Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots

The evil scientist, Dr. Calamitous has manufactured an army of robot toys and it's up to the Nicktoons to forge a team and thwart his plans. The original character selection composes of five characters; Sponge Bob, Jimmy Neutron, Danny Phantom, Timmy Turner, and Tak. Each of their home-towns are represented as a level, and upon completion; a new character is added to your roster to take the total to 10.

The game plays out like a old-school side scrolling hack & slash affair. The control mechanism is extremely simple; one button attacks, one button jumps, one button switches characters, and one button activates the 'double team' power which destroys all enemies on screen. Given the simplicity; it's the game's own downfall. Hack & slash games are repetitive by nature, but hammering the attack button takes no skill, plus the characters are not agile enough to make controlling them fun.

Every level feels the same too. You start off in the normal side scrolling level, beating countless enemies and collecting 'nuts & bolts'. Next, you beat a mini boss, jump in the robot, beat more enemies and hack away at a machine churning out enemies. Once this is done, you then progress to the vehicle section collecting more 'nuts & bolts' and pictures which are added to the picture gallery. Finally, the boss of the level is a robotic replica of a member of the Nicktoons team. The health of your robot is equal to the total of 'nuts & bolts' you collected throughout the level. Initially, I found I had more than enough health to perform poorly against the boss and still win, but towards the end, it was a bit trickier. These boss fights were the most fun part of the game, and needed more skill and thought to beat.

Attack of the Toybots isn't a terrible game. It does try to add variety with the vehicle and boss sections requiring a different style of game-play mechanic, but the actual fighting which should be the main focus is too basic to be fun or skilful.