Nicktoons Unite! (Game Boy Advance)

Nicktoons Unite! (Game Boy Advance)
This port definitely won't unite.
Genre(s): Platform Maze Action Platform(s): Game Boy Advance Release Date: NA: October 27, 2005 EU: March 3, 2006 Developer(s): Climax Action Publisher(s): THQ Successor: Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island

Nicktoons Unite! (also known as SpongeBob SquarePants and Friends: Unite! in PAL regions) is a 2005 action-adventure video game featuring characters and levels from The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, and SpongeBob SquarePants.

This page only focuses on the GBA version, which received very negative reviews by gamers.

Why It Won't Unite

1. The problem with this port is that it is filled with horrible mazes through the entire game to the point of being extremely frustrating and tedious, and it even makes SpongeBob: BFBB on GBA seem less tedious in comparison (even though that game was still somewhat decent).
   • Not to mention that the catastrophic game design led to this problem being even worse than it already is since there is no map and in some levels you could easily be lost and don't know where to go, thanks to how awful the game design and level design are.
   • Some of the sections aren't even clear of what you should do, much like the GBA port of Pac-Man World 2 (but that game wasn't even to that extent), since sometimes you need a specific character and you will not know who you need to use.
2. The system for changing the characters is absolutely awful, even in comparison to the DS port of Nicktoons Unite!, since here you don't do pause to choose which characters you want or press Select, but you need to get to a specific place to change them, which is not only a terrible idea, but this game does it in an abysmal way since it is extremely tedious, frustrating, and especially annoying after a while, thanks to how bad it is.
   • Not to mention that because of this, you will need to backtrack a lot in some levels due to how far they are at times, which will of course cause filler and padding to the game's overall short length. By the way, the console versions and even the DS port don't have any of these frustrating elements to change character, and in these versions it is also easier to change character.
3. The graphics look terrible for 2005 and GBA standards and are even worse than the GBA port of Pac-Man World, as the art style simply didn't translate well to the GBA and the characters styles often clash with the art style of the levels. Mario Party Advance was also released in 2005 and looks way better than this.
4. The gameplay is boring, tedious, and annoying. The gameplay is most notably bogged down by the horrible mazes and level design; not only that, but the gameplay is probably one of, if not the worst, out of a Nicktoons game due to how bad it is.
5. Awful hit detection that makes some of the enemies an absolute nightmare to kill, especially with Danny Phantom, who had the worst hit detection of the entire game, as his attacks had barely any range and were underpowered too; even the DS port had better hit detection.
6. The sprites are even worse than the graphics themselves, since they all look incredibly poor, uncanny, and overly terrible; some of them are even creepy too. Not only that, but they are taken from 3D models of the characters and were rendered in 2D, which doesn't work here and instead looks horrible.
   • SpongeBob sprite is very uncanny and is likely the worst sprite for SpongeBob since he also looks creepy and incredibly disturbing with his face, which looks bad in this game.
   • Danny is really uncanny and undetailled and is much worse than his sprite from the GBA Danny Phantom games. He also looks a little uncanny; not only that, but he also looks like he came from an upgraded Master System game, and no, this is not a joke.
   • Timmy sprite is the absolute worst in this game and is the worst sprite of any The Fairly OddParents media. Words cannot describe how horrible his sprite is since he looks undetailed and his face also looks extremely creepy, disturbing, and even glitchy; it's even to the point of being a huge nightmare fuel and could even scare adults in some cases. In fact, his sprite is so ugly that some people would refuse playing as him just to not see his sprite. Also, he looks like he was taken from Breaking Da Rule, but his sprite doesn't work since, as you guessed, they made him look much worse than his model from that game.
   • Jimmy Neutron sprite looks the best, but still has some problems since he can look uncanny and is a bit poorly designed.
7. Horrible level design that, as said before, mostly consists of maze levels and makes the game very tedious too. Not only that, but it's also made some levels look similar to each other, and there's also a lot of backtracking in all of the levels.
8. The game use passwords instead of save feature, which is weird since most GBA games at the time do use save feature, but here no, fortunately the sequel would use save feature.
9. Poor controls that are unresponsive and clunky to control, not to mention that they obiously make the level design even worse for some of the characters such as SpongeBob and Jimmy Neutron. The controls in this port are also the worst from a Nicktoons game too. No, this is not a joke.
10. Awful combat due to the characters being underpowered and also because of the poor hit detection, the combat also isn't as melee-like like in the console versions and is just focused on projectiles and not melee attacks.
11. One of the enemies sprites is literally ripped off The SpongeBob Movie Game on the GBA, which shows how lazy this port is and is also a sign of being rushed too.
12. Annoying enemies' AI: that is mostly because they are trying to hit you all the time, or sometimes they will even have trouble controlling themselves due to how broken the AI is, but this is rare to happen.

The Only Redeeming Quality

1. The soundtrack is pretty good, with a lot of catchy songs, but that doesn't really compare to the console versions.

Reception

As mentioned above, the Game Boy Advance port received very negative reviews from gamers, with the criticism being aimed at the level design. It is often considered to be not only the worst version of this game, but also the absolute worst Nicktoons game ever made.

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