Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny
Developer: Fair Play Labs/ Petit Fabrik
Publisher: GameMill Entertainment
Platforms: Switch, PC, Playstation 5 (Reviewed), Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $49.99 – Available Here
Overview
A couple of gaming generations ago, the words “licensed game” felt like a curse. Those quick money grabs did nothing to assist their IPs from evolving in the format and scared away a lot of consumers from that market in the process. Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny comes after a lot of decent efforts and change – however. This title tackles the action-RPG market, giving us an unexpected blend of nostalgia and competent mechanics that pay tribute to the famous orange heritage, years after relevancy. How does this one hold up? Let’s find out.
Story
There is a lot going on in the story for this one. Players start Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny in what feels like an episode of Fairly Odd-Parents. Timmy makes a wish, ends up in a game set in another world with Cosmo and Wanda, and an adventure begins. You know the drill if you were fond of the Nicktoon. Shortly after, it is discovered that several other Nickelodeon characters were also warped to this Universe, and now they must work together to recover “the dice of destiny” and return home safely.
You know, the story here may be the strongest part of the experience. Players get to see a lot of characters such as SpongeBob, Sandy, Suzie Carmichael, and even some deep cuts, and while it doesn’t make a ton of sense on paper, this narrative does well of tying together reasoning well enough to enjoy the little tale told here. Sure, the iconic personalities are all here, but there are a lot of random little one-liners and secrets that do well to scratch at everyone’s fond childhood memories. This title goes all the way back to Rugrats and through the late 90’s, to the 2000’s, and even today (it is still really weird to see TMNT as a Nicktoon, by the way), which bodes well for those looking to capture not just one – but multiple generations of kids’ heroes with a decent experience overall.
Gameplay
While the story is fun, the gameplay was a bit worrisome as GameMill are not always known for publishing hard-hitters. Let me get this out of the way first. Dice of Destiny is easy. I mean, really easy. I don’t think I had one death in this game whatsoever, as there are so many ways to heal and buff your character, that it is hard to really find much challenge outside of maybe one or two boss fights, even with the ability to raise the difficulty level before each zone. With that said, the gameplay isn’t bad.
Think of it as Diablo for kids. Players can take on world after world, loot, level up, and progress forward. It’s repetitive, simple control system works, and I really have no complaints as I never had an issue traversing worlds as the gameplay is very accessible. Outside of the usual hub-world, players go from one area to the next made up of stages. Each stage has enemies and loot scattered throughout, so the player must smash pots and barrels to gain coin, which they can return for upgrades at a later time. Sure, the depth here for the skill trees and actual combat is lacking, but there is something cathartic about just mind-numbingly smashing things with random powers.
There are nine playable characters, and while each play mostly the same, each have their own attacks that can be acquired as they level. For example, SpongeBob starts with a standard spatula smash. He then earns a jellyfish net for power attacks, and later other themed abilities that can restore health (such as the “pretty patty”) and dish out major damage. Each character has a good number of these attacks, and most come inspired by moments within their own television program. It’s kind of fun to see them all play out, and most outside of healing feel useful, even if the difficulty never really warrants anything above the standard fare.
Boss battles are fine, as it is mainly just an enemy with a large health bar. These foes have special attacks and other obstacles to watch out for, but never really prove to be anything too threatening throughout. There are also “challenge” sections of stages that have waves of enemies, but again – there isn’t a lot to really feel danger from in such an easy experience. Say what you will, but I didn’t hate this. I think modern games spend too much time trying to punish the player. Most fans of these shows are in their adult lives now, and this acts as a nice, mindless break from all of that. The difficulty is a bit of a problem, but it’s also not something to really complain about either as I found the game fun, and playing with a friend or two is even better.
Audio
The audio in this game is where I secretly screamed for joy as almost every single original voice actor have reprised their roles in big ways for this title. We get Tom Kenny. We get Tara Strong. These are actors who most thought would never be able to reprise their characters, and they are all here, which is awesome. There are times when the combat dialogue (or grunts if you will) gets a little too repetitive, but mostly everything is welcome and joyous in terms of nostalgia. There were some audio hiccups in my playthrough as co-op had myself and a friend noticing that our characters were using each other’s sounds when attacked, but this is mainly minor and not as much of an intrusion as it sounds. Nick really brought it all together here and even the music and other sounds are all on point with the rest of the production.
Visuals
Visually, the animation style is all done in the same manner with 2D characters put in this world, but they look fine and despite a couple returning faces sometimes feeling a bit out of place, each of costumes and a ton of charm to unlock, giving further reason for progression. The game doesn’t always look stellar, but the environments are decent enough and I never had much issue with resolution or frame drops, despite the amount of chaos on screen. It’s not bad at all here.
Overall
Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny is a fine and welcome homage to a past era. It really feels like it was developed with a lot of love and thought, and despite its lack of difficulty, I think it will be remembered as being one of the best Nicktoons titles to hit consoles thus far. There are a lot of things in this industry to complain about, and this title kind of reminds us that games can have good intentions and not everything is a cash-grab. With a fun story, solid gameplay, and one of the best voice casts in the history of licensed titles, Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny is a winner and may be one of the best ways to introduce your next generation to the past.