Professor Calamitous is out to win the TV reality show, The Biggest Genius, and will stoop to any methods to do precisely that. As part of his nefarious scheme, he has come up with a “foolproof” plan to make an army of toys to conquer the world of television.

As part of his foolproof plan, he has kidnapped some of the famous Nicktoons characters and has scanned them, incorporating their appearance and abilities into his toybots. To the rescue are other members of the Nicktoons family.

“But, you don’t understand,” Calamitous grates, “this plan is foolproof!”

As the show’s host says, “we shall see, there is still a long ways to go.”

Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots is an innocuous little program from THQ for the GameBoy Advance. It has the sprite-driven graphics, the irritating looped music and the shallow plotline that one might think a title like this would have. Part of the problem is that this is formulaic gameplay that is hoping to cater to fans of the various shows (Jimmy Neutron, Spongebob Squarepants, Tak, Timmy Turner, and Danny Phantom all make appearances) and while geared to the young, this is a game that never aspires to be much more than a generic platformer.

The game begins with the Fairly OddParents freeing one of the captives. Which one is freed is entirely up to the game, and to its credit, the game does a nice job in depicting the individual heroes. However, the graphics, while serviceable, really can’t make up for the tried-and-true, but tired, gameplay mechanics. This is a platformer that incorporates the collecting, double-jumping, standard and special attack routines that have been part of the video-game industry since the advent of handhelds. As you traverse the large levels, you will have to use the controls to chart a course, fight off minions, like the banana-throwing robotic monkeys in the first jungle level, and then fight a boss battle at the end (the duplicate of the level’s hero).

The game does have a number of checkpoints along the mostly linear level path.

As you move through the levels, the abilities of the Nicktoons will get slight upgrades that have a surface appeal but really do not change the general gameplay much.

The controls are easy to use and even younger children should not have a problem here. The sound is basic and repetitive.

Graphically the game does a decent job with the Nicktoon heroes. The abilities stay true to the characters (Tak uses a blowgun, Danny Phantom uses a ghost ray, and so on) and even the characters read well against the two-dimensional backdrops. The game uses typed text to carry the story line, and that means hitting a button to advance the text. The levels are also rather linear in nature. Sure, you can take a few detours to collect more gems, but you generally have to move to the exit/boss battle in a certain way. The only variant is when you get to drive a mech, but even then, the formula is the same.

Attack of the Nicktoons is a game that could have been much better than it is. It had a storyline that seemed culled straight from television, and the cast is decent. But the game, instead of utilizing the characters in a compelling way, settles for being a mediocre and generic platformer.

Gameplay: 5.0
Most of the platforming cliches make an appearance in this game. It could have been a much better title, but instead the developers went for an easier approach – likely for a younger target audience – and the game just does not rise above mediocrity.

Graphics: 7.0
The game does a good job of rendering out the various Nicktoon characters and keeping them in line with the abilities demonstrated by their television counterparts.  

Sound: 5.0
A few effects find repetition, along with what passes for a musical score.

Difficulty: Easy

Concept: 5.5
The idea was there, but the follow-through simply was not. This is a game that might have been able to give a few new twists on a platforming title, considering the variety of Nicktoons featured, but instead this is just a typical outing in the genre.

Overall: 5.6
Lots of hitting a button to advance the typed text, looped music that gets old after three-four minutes and generic platforming – this is a game that did not aspire to be much more than a cliché-driven title. The cast is decent and represented well, but that’s about the best that Attack of the Toybots achieves.