spawn point, and just walk straight at you; there is no
attempt to revolutionize gameplay here. I will just say this straight out,
though: this game is twice as fun with a friend.
It features a single-cartridge, multiplayer co-op
that you can play through the whole game with. So your friend doesn’t need the
game to play through the game with you.
The
repetitiveness of the game is geared toward the young audience of this game, but
geez, it sure get does repetitive. It’s not only the button mashing that does
it, each level is laid out in the same fashion: Enemies, touch-screen gimmick to
unlock a door, enemies, gimmick, mech, and mini-boss. The mech you enter at the
end of each level changes it up, but it loses its novelty the second
time you have to do it. Between each level similarly is a racing section (oh yeah)
followed by the main boss. The sections do break up the monotony, but even they
get old. To fight the boss, you enter a first-person view while you’re in the mech
and shoot bolts (did I forget to mention that you’re collecting bolts the whole
game?) at the boss.
The
dialogue in the game is actually written pretty well and retains the flavor and
wit of the cartoons. As you can probably deduce, most of the game is just so
over the top, that it almost seems to poke fun at itself. (Did I mention you
collect bolts?)
Finally,
the use of 3-D graphics works pretty well but only the backgrounds and the mechs
are in 3-D, juxtaposed against the cartoon characters. The characters
animations are fairly simple, but they work well as 2-D – since they are
cartoons.
Review Scoring Details for Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots |
Gameplay: 6.5
When I hear button-mashing, I am immediately turned off. Button-mashing is a
very bland and reused mechanic to push gameplay forward. The characters would
have benefited from more touch controls or extra moves – or something.
Graphics: 8.0
The graphical look is very nice and the 3-D backgrounds work well against 2-D
characters. The levels are highly varied, as well.
Sound: 7.0
Solid music but the game could have benefited from actual voiced characters. Still, it really doesn’t detract from the game because of the well-written
dialogue.
Difficulty: Easy
Concept: 8.0
The license is used very well and making references to other Nick characters in
the Gallery is nostalgic.
Multiplayer: 8
This game is much better with a friend to button-mash with; and the single-cart
multiplayer is a great way to make friends!
Overall: 7.2
If you love Nick cartoons and you have a friend with the game, you will probably
love this game. However, if you’re like me and have fond memories of
Nickelodeon shows long gone, and detest the button-mashing formula, then you
will probably not enjoy this game. While I have not played any other
Nickelodeon-licensed games on the DS, I couldn’t imagine finding one better than
this to take on the go.
