Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny

Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny mixes two of my greatest loves: cartoons, and tabletop RPGs. So, when the news broke about the upcoming release, I had to pick up my jaw off the floor. In fact, you can hear my excited rants in our podcast! When the opportunity to review this game popped up, I jumped at the chance. Of course I'd love to play as Sponge Bob Square Pants (I actually didn't) and fight my way to a flawless victory (I also did not).

Not to spoil the ending of this review, but I couldn't put this game down. I had a blast! Not only did I love this game, but it will definitely make its way into my regular rotation.

Let's start from the beginning. I know action role-playing games (ARPGs) don't sound like they are in my wheelhouse, but in actuality, most of my gaming time has gone into playing Diablo and Path of Exile, so my qualifications are there. This type of game is not new to me, and, although I'm not the foremost expert on character building, I do enjoy a good action adventure. What I enjoyed most is that gameplay is rather serious. You're maintaining your health and mana, and leveling up your weapons and skills, developing a character that can face the bosses with ease. What makes Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny unique, however, is that every one of the characters you meet, and even the ones you fight, are classic Nicktoons characters. 

As I stated earlier, I had every intention of playing as Sponge Bob Square Pants, but once I got into the game and reviewed the skills a bit more closely, I realized rather quickly that Leonardo was more my speed. Built as a fighter, Leo uses his katana blades to battle, so as a standard melee player, I knew he was the right fit for me. 

As you can best assume, your character starts at a low level, and gains points as they move throughout the various stages of the game. There are certain training wheels that are applied for you to master your character and grow your skillset. It took me a bit, but I slowly realized that towards the end of the game, it was really difficult to locate health potions. There were a few times I found myself verbally yelling, "Ah, get away from me!"—the truest Kelly Gray sign of gaming distress. Alas, there were some level restarts, but in true adventurer fashion, I forged ahead, learning from my mistakes (Stop. Running. Into. Fire.), and progressing further. 

What I Loved

There's quite a bit of storytelling in Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny, and it's engaging in a silly and fun way. I'm a chronic skip-the-dialogue player, so the fact that the storytelling held my attention is major. But it's hard to not stay engaged if you grew up with these characters. The development is still there, and it's basically like watching clips of newly released mini episodes of the classics. If you're a Nickelodeon kid, I don't know how you wouldn't want to sign up for this.

I won't give away too much, but the first boss. I told everyone about the first boss. Iconic in every way.

There are slow releases of both the characters you can play (which is a pro and a con), and the characters you meet in the Tangle, which is the name for the player's homebase. This is also a super fun carrot that keeps you interested in progressing. I personally couldn't wait to see who would be revealed next, and I knew that with every level, there were greater chances that I'd meet someone new along the way. This is especially fun in the side-quest portions of the game, where we get to step away from the standard storyline and have a majorly character-specific quest to tackle, optional, of course. See: Find Tommy Pickles' bottle - he needs it! So cute, I missed you, Tommy.

The graphics are quite fun, because they have the cartoon-y quality you'd expect from a Nicktoons game. Even the darkest sewers are dynamic, bright and vibrant. The levels are well done, and have quite an array of theming, much like you'd expect from an ARPG. The main difference here is, of course, that this game is all cartoons all the time. So even as you're exploring the sewer setting, or volcano setting, it will always have the bright and cheerful shine you'd expect. I call it a win, but then again, I knew what I was signing up for here! You can't expect to have the dark theming you'd find in other ARPG's, so if that's what you're looking for, then this is not the game for you.

The music and sound are nearly perfect in supporting the gameplay. The soundtrack fits well with the theme of each level and is just the right amount of exciting without making my Garmin watch give me a relax reminder. I'm also a sucker for not having to read every comment on screen, so I appreciated that everything is voiced over—it will also help for younger audiences who may not have the largest reading comprehension. The voice overs are also well done, keeping to the same tone we've all grown to love. If we had veered too far from the original voices, it would have been a total miss. I'm not sure if the voice actors are the same, but the nostalgia is completely there!

This is a minor win, but I love that there is a progression tracker when you're selecting your game slot. Seeing my progression made me eager to keep playing—I hate the mystery of not knowing if I'm smack dab in the middle, or in the final stages, both of which can be a disappointment.

As you play each portion, you can choose your level of difficulty on that stage. If you're feeling confident, bump it up! Want to play it safe? Keep it low. It's up to you and it's easy to swap back and forth. I love the ease of selection on the stage screen vs. having to go back through the settings and adjust every time, if that's even an option. This will also allow the player to test their skill a bit when their confidence has grown. Another feature in this bucket that's worth noting is that each stage also has a player level suggestion. For example, it may suggest you're a level 28 to play said stage, but you're level 30. This means you're further than you need to be, so you can increase the difficulty a bit—or keep it where it is. Again, fully up to you, but at least you know where your character's abilities lie within the stage.

You can purchase items and craft them in the Tangle. This may seem fairly obvious to ARPGers, but if you're not used to those mechanics, don't sleep on this. It's the best way to increase your weaker stats, especially with crafting your items you already have. You can do this with your gold, and the little gemstone-looking items. Smash every barrel, collect the money, spend it on upgrades.

Some things that could use some work

I loved playing as Leonardo. But I was excited to explore other characters, especially as they released. Unfortunately, where I was in the game was not conducive to a character starting out. I know there are pros and cons here, but I don't want to have to start a new game from scratch to play a fresh character when they are all there to choose from throughout. I'd love to see those characters have an automatic level-up of sorts, just to switch it up and play different characters and test different styles. Mostly, I just really wanted to swap to Suzy and see what she was about! (Editor's note: PR for GameMill reached out to clarify that auto-level up does indeed happen in the game.)

I would love to be able to choose from more action skills. The skills you learn as Leo are fun, but if I'm crafting a character, I want to be able to choose the attacks that make for a strong build for myself. Perhaps I want some fire skills, so I can have flaming swords, or a spinning slice...That would enhance the game slightly in my opinion and make for a unique experience.

There's a strong emphasis on the potions, but it's not super easy to access the potions. There were times in-battle that I would have liked to be able to increase a stat, but I was so busy staying alive that I didn't want to open my inventory and grab what I needed. If it were easier to grab and use, I would use them all the time! Instead, I drank/ate them all before entering a boss arena, and had massive stats for 600 seconds.

There were some minor glitches I encountered. Opening the game gives you a black screen for a bit too long as it's loading—to the point where I thought my Switch was frozen on multiple occasions. If you see this, stick with it, it's coming, it's just about 10 to 15 full Mississippi-seconds of black screen.

At this point, that's all I can see as needing work. Which brings me to...

My final thoughts and rating

By this point of the review, you can probably assume that I really enjoyed this game—and you'd be right! Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny is now in my regular rotation, and I have no intention of walking away any time soon. This comes at a great time, because I was in a stagnant gaming spot. I'd especially love to see some patches along the way to make character builds and gameplay a bit more robust, but ultimately, it's good already and I can't wait to see what others are saying about it!

All of that being said, you have to know what you're getting into here. Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny is not for a super serious gamer, but if you expected that, then I'd be shocked. I'm not rating this against the super serious dark or deep story games, I'm rating this as fun. I'm rating this as a game that will make you smile and laugh, and bring some light to your day. I'm just saying, I loved this game for exactly what it is, and what I went into the game expecting. It really hit the mark for me!