The Worst Super-Villains In The Universe: “Nicktoons Unite!” For Game Boy Advance
Developer: Climax Group Limited
Publisher: THQ Inc.
Genre: Action, Platformer
Release Date: 2005
Nickelodeon, the television channel geared toward children, used to be pretty gung-ho about crossovers—they had a lot of games which featured characters from multiple popular cartoons, that being the Nicktoons Unite series of games (which was instead known in Europe as the SpongeBob SquarePants and Friends series—their bias toward SpongeBob is an old one). The Nicktoons Unite series petered out after the Wii, though. You can even tell how unsure they were in the series as the last installment is called “SpongeBob SquarePants featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom”—harkening to your cash cow doesn’t scream confidence to me.
Recently, it seems that Nickelodeon is giving the crossover craze another go, with recent games such as the Nickelodeon Kart Racers series and what is now the Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl series. However, here today we will talk about the humble beginnings of the Nicktoons Unite series with “Nicktoons Unite!”, specifically that of the Game Boy Advance. And when I say humble, I mean very humble.
Story
“Jimmy Neutron has invented the Neutronic Reality Projector, which allows him to open portals to other dimensions! Little does he know that Professor Calamitous has been spying on him and stealing his inventions.”
Using the invention, Professor Calamitous (from “The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius”) summons Denzel Crocker (from “The Fairly OddParents!”), Vlad Plasmius (from “Danny Phantom”) and Plankton (from “SpongeBob SquarePants”), who the game refers to as the “worst super-villains in the universe”. The four, referred to as the Syndicate of Evil, create a doomsday device that is fueled by energy from their respective dimensions: fairy energy, ghost energy and... jellyfish energy.
In response, Jimmy Neutron recruits Danny Phantom, Timmy Turner and SpongeBob SquarePants in order to put a stop to the Syndicate of Evil!
Thoughts
I find it interesting how they are treating Denzel Crocker (incorrectly written as “Denzil Crocker” in the game) as an equal to the other three villains. He did take over the world in “Abra-Catastrophe!”, but that required the use of the magic muffin; otherwise, he is just a neurotic teacher set right beside a human-ghost hybrid with supernatural abilities.
Gameplay
There are only twelve levels in this game, with each of the four heroes having three levels take place in their respective world. Two of those three levels are platforming stages, while the third is a boss fight against their respective villain (so in total, four boss fights and eight platforming levels).
The platforming levels always have the same two objectives: find four nano chips and destroy three portals. You cannot exit the level until you have done these objectives. As stated by the game, the portals are allowing enemies access into the worlds, so they must be destroyed, and the nano chips activate the transporters at the end of the level, so they must be collected. (Strangely, the portals are always in the form of the Fenton Portal from “Danny Phantom”, even when you are not in Danny’s world.)
When beginning a level, you get to choose which two of the four heroes that you want to bring into the level initially. The platforming levels have machines scattered about (which are apparently Jimmy’s transporter devices) that allow you to change between characters. Each character has their own attack and ability, with the abilities having a stamina bar of sorts (excluding SpongeBob’s). Using their abilities, different characters are able to handle different obstacles in order to reach portals and nano chips, so you will have to switch into different characters in order to progress.
Danny Phantom is able to phase through specific walls using his ghostly powers that no one else can go through. Timmy Turner has his fairy godparents, Cosmo and Wanda, shift into balloons in order to go very high. Jimmy Neutron’s ability is very similar, except he instead uses a jetpack. SpongeBob SquarePants scrunches up into a crouch that allows him to access short gaps. (Maybe Samus Aran should ask SpongeBob for some pointers on crawling.)
Timmy’s attack has you hold the attack button for a bit in order to unleash a strong attack that circles around him. Danny and SpongeBob shoot out a green and blue projectile respectively that requires no charging but is significantly weaker. Jimmy Neutron has a freeze gun that temporarily freezes enemies but will damage bosses in a way akin to Danny and SpongeBob.
In addition to any tall walls, short gaps and suspicious walls that you can encounter in platforming levels, you also have pressure plates that open doors which require leaving a character behind to stand on. There are also switches which permanently open doors. These switches and pressure plates make up all the puzzles in this game.
You also have at most four different enemies for each world: ghosts for Danny, fish and jellyfish for SpongeBob, Calamitous’ robots in Jimmy’s and... Calamitous’ robots for Timmy in addition to this Nega Timmy who isn’t explained whatsoever. Yes, they reused a set of enemies in two different worlds. I can sort of understand that strange decision in the perspective that Crocker doesn’t control any of the magical enemies in “The Fairly OddParents”, so it would be odd for them to show up, but we are talking about enemies being reused in a twelve-level game.
Speaking of, other than a change of aesthetic, a lot of the enemies function the same: you have the enemies that walk back and forth and the enemies that float in the sky and shoot at you in each world, for instance.
(A tangent: strangely enough, there is a Nega-Timmy in “The Fairly OddParents” whose only appearance was in the episode “Nega-Timmy”, but Nega-Timmy of the cartoon does not look at all like Nega Timmy of the game. Here is a YouTube video where you can see Nega Timmy of the game for reference.)
You also get passwords after completing each level (excluding the final boss fight) that serve as a save point of sorts. Danny and SpongeBob’s passwords make sense for their world; you have “Danny Phantom” character names as the passwords for Danny’s world and “SpongeBob SquarePants” character names or ocean-themed words. However, it seems like some of Timmy and Jimmy’s passwords were mixed up. Timmy’s world has the passwords “Goddard” and “Estevez” (who are “Jimmy Neutron” characters) and Jimmy’s world has the password of “Skylark” (who is a “The Fairly OddParents!” character).
Bosses
Vlad Plasmius will create clones of himself, Plankton summons fish enemies and drops down from above and Crocker only appears occasionally to toss an object at you while Nega Timmy chases you down. The final fight against Professor Calamitous has you shoot at his flying machine until he summons one of the bosses that you have faced previously, until eventually you have defeated all of those bosses again and Calamitous himself.
However, while the boss fights have different mechanics, they all still boil down to “shoot at it till it’s dead”. Hell, with Plankton’s boss fight, I just switched to Timmy and kept performing his attack in the same spot without moving and took no damage.
Also, if you die in boss fights, you spawn back pretty quickly, and the boss will have the same amount of health as he did when you died, so death isn’t really a hindrance. I never died in any of the platforming levels, so I don’t know what happens in that case.
Character Differences
As you might be able to tell, Jimmy is given the short end of the stick in comparison to the other characters. His ability is the same as Timmy’s, but he burns through his fuel much quicker than Timmy; that is, Timmy can use his ability for much longer than Jimmy. He also is unable to defeat enemies, which gives him quite the disadvantage as enemies do not respawn in the level after being defeated, and you will most likely backtrack at least a little in this game in order to find the portals and nano chips; so it’s better to just defeat the enemies. Jimmy’s shining moment in the game is the Crocker fight, as he can freeze Nega Timmy.
Timmy, on the other hand, is the best character thanks to his ability to just ignore the platforming part of platformer games and just fly over it all. His attack is also much better compared to the others when dealing with enemies and destroying portals (though it isn’t ideal for most of the bosses). I always had Timmy as one of my two characters in the levels because of this.
Conclusion
This is a very short game and is also pretty easy. I will say that in comparison to the other Nicktoons Unite game that I have gone over, “Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island”, the combat in “Nicktoons Unite!” is much less tedious as the enemies aren’t health sponges. However, this game doesn’t offer much. Perhaps if you have some time to kill and an affinity for Nickelodeon cartoons, I would say to play this game—just don’t expect much.