Nicktoons Unite!

Nickelodeon (and Disney) rules the cable world when it comes to creative programming for children. At any time of day, you can tune in to one of their channels and see some odd, clever creations from their bottomless think tank. They wrangled the likes of SpongeBob SquarePants, Jimmy Neutron, Danny Phantom and Timmy (from the Fairly Odd Parents). Under the moniker of Nicktoons, they bombard the eyes and ears with offbeat, catchy shows that grab you by the shoulders and demand your attention. These aren’t subtle, mellow cartoons by any means. Crude, trendy animation with over-the-top characters and villains. Sounds like a good recipe for a video game. So, THQ made one and called it Nicktoons Unite! Each cartoon character has an “arch nemesis” that torments them on their show, so they took these four characters, and the villains, and made a video game that makes them all interact. Let the cartoon chaos commence!

The objective is to use your characters (all of them) to complete levels and stop the evil Professor Calamitous from ruling the world. Using the talents of the other evil (or just mean-spirited!) foes, they all make it hard to find the necessary Nano-chips so they can activate the Transporter on each level. Do that, and proceed to the next one ... and next one. You can play with two characters on the screen at one time, but you will have to use the various talents from every character to complete the levels. So, you may be playing with Danny and Timmy, but have to use a Character Teleporter to swap Timmy for SpongBob to use his talents. Or, maybe someone is running low on energy and you need to make a strategic switch before you take another hit and have to go back to a (annoying) starting point. It’s a team-effort to get all of this done.

It plays like many, many games with this same concept from the past. While the movements are nice and the bad guys are easy to identify, it doesn’t play like anything new. Despite this grouping having never existed before, it feels like you’ve played it before. Example: It’s identical to such games as the Justice League game from recent years. Jump, crawl and float along to various rooms to shut down a Portal while collecting the chips and completing the level. It is not a bad game, but just very tired and worn out. If this were a different target group (young players), I might give it some more credit, but the other games that come to mind are also for that market—so it’s just the same thing for the same group. With a first-shot at success with this collection of heroes, I had hoped for the boundaries to be pushed and to do things that were not as familiar and tired.

It was fun for a few minutes to switch characters and test their powers, but the novelty wore off as you realize how weak everyone is. It is not an easy feat to swap out one of your two onscreen for a new one. You have to locate the special portal and bring them in. Then, in some cases, get rid of them right after they’ve served their purpose (which means backtracking to the portal again) if they are weak or otherwise useless. I loathed playing with SpongeBob, who is the most famous of all in this troupe. He comes in handy when his sponge-body can be used, but then he’s a liability. I like Danny’s firepower, but if you try to use anyone too much, they don’t last long and you have to start over. The non-lead character will follow close behind the one you’re using at the time, but I found that the second character would sometimes fall too far behind and you have to retreat to let them catch up to you. All forward progress is lost during that annoying cycle. Going forward and beating away the baddies, only to have to go back for slow-poke Jimmy and then face the same foes again is insanely aggravating. They don’t all seem to be able to move at the same pace.

The graphics are very nice, but minimal. Due to the GBA’s screen size, you can’t easily see where you need to be. That adds some challenge which makes you feel like you’re in a maze-game, but it’s a hindrance. The characters look nice, and the foes are easy to identify. They don’t blend, unfairly, into the background. The insides of structures are kind of crude and minimal in “décor.” Oh well, it’s not a museum.

The music is scarce and a non-factor. You can turn it off, but I let it go at a low volume. They didn’t spend much time on sound effects, as the action sounds are minor blips and chirps you’d expect from a handheld game.

It isn’t a horrible game to play. The idea of teaming those various characters together works nicely, but not in a fresh way. I had really hoped I would not need to play all of the characters in order to get through it, but I did. That proved to be annoying and counter-productive. To get to an area only to find that you need to backtrack to locate the portal from which you can bring someone else into the game, was frustrating. I love a challenge — but not like that. There is a long, descriptive written narration at the game’s start. More or less, it tells you that the bad guys want to rule the world, and you need to stop them. But, they take pages and pages of dialog to get that message across. Hit Start and skip it. Pick your two players and go at it. I wish I could recommend a specific one for success, but since you have to use them all, it’s useless. If you just jump in and play, there’s enough hinting and prompting to help you through it. At least it has that going for it.  

Gameplay: 6.0
The game is easy to navigate as any of the players. They jump and double-jump pretty well, which always helps. The buttons are easy to figure out when it comes time to use a special power, or quickly switch players from your lead to the backup in a pinch.  

Graphics: 6.5 
It looks nice enough for a game of this kind, and some of the faces are even digitized from a computer model. They stand out against the others one the screen. They are not all like that, so when you see them, you know. It’s wise to not try and enhance every character like that, as the game would have enough juice left for maybe one level! The rooms are sparse and empty. That makes it easy to locate an objective, but doesn’t help much for the visuals.    

Sound: 6.0
The music is subtle but still worth removing altogether. It’s heard just enough to make you want to hear something else. The sounds from blasting a bad guy are simple and short. There’s nothing like bringing in a heavy-hitter like Danny Phantom and see him blast out a shot to a resounding “ping” noise!    

Difficulty: Easy
Aside from the aggravating slow second player (who falls behind too easily), it’s easy to pick up and play. The plot is simple and the moves are basic enough to comprehend. Thankfully, it’s a GBA and the buttons are few.  

Concept: 5.0 
The game is old. Not in it’s release date, but just the way it plays and feels. There are a few (young audience) games like it already out there. Why they chose to blow this chance to be special with this ensemble is beyond me. Aside from the characters and their moves, there isn’t much (new) to see here at all.  

Overall: 6.0
I will chalk this up to falling short of a great idea. I think the thought was in the right place, but the execution was poor. Throwing some cleverly created characters all in one game is fun, but the opportunity was wasted. It is frustrating to play a character that you loathe using, but are forced to. Some of them just do not feel “sturdy” enough to use much. You end up tagging them in, only to make them walk behind a better player. Swap him in for a quick need, and then get rid of them immediately. I liked Danny’s firepower, but using any one character too much is unwise. It would be better if the others had some other strengths that could compete with the favorite(s) you have out there. But, they seem unbalanced. Whenever possible, I used the same two guys as much as I could because I could depend on their abilities. This will vary for the player’s style, however. I like to charge forward with a strong shooter. If you don’t play so aggressively, you may favor some of the others, and I respect that difference. So, for me, this is a game that is old and not worth running out to get. But, if you just have a blind allegiance for the channel and the lineup, there may be some fun hidden in that game — just for you. For me, I’ll stick with enjoying them on another screen for now.