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I am both a cartoon junkie and a long time Super Smash player. So when I heard that Crave Games was making a Super Smash Bros. clone with Cartoon Network characters, I was absolutely thrilled.

Featuring characters from old Cartoon Cartoons like Dexter's Lab and Powerpuff Girls to newer ones like Chowder and The Misadventures of Flapjack, the game definitely will invoke a sense of nostalgia for older players while providing the younger ones characters that they'll be familiar with. The game is also filled to the brim with tiny little references to specific episodes. Samurai Jack saying "jump good" or Blossom having ice breath and Bubbles being hardcore are really something that any Cartoon Network fan can laugh at.

Gameplay wise, the game is, as expected, very similar to Super Smash Bros. Like the Nintendo classic, the object of the game is do deal damage to up to 3 opponents in order to make it easier to knock them off one of the four sides of the screen. All characters have standing attacks, tilt attacks, and "knock out attacks" which are chargeable regular attacks used to knock opponents out. They also have special attacks that are have unique properties and can are either ranged or high damaging. Some of these attacks are pretty straight forward, like Buttercup's ranged fireballs or Dexter's laser gun. Others are technical like Samurai Jack's counter, Vilgax's shield, or Grim's undead spirit blast....thing.  Each character as five attacks of each type, but basically, if you played Smash Bros. then you'll know exactly how to play.

Some other mechanics that were, um, "inspired" by Smash Bros. include the block dodge (holding the block button, and dodge rolling), air dodging, grabs, and final smashes called "punch time explosions". Grabs are kinda weird because you can't choose a direction to throw them in, break out of them, hit grabbed enemies, or chain together attacks with them. Punch time explosions are big finisher type attacks that often do a ton of damage, but instead of waiting for some kind of item to show up and breaking them, you collect these blue cubes that you beat out of your opponents and wait for a gauge to fill up on the bottom screen. When it does, you hit the button and watch the super attack go off.

The attacks are actually really cool, with Billy and Mandy form changing into their "Chicken Ball Z form" and the Powerful Girls, having the Landmaster equivalent, each having large spherical auras that fly around but with different attributes. Most of the characters have super attacks, but they're still quite fun to see and unleash.

The game takes more from Smash Bros. by having items drop randomly on the stage. These items however are much less interesting than Smash Bros. as they take the form of throwable items like bombs and white vials, melee weapons like a scythe or a candy sword, or ranged weapons like a soda bottle spread shooter and a ray gun. The best part item however has to be the assist characters that act like the assist trophies from Brawl. A lot of characters show us as assists, including Johnny Bravo who shows up on a bike, Numbah 2 who flies by in a plane, Aku who takes the form of a dragon and hits everyone in sight, and Fred Fredburger who runs around hitting people with a frying pan. Sadly, the game gives the options to customize multiplayer battles by adjusting time, number of lives, and *sigh* the frequency of items.

There is also a story mode which revolves around the an annoying narrator watching TV as the bad guys begin invading other dimensions. There are multiple storylines involving Ben from Ben 10 and Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory trying to fix the problems, but its mostly just a combination of side scrolling platforming, boss battles, and on rail first person shooters. Its not the best story in the world, and not the most interesting single player ever, but luckily its completely optional. And by optional, I really mean that characters you unlock in the single player don't carry over to who you can use in the multi-player. It was a bit frustrating at first, but gave me a better reason to keep playing the game as characters in multiplayer are unlocked by winning games. About 75 wins to unlock everyone.

Visually, the game is rather simple. Character art is pretty spot on to how they looked in the cartoons, but the stages are usually pretty bland and take a lot of influence from *surprise* Smash Bros. with Foster's Mansion looking very similar to Luigi's Mansion, a futuristic highway from Samurai Jack taking place on a bridge that breaks in the middle ala Bridge of Eldin and a little bit of Aero Port, and a pirate ship from Flapjack looking very similar to the pirate ship level inspired by Wind Waker. The stages aren't designed too poorly, mainly because they take directly from the source, but even more original stages are usually mutli-level, spacious, and feature a variety of stage hazards.

The audio is also not entirely impressive. Many of the original voice actors for these characters don't return, and you can definitely hear it. The music is nothing particularly special. The nicest things is really just hearing the references the characters make.

The 3D effects are relatively unnoticeable except in punch time explosion cutscenes. Even in the story mode, that uses a variety of stills and simple animation don't bother with 3D at all, which is kind of disappointing considering the 3DS and all. The game also limits multiplayer to single cartridge and multi-cartridge local play, leaving online battling completely alone. I think its because its a more small time developer, but it still quite a shame seeing as I know a couple of people that would buy a 3DS just for a Smash like experience on a hand held.

Its a good thing that Smash Bros. is eventually coming to the 3DS, and Punch Time Explosion is good evidence that the game can be done. Hardcore Smash players will probably not be interested in the game because its not as complex or robust as the Nintendo fighter and there's a ton of characters I wish would have made it in. However, if you're a fan of Cartoon Network's golden age or even they're newer cartoons, and you want to see them fight it out, you'll definitely have to check this game out.

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