Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl has the fighting game community (FGC) and fans of both new and classic Nickelodeon shows excited to jump into some chaotic action while controlling classic characters. But as more content from the game gets shown off ahead of its fall release, fans have started voicing their concerns over certain aspects of the fighting game that might be missing compared to other titles.
One of the biggest concerns among fans is the sound design for All-Star Brawl, mostly in regard to the absence of voice acting and iconic music from the shows of characters featured in the game.
During the gameplay showcases for various characters, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Patrick Star, and more, the lack of voice clips is apparent. None of the fighters make noticeable sound beyond various sound effects to emphasize impacts or interactions.
Overall, this doesn’t make the game look any less fun to play. But compared to titles like Super Smash Bros. or Street Fighter that are rich with voice lines of characters yelling out their attacks or grunting at being hit, All-Star Brawl feels just a little flat.
It’s unclear why exactly this decision was made, but in an interview with Game Informer, Ludosity CEO Joel Nyström clarified that it was more important to make the game fun.
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“Our focus was on creating the best possible gameplay experience for core brawling fans and Nickelodeon fans around the globe,” Nyström said. “It is not as straightforward to do as one might think, and as we continue to build the Nick All-Star Brawl franchise, we will be reviewing all options, which may include adding VO down the road.”
This doesn’t mean that Ludosity and co-developer Fair Play Labs made this decision lightly. It’s likely that there were limitations in the budget or development timeline that led to voices being excluded to this point. But the teams were still determined to put out a quality product under those potential constraints.
This is something that could be changed post-launch, as Nyström said. Players might get a chance to enjoy their favorite characters battling it out while belting iconic catchphrases and lines in the future.
