''Cartoon Network: Battle Crashers'' is a
side-scrolling beat 'em up
The beat 'em up (also known as brawler and, in some markets, beat 'em all) is a video game genre featuring hand-to-hand combat against a large number of opponents. Traditional beat 'em ups take place in scrolling, two-dimensional (2D) levels, ...
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
based on multiple
Cartoon Network series developed by French studio Magic Pockets and published by GameMill Entertainment in the North American release and Maximum Games in the European release. It was released for
Nintendo 3DS,
PlayStation 4, and
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
on 8 November 2016. A
Nintendo DS version was also going to be released but was cancelled, as GameMill Entertainment's page for the game shows a cover for a Nintendo DS version. The game features characters from various
Cartoon Network shows, including ''
Adventure Time
''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...
'', ''
The Amazing World of Gumball
''The Amazing World of Gumball'' is an animated sitcom created by Ben Bocquelet for Cartoon Network. The series concerns the lives of 12-year-old Gumball Watterson, an anthropomorphic blue cat, and adoptive goldfish brother Darwin, who attend ...
'', ''
Clarence Clarence may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Clarence County, New South Wales, a Cadastral division
* Clarence, New South Wales, a place near Lithgow
* Clarence River (New South Wales)
* Clarence Strait (Northern Territory)
* City of Clarence, a l ...
'', ''
Regular Show'', ''
Steven Universe
''Steven Universe'' is an American animated television series created by Rebecca Sugar for Cartoon Network. It tells the coming-of-age story of a young boy, Steven Universe ( Zach Callison), who lives with the Crystal Gems—magical, mineral ...
'', and ''
Uncle Grandpa
''Uncle Grandpa'' is an American animated television series created by Peter Browngardt for Cartoon Network. It ran from September 2, 2013 to June 30, 2017. It is based on Browngardt's animated short of the same name from the unaired '' Cartoons ...
''.
The game received extremely
negative reviews from several
video game journalist
Video game journalism is a branch of journalism concerned with the reporting and discussion of video games, typically based on a core "reveal–preview–review" cycle. With the prevalence and rise of independent media online, online publicati ...
s, who panned it as a repetitive and boring beat 'em up with bland representations of otherwise unique characters. A port for the
Nintendo Switch was released on 31 October 2017.
Plot
Uncle Grandpa is driving his
RV when he accidentally gears it to smash through the universes of other Cartoon Network shows, unknowingly picking up Gumball, Clarence, Steven Universe, Mordecai and Rigby from ''Regular Show'', and Finn and Jake from ''Adventure Time''. They then have to set out to defeat an army of "Mirror Clones", evil shard clones presumably formed after breaking through the dimensions.
Gameplay
The player takes control of six characters from various Cartoon Network shows: Uncle Grandpa, Gumball, Clarence, Steven Universe, Mordecai and Rigby, and Finn and Jake. Each character has a unique set of attacks and abilities. They progress through six worlds based on their respective series, each of which has two normal levels and a boss fight. Each normal level also has a secret bonus room that requires one of the characters' abilities to access. Sometimes, the player is required to replay a previous level in one of three special modes to collect a hidden item needed to advance.
The levels consist of going through an area and defeating enemies, from which the characters can collect gems and gain new abilities. Throughout the levels are hazards emanating from piles of shards that can be cleared by a certain character's abilities. The characters, who have their respective health bars, can pick up health-restoring items and special power-ups like
walkie-talkie
A walkie-talkie, more formally known as a handheld transceiver (HT), is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, ...
s.
The game can be played in local co-op with up to four players.
Development
The game was announced on 17 August 2016. A trailer for the game was released the same day.
Reception
''Cartoon Network: Battle Crashers'' received negative reviews from several
video game critics
Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...
for mainly being a monotonous and boring beat-'em-up title with a lack of representation of the unique personalities and traits of each playable character.
The
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
gave the game a simplified rating of 21 out of 100, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews";
it is the lowest-rated
Nintendo 3DS game on the website. A reviewer for the ''
Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...
'' described it as a "glorified
browser flash game," and wrote that "Real talent goes into making something this bland out of characters as interesting as these."
''
PlayStation LifeStyle
Mandatory (formerly CraveOnline Media) is a lifestyle website based in Los Angeles with sales offices in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. The site is owned by media company Evolve Media, LLC. Mandatory focuses its contents into the male- ...
'' was another publication that wrote it had the feel of a cheaply-made flash game: "Quite frankly, this feels like a Flash or Unity game, that someone decided to greenlight as a full console release."
Specific criticisms include a small number of types of enemies that are defeated primarily with
button mashing;
forgettable background music and sound effects; lack of dialogue, including a complete absence of
voice acting
Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...
; lack of personality for the playable characters and
NPCs; unbalanced character attacks, with characters other than Finn and Jake being near-useless aside from clearing hazards; and low difficulty.
Some reviewers also criticized the padding of the game's length due to the fact that the player has to replay certain stages just to get an otherwise useless hidden item.
Jed Whitaker of ''
Destructoid
''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017, and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022.
History
...
'' also noted that the game significantly deviated from its source material, and was especially harsh towards the treatment of ''Steven Universe'' material in the game — for example, he disliked the fact that Steven's primary attack in the game is a bubble, while in the actual show, the bubble is used only for protection or capturing corrupted gems, but never for attacking.
Notes
References
2016 video games
Crossover beat 'em ups
Nintendo 3DS eShop games
Nintendo 3DS games
PlayStation 4 games
Xbox One games
Nintendo Switch games
Cancelled Nintendo DS games
GameMill Entertainment games
Magic Pockets games
Video games developed in France
Video games developed in Australia
Video games scored by Allister Brimble
Cartoon Network video games
Video games based on television series
Side-scrolling beat 'em ups
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Cooperative video games
Torus Games games
Maximum Games games
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