Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is a follow-up to 2021’s one-to-four-player Nicktoon platform fighter of the same name. This time with a fully-fledged roguelike campaign and a weighty overhaul to the combat, the Nicktoons must rescue their fellow fighters from Vlad Plasmius’ mind control and restore the Nickelodeon Universe to its rightful state.

The campaign sees you take on a selection of randomly generated levels in a roguelike-style journey to reach the boss of each world. These levels can be simple waves of enemies, 1vs1 battles against CPU, minigames that require you to pop balloons, or vendors to purchase perks and consumables from. It’s not the most entertaining campaign formula and becomes rather repetitive after nothing more than a handful of levels. Outside of the campaign you can duke it out in 1v1, 2v2, or free-for-all online or local multiplayer modes.

The combat overhaul has made every movement feel weightier and play out much slower compared to the hyperactive chaos of the first title. Every attack now gives a much better connection when landed thanks to the improved sound and visual effects. All the characters have their own unique move sets and special ultimate abilities, oozing with charm and personality. From SpongeBob SquarePants hopping into a car with Mrs Puff to run over his foes to Garfield’s food fever dream crushing you with desserts, there’s a wide range of references to the shows the characters star in.

Unfortunately, during our time with the game, we experienced frequent crashing and the occasional visual glitch, but it’s nothing that a few patches down the line won’t resolve.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is a much tighter, more focused platform fighter than the first entry in the series, with more gratifying combat and some truly imaginative move sets. Although its campaign is repetitive and there are frequent crashes to contend with, this sequel still manages to land a solid knockout blow here.