The Promise of a Nicktoons ARPG
I’m a 90s kid, I grew up on a healthy diet of Nicktoons shows like Spongebob Squarepants and Fairly Oddparents, as an adult, action RPGs like Diablo and Path of Exile have become some of my favorite games to play. So when I discovered that Gamemill were releasing a Nicktoons crossover game that placed some of my favorite Nickelodeon characters in a fantasy ARPG I was immediately interested. Recent years have seen many Nickelodeon crossover games, but most of them have been kart racers, fighting games, or sports games. Nicktoons and The Dice of Destiny promises to offer players a grand adventure playing as their favorite Nicktoons, and the game largely delivers a fun adventure despite a few flaws and areas where the game definitely could have used some additional polish.
A Story That Delivers the Nostalgia Trip
The story of Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny centers around the Fairly Oddparents Universe, where Timmy, Cosmo, and Wanda are playing a game of Creatures and Chasms, a fictional tabletop RPG in the mold of Dungeons and Dragons. Timmy gets bored with the game after winning too much and makes a wish that he could be in the Creatures and Chasms game for real, something goes horribly wrong with the dice Cosmo used to transport them into the game world and they somehow manage to wisk Spongebob, Sandy, Katara and other Nicktoons from their homes into the game world with them. Now they have to find all of the dice scattered across the world in order to wish everyone back home. Its an excellent story that’s told through beautifully animated cutscenes and dialogue that is authentic to the original Nicktoons characters. One thing I really love about this storyline is how believable it is as an episode of Fairly Oddparents, so many episodes of the show centered around Timmy making some wish that goes wrong and they are forced to find a way to escape a sticky situation or reverse Timmy’s wish somehow. This story setup really helped set the right tone, I felt so nostalgic watching the opening cutscene, like I was transported back to being a kid on a Saturday morning watching Fairly Oddparents.
"I felt so nostalgic watching the opening cutscene, like I was transported back to being a kid on a Saturday morning watching Fairly Oddparents"
I won’t say much more about specific storylines to avoid spoilers but the games story does a great job faithfully representing the characters in the world. Characters will often reference specific events that occurred in their cartoon or participate in running gags from the show. The hub world in the game is called The Tangle and as you progress through the game, more nicktoons characters will join you there and take up jobs as blacksmiths, healers, and various shopkeeps helping you progress your character and offering you side quests. So outside of the 9 character roster you have to play as, there are numerous additional characters who show up as side characters in the game, fully voice acted and adding to the overall charm. It took me about 7 or 8 hours to finish my first play through, and while its a relatively short runtime, the story feels tight without any fluff trying to pad things out.
An Approachable ARPG With All the Key Elements and Standout Moments
Overall this game is a faithful rendition of the ARPG genre in a package that is accessible to children while offering just enough depth for people of all ages to enjoy. You’ll find all of the staples of the genre: randomized gear drops of different rarities, a blacksmith in town to sell you new gear, various potions that give you temporary buffs, materials to upgrade your gear, and plenty of dungeons filled with enemies and bosses. It really has all of the core elements that make these games fun and is a perfect way to introduce someone to the genre. Combat in the game is fun and responsive, whether you’re casting spells with Timmy Turner or slashing down enemies with Leonardo from the Ninja Turtles you’ll feel the weight of your attacks in a responsive way that feels good to play. Some ARPGs can suffer from a floaty feel to the combat, where you see your character doing something but it doesn’t feel impactful, that typically comes from a disconnect between the animations and the sound. But here it really feels like the developers took the time to make sure all the animations and sounds respond well with your attacks. The enemy character models are really expressive in an over-the-top cartoon way that makes mowing them down super fun and rewarding.
While the moment-to-moment combat is satisfying and fun, the game really shines in two areas: (1) The boss fights and (2) the challenge pillars. Bosses in this game are very well designed, they will constantly bombard you with AOE attacks that’ll challenge you to dodge effectively and find an opening to attack. I won’t spoil all of the bosses but the first boss fight against a muscular rendition of Plankton from Spongebob sets the tone nicely. Every villian is chosen from an antagonist in one of the Nicktoons based on the zone you are in. Bosses serve as a good gear check as well making sure you have enough DPS and health to be able to take them down. The only downsides to bosses are that they exist on these largely empty levels, and if you lose or need to go back for any reason you have to run through an empty zone just to get back to the bosses lair. It would have made more sense to just have you go straight to the fight.
The second highlight of the game, which really surprised me, are these challenge pillars. They are basically these large obelisk that you come across in each level and they start a timed event that takes place in a small circle. You’ll have to defeat a certain number of enemies while avoiding some mechanic the game throws at you. In one instance, there are a bunch of chum buckets that spawn and launch hot chum at you, in another one the you must defeat enemies in the circle without taking more than 10 hits. Basically they throw these little challenges at you that really spice up the gameplay and they are honestly some of the MOST fun I’ve had playing this game. At the end there is a random dice roll that determines how much your final rewards are scaled by. It is a great source of currency, a great source of materials, a good source of gear, it is so fun and rewarding that I’m excited every time I come across these. My only issue here is that I feel like there aren’t enough of these in the game, I feel like they could have added two more of these in every stage and it would have made each level that much more enjoyable. As it stands, levels are fine, but there is definitely enough dead space in the levels where I really feel an additional challenge or two could have helped make things feel a bit more exciting.
Fun is Limited By Uneven Progression and Difficulty
Despite being an overall fun package, I do have a few major pain points with the game that I feel hold it back from being truly great. My biggest one is the character progression and difficulty. Character and level progression feels way too quick in the game. Each area has three levels you can play on that are supposed to be your “Easy”, “Normal”, and “Hard” difficulty choices. Well no matter which one you consistently choose, you will out-level the content VERY quickly. By the time I was in the second zone on the game, I was already 4 or 5 levels above the hardest difficulty for each level. This issue is exacerbated by the fact that if you buy any gear from Carl Weezer in the Tangle, that gear is tied to your level, not the level of your enemies. So it is too easy to buy a new weapon and armor from Carl that is 5 levels above your enemies and be able to defeat them easily and take little damage. This undercuts the whole gearing system in the game because your rare staff with a bunch of cool modifiers is nothing compared to the common staff with more damage you can go buy after each level-up. As I was playing through the game I really tried to turn off my ARPG nerd brain and just have fun blasting enemies but I must admit it was difficult. You only have four gear slots, and buying gear from Carl makes two of them completely obsolete. If you don’t really care about this sort of thing, it won’t bother you that much, and its not like I was expecting a super deep gearing system out of this game but I wasn’t expecting it to be completely undercut by its weapons shop.
The second pain point I have is the lack of a new game plus mode in this game. The more I think about it, the more I think a new game plus could solve a lot of the games issues. Currently the level cap in the game is 40, which I think is perfect, a new game plus mode should start at level 40 and give you the option to fight level 38, level 40, or level 45 monsters in each level for your “Easy”, “Normal”, and “Hard” difficulty options. At this point, Carl’s common level 40 gear can no longer help you power up and you’ll have to rely on the gear drops. They could increase the monster density and maybe put an additional challenge pillar in each level. It would extend the short runtime and make the game infinitely more replayable.
A Fun Adventure for Fans of Nicktoons and ARPGs
Despite the shortcomings of this game that I think hold it back from being truly great, ultimately I had a really good time going through this adventure with some of my favorite Nicktoons from my childhood. I did two playthroughs, one playing as Leonardo and another as Timmy Turner, and there is enough variety in the characters that I’m sure I’ll come back to play through the game with other characters in this roster. If you are a Nicktoons fan who loves ARPGs like me I have no doubt that you’ll get some enjoyment out of this game. Whether it is worth the $50 price tag is honestly up to you, but if you aren’t a fan of this genre it may be a good idea to wait for a sale on this one, as the ARPG fundamentals aren’t strong enough for the Nicktoons nostalgia to fully carry it on its own.