Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny review – It’s the Best Day Ever

Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny is the newest entry in the Nicktoons series, and, boy, am I in love. Nicktoons has been dormant for quite some time, since 2008, to be precise. I’m sure fans remember Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots, Nicktoons: Android Invasion, and Nicktoons: Nitro, which are some of the last games released for this series. I am a huge Nickelodeon fan, and SpongeBob reigns supreme as my favorite. 

Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny is an action RPG in the vein of Diablo. The roster is denser than I was expecting for this return to the series - and while I miss the 3D Platforming action, any worry I had about a top-down Nicktoons game washed away as soon as the tutorial started. Fair warning, spoilers are sprinkled throughout this review, but I will not reveal the end of the game or any major story beats. 

Characters and Gameplay

The roster consists of SpongeBob Squarepants, Timmy with the help of Cosmo and Wanda, Sandy Cheeks, Katara, and many others. Each one of the characters has their own moveset, unlocks, and builds. I was taken aback the moment I realized how complicated the game could be if you put your mind to it. To start with, each character has a class; for example, SpongeBob is a knight, and that makes him tankier than most of the roster. Katra is a support, and her whole kit revolves around healing, buffing, and doing minor amounts of damage at mid to close range. I played this game solo for this review, but I found her kit to be fascinating. It works well for keeping yourself sustained and doing the necessary amount of damage. 

I also love how thematically appropriate each character's kit is. Using SpongeBob as an example again, he fights with spatulas, and he can eat a crabby patty to heal. His special is the wizard's costume from the first movie.  Every character just feels so unique to themselves and their show, and it makes me happy every time I play the game. 

You can outfit your character with armor, weapons, rings, and amulets, and it all matters. For reference, I played the first two missions on Easy, the next one on Medium, and then completed the rest of the game on Hard. On Easy, the build didn’t matter much to me, but I am sure players who have never played this type of game before might struggle a bit. All of the armor you pick up carries over to each character, which I love. You do have to keep an eye on the level of your gear, especially when you’re playing on Hard. 

Gear plays into your character's stats too, so make sure to read the stats screen! Some characters benefit from more strength than others, for example. The character's base damage comes into play throughout the whole game, but especially during the boss fights. I adore this, and though the game isn’t too hard, it is still satisfying to make a good build and pop off. In general, character building is my favorite part of this game because it can be as complicated as you want to make it. 

One thing that stood out to me is the range of options for gear. Armor is exactly what you would expect and doesn’t stand out to me too much, but the Amulet system, as well as the rings you can wear, is where the fun truly starts. Using these systems, you can make SpongeBob an unstoppable tank or Timmy the best DPS in the game, especially with some life steal. Building the last two characters you unlock, which I will leave as a surprise, was my favorite to build alongside SpongeBob. 

The gameplay is pretty simple yet extremely satisfying. You have four different moves to choose from, and you’ll unlock a few extra ones that you can swap in and out. The moves are surprisingly complex, too. For example, Katara can freeze your opponents in place, and a few of her abilities do extra damage to Frozen enemies. I was really impressed with the way that the team managed to make Water Bending come to life in such a simple way. 

Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny isn’t a hack-and-slash game, and that comes through with how the smaller subsystems work. For the first two levels I played, I was able to run through everything that came at me by spamming one ability, but as the game progressed, my ability to rush through stopped completely. There is a layer of management here. You can’t overuse your abilities without doing damage or breaking boxies because it depletes the blue bar on the left side of the character portrait. So when you’re facing large groups of enemies, you have to manage your moves, health, and your health potions. You have other potions in your inventory as well, which I hoarded like a rat and only used during boss fights. One thing I like about the combat is how easy it is to get too full of yourself and get completely crushed. You won’t experience that too much in the first two areas, but once you get to the third area, everything that is coming at you is stronger and has a more varied moveset.

You can go and replay bosses, which I enjoyed. Missions will have you going back and forth a lot, which I never got tired of. From fetching Tommy's bottle to going back to fight the first boss after you beat him. You only do this to help the first boss anyway. That mission changed the fight's mechanics completely, which was really fun. 

Map and Progression

While the maps the game takes you through are thematic, they are also extremely simple. Every so often, you’ll find a puzzle, and there are a few branching paths, but don’t expect anything crazy with the map design. The first set of levels inspired by SpongeBob has nods back to various episodes and some nods to other Nicktoons shows. The second set of levels is inspired by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and so on and so forth. While the art style pops, and I appreciate the callbacks to other shows, the levels themselves are pretty bland. 

The music and sound effects are not bland and continue to pop throughout the game. The best part of traveling around the maps is seeing if you can catch a reference while you jam out to the music, because the stages themselves all start to blend together. Aside from the Danny Phantom set of maps, which is simply gorgeous. Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny excels at the use of color and shading. It makes the game look unique and helps get through the repetition of the maps.

The hub area is alright. The best part of it is all of the side characters talking. The Crimson Chin was a special treat, and his dialogue is on point. You’ll find Pearl and Mrs. Puff here eventually, too. Mrs. Puff has dialogue about her finally not getting into trouble, which plays nicely into all the theories about her being a criminal. Personally, I would agree, especially after retrieving the artwork in Battle for Bikini Bottom. Anyway, the dialogue given to the side characters is great to read and shows that the writers had a clear understanding of the characters. It felt a little too spacious to me, even after new characters kept appearing after each mission. The plus side is that these side quests are not too bothersome, and some of them are even pretty fun.

Story and Bosses 

Fair warning, this portion of the article contains the most spoilers. If you want to skip what I am saying here, just jump to the final thoughts section. 

The story starts with Timmy playing his universe's version of Dungeons and Dragons; it has a name, but I will admit that I was laughing so hard I missed it! The moment I heard Timmy speaking, I was already getting giddy. The dice that Cosmo got were actually magical, and when Timmy wishes to be in the game world, it drags the rest of the Nicktoons into his game. 

As you progress through the story, you’ll meet villains from all of the properties that appear in the game. The first villain had my friend and me rolling. They gave Plankton abs! I had to stop playing for a second while I laughed at the design. All jokes aside, it is very in character for Plankton to seek power the moment that he lands in a new area. This boss fight was a little difficult because SpongeBob is a very close-range fighter, and even his long-range bubble attack didn’t help much here, but I got through it because of how tanky SpongeBob is. Plankton's moveset is obnoxious, though, because he runs a lot and pushes you away even more. I was also hoping to see more chum in his moveset, but there isn’t much..

Each of the bosses serves a specific purpose not only for the story but also for fleshing out the world. I love the boss design, especially for Angelica. Once again, the dialogue shines through, and the understanding of the source material is clearly on display. Many of the fights feel like they were designed for the ranged characters first or to be played in multiplayer, which was fine for me, though it quickly became disappointing. 

The fights revolve around trying to be the first to find the dice because they’re so powerful. The premise is simple enough to keep me entertained at a baseline. For someone younger than me and perhaps new to this kind of game, I think that the story would be far more engaging, and that’s alright. There are plenty of other things for me to enjoy about this game. 

Most of the bosses get a redesign to fit the fantasy theme, and it's done well. But not all of the bosses have something new going on, which I thought was a missed opportunity. It would’ve been nice to see more of the bosses playing into the fantasy theming of the game. 

Angelica, though, is a standout. See, they turn Cynthia, her signature doll, into a spider. The second that I saw the webs on screen, I knew what was going to happen and was already ready to spazz out. The design is so good. She is the best-designed boss in the whole game, and it's not even a contest for me. The whole concept works really well and is a treat to replay. I did this fight the first time with Sandy, who is a very close-range Barbarin, and it took me a while because of Angelica's moveset. While the fight was stressful, it was fun, and the moves they gave Cynthia were fantastic. 

While I won’t spoil the end of the game, the story is fulfilling enough that I demand more content. The sky is the limit with a title like this, and although you can go back and replay it, I was a bit bummed when it ended. 

Final Thoughts 

Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny is a stellar title that does the Nicktoons characters justice. Despite the game being pretty easy, even though I was playing Hard, I never found myself not enjoying the experience I was having. I was a little hesitant about the art style, but it grew on me: This is in a large part because of the color work that went into each of the levels and characters. 

The roster is great, aside from Sandy. I felt as though she was taking up a spot from a different property. While this ended up being okay because of the last two characters you unlock, I did find myself wishing that each show got one character. Susie from the Rugrats became really grating despite having a great kit. While her voice sounds fine, I ended up not returning to her because I can’t stand how she speaks in terms of her dialogue. While her voice actor did a fantastic job, I hated the constant reminders that she is a child.

The story was fine. Nothing groundbreaking, but much better than most of the other Nicktoons titles. What I enjoyed the most was the boss fights and character building. Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny really took me by surprise. The only thing left to do is replay and hope for DLC.